In the first game of the day the Herts Falcons won 15-2 but the score does not tell the full story. This was a much improved Northampton team from the side which played in the first HSL Sunday. Some of their key players were back in the lineup and they put up a good fight against the team from Hertfordshire.
13 of the 15 Falcons runs were scored in two of the innings when the Falcons bats really came alive. 7 of those runs were scored in the third inning and all of them came after Northampton had retired 2 batters with no one on base. The Falcons followed this with 6 hits including a triple by Andy Cornish and a 2-run inside the park home run by Lee Manning.
Herts baseball fans will be relieved to learn that Andy Cornish passed through the game without aggravating the shoulder injury which he sustained in a diving play against the Nottingham Thieves last month. Another positive for the club was the return of Nic Goetz after a week-long flu which had threatened to keep him out of the final HSL games. He had a good outing on the mound allowing only 2 runs in 4 innings.
| Northampton at Herts Falcons | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score By Innings | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | R | H | E |
| Northampton | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 6 |
| Herts Falcons | 2 | 0 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 15 | 11 | 1 |
| Herts Falcons 15, Northampton 2 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herts Falcons | Northampton | ||||||||
| ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | ||
| Lee Manning ss | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | Player 1 p | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Kimiyoshi Saionji 2b | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | (b4) Sub 1 p | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jason Greenberg c | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Player 2 c | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Peter Kikel 3b | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Player 3 1b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Marty Cullen 1b | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Player 4 2b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Darrin Ward dh | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | Player 5 3b | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Greg Bochan lf | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Player 6 ss | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Rodney Naghar rf | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Player 7 lf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Andy Cornish cf | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Player 8 cf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nick Goetz p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Player 9 rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aspi Dimitrov p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| TEAM TOTALS | 24 | 15 | 11 | 12 | TEAM TOTALS | 19 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| E: Lee Manning, Player 3(2), Player 6(2), Player 4, Player 9. LOB: Northampton 5, Herts Falcons 7. 2B: Jason Greenberg, Greg Bochan, Player 3, Player 5. 3B: Andy Cornish. HR: Lee Manning. SB: Lee Manning, Greg Bochan, Darrin Ward, Kimiyoshi Saionji, Player 1(2), Player 5, Player 6, Player 2. SF: Darrin Ward, Peter Kikel. |
| Herts Falcons | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Nick Goetz W | 4.00 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Aspi Dimitrov | 1.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Northampton | ||||||
| Player 1 L | 3.33 | 7 | 12 | 10 | 5 | 0 |
| Sub 1 | 1.67 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| HBP: by Player 1 (Jason Greenberg), by Player 1 (Marty Cullen). , by Player 1 (Andy Cornish). , by Player 1 (Marty Cullen). . . WP: Player 1. T: 2:00. A: 60. |