Report from Herts Baseball Newswire Correspondent, ROB JONES
The new boys of Herts baseball always knew they were going to face a tough task against the surging Croydon Pirates, and so it turned out. The visitors set out their stall straight away. They hit a string of singles in the top of the first inning, then stole second base, then stole third base. Three runs crossed the plate, and it was a lead they would stretch steadily throughout the game.
Raptors couldn’t get their bats going against the consistent Croydon pitching, and when they were able to manufacture runs through walks, steals and errors, it was only one run at a time. When the most feared Herts hitters did make contact, the ball somehow found a fielder. In the end, Croydon took the game 17-3 in 7 innings, and moved to the top of their division.
The weather over Grovehill was mainly cloudy, with some heavy showers and just the odd burst of sunshine. That was reflected in the game for the Herts Raptors. They now hope that their hard work and improving defense gets better reward in the last few games of the season.
| Croydon Pirates III at Herts Raptors | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score By Innings | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | R | H | E |
| Croydon Pirates III | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 17 | 15 | 1 |
| Herts Raptors | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Croydon Pirates III 17, Herts Raptors 3 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Croydon Pirates III | Herts Raptors | ||||||||
| ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | ||
| Player 1 p | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | Hunter Devine cf-2b | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Player 2 c | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Andrew Slater 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Player 3 1b | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | (t7) Carlos Casal 3b | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Player 4 2b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Andy Ringrose c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Player 5 3b | 5 | 1 | 3 | 2 | Rod Ariss ss-p | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Player 6 ss | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Pete Cox rf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Player 7 lf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | (t6) Robert Crouch rf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Player 8 cf | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | Jonathon Lewys 1b-cf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Player 9 rf | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Dave Hamilton lf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| (b5) Tim Elkins lf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Rob Jones 2b-ss | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |||||
| Mark Hoffman p-1b | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||||
| TEAM TOTALS | 34 | 17 | 15 | 12 | TEAM TOTALS | 23 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| E: Player 3, Andrew Slater(3). LOB: Herts Raptors 6, Croydon Pirates III 8. 2B: Player 1, Player 5, Player 7. SB: Player 1(4), Player 5(4), Player 2(4), Player 3(4), Player 6, Player 4, Player 8, Hunter Devine(3), Rob Jones(3), Mark Hoffman(2), Andy Ringrose, Carlos Casal. |
| Croydon Pirates III | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Player 1 W | 7.00 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 9 |
| Herts Raptors | ||||||
| Mark Hoffman L | 6.00 | 12 | 15 | 10 | 10 | 7 |
| Rod Ariss | 1.00 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| HBP: by Player 1 (Andy Ringrose). . . . . . , by Rod Ariss (Player 7). . WP: Mark Hoffman(2). PB: Player 2. T: 0:00. A: 0. |