Report from Herts Baseball Newswire Correspondent, PAUL AUCHTERLOUNIE
It had to happen eventually. Surely not even the Hawks could continue to lose. The 6 game losing streak suffered by the Herts Hawks was well and truly stopped last Sunday, 21st June with a 24 – 4 win at home against the Kent Mariners, who had taken the previous 3 meetings and were looking for the season sweep.
It was somewhat of a mystery to Hawks manager Marty Cullen and some of the veteran players as to why the Hawks had continued to lose. Given the hitting talent of the lineup from 1 through 9 some team was going to suffer when it all came together, and the Mariners were that team.
Top 1st and Mark “H-train” Hoffman starts with a K; it seems as though it might just be the Hawks day, but then they’ve started well before and lost. After the 2nd Kent hitter reached with a single and stole second on a very close play at the bag, perhaps it would follow previous encounters. However, the next 2 batters were retired and the Hawks took up the bats.
Paul Auchterlounie, promoted to leadoff for only the 2nd time in his 10-yr Herts career reached on error and reached home on an RBI single by Carlos Casal. Game on! The next 3 batters reached before the first out of the inning. The bottom 3rd of the order all reached, including Little Leaguer Liam Green getting his first senior RBI. Paul A batted for the 2nd time in the inning, promptly hitting a triple bringing in 2 runs, and was then batted in by Humberto Goncalves. 8 runs in, great start.
A scoreless 2nd on both sides, with another 2 Ks by Hoffman, and a single run in the 3rd from Kent perhaps reminded Herts that the game was by no means over, and they plated another 3 in the bottom of the 3rd. Somewhere in the 2nd or 3rd inning should have been a caught stealing but Casal dropped the throw from Paul A with the runner a good foot away from 2nd base. Still, that’s baseball!
Herts blew the game open in the bottom of the 4th sending 13 batters to the plate, and all 9 runs came with 2 outs in the inning. Bochan replaced Goncalves on the base paths, and there were 2 RBIs each for Casal, Pete Kikel and Hunter Devine with Devine’s coming on a monster triple that went over the glove of LF into the corner.
Bottom of the 5th saw another change to the Hawks lineup as manager Cullen replaced Auchterlounie and Kal Dimitrov moved to behind the plate from CF. Bochan hit yet another triple and came home on an error. 3 runs from each team in the 6th inning left Kent needing a huge 11 runs just to avoid the 10-run slaughter rule. 2 K’s from Kikel – who replaced Hoffman on the mound – a walk and a popup ended the game.
Hawks players really showed what they’re about in this game, perhaps inspired watching the NBL Falcons come from behind to win their game 2 earlier in the day. Whatever it was, let’s hope it carries forward into Sunday’s DH at Thames Valley.
Can the 6 game losing streak be followed by an 11 game winning streak?
This is baseball. Anything can happen.
| Kent Mariners at Herts Hawks | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score By Innings | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| Kent Mariners | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 9 |
| Herts Hawks | 8 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 24 | 20 | 3 |
| Herts Hawks 24, Kent Mariners 4 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herts Hawks | Kent Mariners | ||||||||
| ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | ||
| Paul Auchterlounie c | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | Gary Ward p-ss | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| (b5) Marty Cullen c-cf | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Gary O'Mare c | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Humberto Goncalves 1b | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Kalid Basyuni cf | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| (b4) Greg Bochan pr-1b-2b | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Dicky Gofton ss-p | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Carlos Casal 2b-3b | 6 | 3 | 3 | 4 | Dean Ward 1b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Peter Kikel 3b-p | 6 | 3 | 3 | 4 | Adam Brown 2b-lf-3b | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Mark Hoffman p-1b | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Adrian Plug lf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Kal Dimitrov cf-c | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | Nigel Ward rf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hunter Devine ss | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | Matt Ward 2b-3b | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Chris Barnes lf | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Liam Green rf | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| TEAM TOTALS | 44 | 24 | 20 | 20 | TEAM TOTALS | 26 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| E: Hunter Devine(2), Mark Hoffman, Matt Ward(3), Adam Brown(3), Dicky Gofton(2), Kalid Basyuni. LOB: Kent Mariners 5, Herts Hawks 8. 2B: Humberto Goncalves(2), Peter Kikel, Liam Green. 3B: Hunter Devine, Paul Auchterlounie, Greg Bochan, Gary O'Mare. SB: Peter Kikel(2), Gary O'Mare(2), Kalid Basyuni, Dean Ward, Adrian Plug. |
| Herts Hawks | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Mark Hoffman W | 6.00 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 9 |
| Peter Kikel | 1.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Kent Mariners | ||||||
| Gary Ward L | 3.00 | 12 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 2 |
| Dicky Gofton | 3.00 | 8 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| HBP: by Dicky Gofton (Paul Auchterlounie). . . , by Gary Ward (Chris Barnes). . PB: Paul Auchterlounie, Marty Cullen, Gary O'Mare(2). T: 2:43. A: 46. |