The last time the Falcons faced the Essex Arrows was on June 11 2006. That double-header – also played at Grovehill – came midway through the first team's seemingly endless 13-game losing streak and pushed them deeper still into the basement of the Premiere League. While those individual losses were hardly blowouts (9-4 and 14-12), they did little to raise Herts' dispirited hopes and only perpetuated one of the worst seasons in Club history.
Sunday's opener, therefore, marked an important rematch for some veteran Falcons, as well as an important test for the revamped squad. Since mid-January they had been training diligently and making plans for a winning season. Would the Herts first team show might on the mound, focus in the field, and patience at the plate…?
2007 Best Pitcher and staff ace Nic Goetz (4-0, 3.71 ERA) took the mound for the home team. Goetz immediately had the Arrows off-balance striking out the leadoff batter and drawing a pop-out and fly-out to end the inning. The Arrows never managed to find their stride, and despite surrendering six walks, a hit batsman and two wild pitches on the day, Goetz yielded only three runs on three hits to take his first win of the season.
The second game marked the Falcons debut of 'screwballer' Darrin Ward. Ward – a recent free-agent acquisition – spent the 2007 season with Milton Keynes helping the Hurricanes earn promotion to the AAA. Using a quiver of breaking balls and changeups, and targeting his fastball with pinpoint precision, Ward allowed only one earned run and one walk. While the Arrows managed nine hits, none was for extra bases and eight men were stranded on base.
Goetz and Ward each pitched a complete game and the pair firmly established themselves as a knockout 1-2 punch in the Falcons rotation. More than any other factor in the Herts' wins was the confidence of their starters. Both men showed great command and presence on the mound and, moreover, an undaunted delivery with men on base.
Despite some sharp fastballs and nasty curves from their own pitching staff, Essex never captured the momentum and spent the entire day struggling to find a chink in the Falcons' armour. But the near-perfect Herts defence proved impenetrable… with fine plays by the entire infield including a handful of mile-high pop-ups and a slick 5-4-3 double-play.
The Falcons offence was less impressive. They managed only three hits in Game One, and it was mistake after mistake from the sloppy Essex infield that allowed the Falcons to take seven runs in the fifth-inning putting the game well out of reach for the struggling Arrows. Essex committed 12 errors on the day, and each one proved costly.
Next week the Falcons travel to Windsor to face the 2007 fifth-place Bears, where they hope to resurrect their bats and slap some crooked numbers on the scoreboard.
GAME ONE (10am)
| Essex Arrows at Herts Falcons | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score By Innings | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| Essex Arrows | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
| Herts Falcons | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 1 |
| Herts Falcons 10, Essex Arrows 3 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herts Falcons | Essex Arrows | ||||||||
| ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | ||
| Lee Manning lf | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Player 1 p | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Kimiyoshi Saionji 2b | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | (b5) Sub 1 pr-p | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Andy Cornish ss | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Player 2 c | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jason Greenberg c | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Player 3 1b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Marty Cullen 1b | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Player 4 2b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peter Kikel 3b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Player 5 3b | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Dan Kerry cf | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Player 6 ss | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Darrin Ward dh | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Player 7 lf | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Aspi Dimitrov rf | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Player 8 cf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Nick Goetz p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Player 9 rf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TEAM TOTALS | 28 | 10 | 3 | 3 | TEAM TOTALS | 24 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| E: Andy Cornish, Player 4(3), Player 5(2), Player 6(2). LOB: Essex Arrows 7, Herts Falcons 8. 2B: Peter Kikel. SB: Peter Kikel, Jason Greenberg, Player 4, Sub 1. |
| Herts Falcons | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Nick Goetz W | 7.00 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 3 |
| Essex Arrows | ||||||
| Player 1 L | 4.67 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| Sub 1 | 1.33 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
GAME TWO (12.45pm)
| Essex Arrows at Herts Falcons | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score By Innings | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| Essex Arrows | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 5 |
| Herts Falcons | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 9 | 3 |
| Herts Falcons 8, Essex Arrows 2 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herts Falcons | Essex Arrows | ||||||||
| ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | ||
| Lee Manning lf | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | D. Shack 1b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Kimiyoshi Saionji 2b | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | S. Simmons 2b-c | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Andy Cornish ss | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | C. Porter rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jason Greenberg c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | (t5) C. Castro rf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Marty Cullen 1b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | B. Hoience cf | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Peter Kikel dh | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | A. Bonsor lf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Nick Goetz 3b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | A. Sneasby ss | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dan Kerry cf | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | (b5) S. Smith ss | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rodney Naghar rf | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | L. Louw p | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Darrin Ward p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | A. Clark 3b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| B. Marchant c | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| (t5) F. Perez 2b | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| TEAM TOTALS | 27 | 8 | 9 | 4 | TEAM TOTALS | 30 | 2 | 9 | 2 |
E: Andy Cornish, Jason Greenberg, Nick Goetz, L. Louw(2), S. Simmons, D. Shack, A.
Clark. DP: Herts Falcons 1. LOB: Herts Falcons 5, Essex Arrows 8. SB: Kimiyoshi
Saionji(2), Andy Cornish, Rodney Naghar, F. Perez. CS: Peter Kikel. SB: Lee Manning.
| Herts Falcons | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Darrin Ward W | 7.00 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Essex Arrows | ||||||
| L. Louw L | 6.00 | 9 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 5 |