Report by Herts Baseball Newswire reporter, HUNTER DEVINE
The Herts Raptors suffered their second walk off loss of the season on Sunday, falling 18-17 to the Braintree Rays. In both cases the Raptors had sizable leads only to watch them slip away through poor defence.
Leading 10-2 through the first half of the game, Jake Kikel had thrown a gem of a game and the Raptors bench were talking of slaughter rule victories a bit too soon as the Rays struck back reducing the once sizeable lead to a mere few tallies.
The Raptors refused to surrender however, never actually giving up their lead, and adding extra runs on heading into the bottom of the 9th with a three run lead and Mark Hoffman on the mound. With two outs, bases empty and the game tied, the Rays relief pitcher smacked a ball, splitting the outfielders whom could not retrieve it in time due to their lack of speed and the lack of a fence, allowing the runner to come home and win the game.
It should be noted that the Raptors played with exactly 9 players all day, where as the Rays had 15 and made numerous substitutes. However, that is still no consolation.
There were positive aspects in the game, though. Andrew Slater, in his first game back after a two week break, hit the ball exceedingly well getting a double, as well as being robbed of a second.
Not only was the game lost, but two of the team's favourite bats; the red 33″, much to Slater's despair, and the standard 32″ were too.
| Herts Raptors at Braintree Rays | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score By Innings | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E |
| Herts Raptors | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 17 | 26 | 3 |
| Braintree Rays | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 18 | 21 | 1 |
| Braintree Rays 18, Herts Raptors 17 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braintree Rays | Herts Raptors | ||||||||
| ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | ||
| Player 1 p | 4 | 5 | 2 | 1 | Hunter Devine 2b | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| Player 2 c | 6 | 3 | 4 | 2 | Jake Kikel p-1b | 6 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| Player 3 1b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Mark Hoffman 1b-p | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| Player 4 2b | 6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | Jonathon Lewys c | 6 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| Player 5 3b | 6 | 2 | 3 | 0 | Paul Hawes cf | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Player 6 ss | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Steve Nippress lf | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Player 7 lf | 6 | 2 | 5 | 2 | Andrew Slater 3b | 6 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Player 8 cf | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | Ilya Dimitrov ss | 6 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Player 9 rf | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Robert Crouch rf | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| TEAM TOTALS | 45 | 18 | 21 | 11 | TEAM TOTALS | 50 | 17 | 26 | 16 |
| E: Player 5, Andrew Slater(2), Ilya Dimitrov. LOB: Herts Raptors 9, Braintree Rays 12. 2B: Player 2, Andrew Slater(2), Mark Hoffman, Jake Kikel, Paul Hawes. HR: Player 2. SB: Player 1(8), Player 2(3), Player 7(3), Player 8(3), Player 9(3), Player 6(2), Player 3, Jonathon Lewys(4), Mark Hoffman(3), Jake Kikel(2), Paul Hawes(2), Hunter Devine(2), Ilya Dimitrov(2), Andrew Slater, Steve Nippress. |
| Braintree Rays | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Player 1 W | 9.00 | 26 | 17 | 16 | 2 | 6 |
| Herts Raptors | ||||||
| Jake Kikel | 6.00 | 13 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 10 |
| Mark Hoffman L | 3.00 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 2 |
| HBP: by Player 1 (Steve Nippress). , by Jake Kikel (Player 1). . , by Mark Hoffman (Player 1). . . WP: Mark Hoffman(3). T: 4:00. A: 30. |