[ HAWKS/RIVERDOGS BOX SCORE: GAME ONE ]
[ HAWKS/RIVERDOGS BOX SCORE: GAME TWO ]
Herts Hawks played a double header against the Richmond Riverdogs on Sunday, 29 July. Due to scheduling congestion, the game was played at Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead instead of Richmond’s Connaire Field, with the Riverdogs being the home team.
The first game was an extremely tight affair that went into extra innings. The two pitchers, Larry Martillo for the Hawks, and Per Nilsson Eklof for the Riverdogs shared the “good” and “bad” times more or less equally. The Hawks had a 9-0 lead until the bottom of the 4th, when Richmond suddenly put together a string of timely hits (aided by some less than outstanding fielding by the Hawks), and at the end of that inning, the score was suddenly only 9-7 for the Hawks. Martillo bore down and was able to minimize the further damage, but the Riverdogs managed to score two more runs in the next couple of innings, while Per Nilsson completely shut down the Hawks offense. This brought the game into extra innings, and with a runner on second, Rob Jones stepped up with a great hit down the middle to bring in Jon Lewys, which gave Hawks the lead going into the bottom of the 8th inning. This is when the Hawks defense and the outstanding Martillo proved their mettle, leaving two of the Riverdogs runners at 2nd and 3rd base without allowing them to score to win the game.
The second game started well for the Riverdogs, who had a 5-2 lead going into the top of the 3rd. However, an 11 run inning by the Hawks batters put them ahead and they never looked back. The Hawks were trying to finish that long day on a high note, and were able to do it in the form of an unassisted double play by shortstop Ross Davies with the bases loaded and nobody out. The Hawks won the second game with a score of 19 to 7.