Report from Herts Baseball Newswire Correspondent, DAVE HAMILTON
The Herts Eagles' continued their impressive start to the season, fighting back to split their double-header with the Bristol Badgers in their home league debut at Grovehill on Sunday.
Herts second team's perfect start to the season came to an abrupt end in game one, conceding six soft runs in the second inning on a combination of bloop hits and fielding misjudgements – giving Bristol a lead that the home side never really looked like threatening. An impressive hitting display from the visitors, spraying line drives around the outfield in the later innings added some padding to the score giving them a comfortable victory under the slaughter rule. One of the few highlights for the Eagles were a pair of assists from center fielder Dan Kerry, who fired off two fantastic throws from his cannon of an arm to throw out runners at third and home.
Disappointed with their lacklustre performance, the Eagles were keen to bounce back in game two and impress the watching players from the Herts Falcons who were enjoying a week off. A towering home run from Badgers first baseman Cook gave Bristol a first inning lead but the Eagles fought straight back, the first seven batters all reaching base to put Herts 4-1 in front.
With Eagles pitcher Mike Wakelam putting in another strong performance and limiting the Badgers to just three hits in five innings, the Eagles were able to take control by unleashing some power hitting of their own. Back to back triples from Bart Schouwenaars and Rod Ariss, followed by a double by Lin Yuchih, helped five more runs cross the plate in the third inning to make it 9-2 and Schouwenaars then capped a three run fourth inning rally with an RBI double, after a huge triple to deep centerfield from Kerry and a double for Jamie Munn.
In this game the bottom of the Herts order (Casal, Munn and Schouwenaars) combined to go 8 for 12 with 6 rbi, demonstrating the strength of the team. Some final inning jitters helped the Badgers halve the deficit to 12-8 but relief pitcher Dan Kerry finished the job, eventually striking out the side (as he had in the sixth) to seal victory for the Eagles.
Manager Dave Westfallen, whilst disappointed to register his first loss, was delighted by the way his players shrugged off the defeat and smashed their way to victory in game two, recapturing the spirit and aggression that had served them so well on Opening Day. The Eagles now lie second in Pool 2 of the AAA league and visit Richmond next weekend.
GAME 1, 12:00pm Grovehill Ballpark
(Box scores of game one will be published shorty)
GAME 2, 2:30pm Grovehill Ballpark
| Bristol Badgers at Herts Eagles | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score By Innings | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| Bristol Badgers | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 3 |
| Herts Eagles | 4 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 16 | 3 |
| Herts Eagles 12, Bristol Badgers 8 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herts Eagles | Bristol Badgers | ||||||||
| ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | ||
| Rod Ariss ss | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | T Hollies 3b | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Lin Yuchih 2b | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | C Cook 1b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Riley Fisher c | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | J Bobadilla ss | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Louis Hare 1b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | L Ortiz lf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dave Westfallen dh | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | JC Ortiz cf | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| (t6) Dave Hamilton cf | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | R Densey c | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Dan Kerry cf-p | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | J Lansdowne p | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Carlos Casal 3b | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | A Loreto rf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jamie Munn lf | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | C Davis 2b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Bart Snavely rf | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | |||||
| Mike Wakelam p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| TEAM TOTALS | 32 | 12 | 16 | 11 | TEAM TOTALS | 27 | 8 | 4 | 5 |
| E: Jamie Munn(2), Rod Ariss, J Bobadilla, A Loreto, R Densey. LOB: Bristol Badgers 6, Herts Eagles 7. 2B: Jamie Munn, Louis Hare, Lin Yuchih, Bart Snavely, J Bobadilla. 3B: Bart Snavely, Dan Kerry, Rod Ariss. HR: C Cook. SB: Carlos Casal(2), Rod Ariss, Jamie Munn, Dave Westfallen, Lin Yuchih, T Hollies(3), A Loreto(2), J Lansdowne(2), JC Ortiz, R Densey. CS: Carlos Casal, Jamie Munn, Bart Snavely. S: Dan Kerry. |
| Herts Eagles | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Mike Wakelam W | 5.00 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Dan Kerry | 2.00 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| Bristol Badgers | ||||||
| J Lansdowne L | 6.00 | 16 | 12 | 7 | 4 | 7 |
| PB: Riley Fisher, R Densey(3). T: 2:49. A: 45. |