(this article was first published on www.britishbaseball.org)
The London Mets show no signs of slowing up at the top of the standings after earning another doubleheader sweep on Sunday, brushing off the Bracknell Blazers. The Mets emerged triumphant by scores of 13-1 and 10-8, stretching their record to an impressive 14-4 as the season hots up.
Reed Wilson and Jonathan Cramman claimed the wins, with Callum Woods smacking a home run to lead off game one. But they had to rely on a piece of defensive brilliance to claim game two, Giovanni Escalon making a leaping catch at the wall with two outs in the seventh to rob Ryan Trask of a game-winning three-run shot.
The Mets’ Alex Pike said: “We put lots of pressure on them today and it told. In game one we were very aggressive in our baserunning and they couldn’t handle it. In game two we did what we had to do. A win is a win as far as we are concerned, but Giovanni made a magical play.”
Bracknell coach Rob Rance admitted his side had been caught out. He said: “They played some good ball today. They caught us on a day when we were missing a few players and we did not do the simple things right.”
Richmond Bests Herts, Moves Into 2nd Place
Richmond came out on top in a battle of the chasing pack when they swept Herts Falcons 4-3 and 20-1.
The Flames came out on top in a real pitcher’s duel in game one, stealing the game in the bottom of the final inning. Ryan Bird pitched the win and belted a two-run home run, Darrin Ward taking the loss.
But things could not have been more different in game two, with the Flames blasting 13 runs in the first inning alone en route to a lopsided win. Cody Cain, Matt Spaulding, Ryan Bird and Haydn Chin smashed home runs, with Jason Greenberg providing the solitary response with Herts’ first homer of the season.
Richmond’s Grant Delzoppo said: “Things went really well for us. It was a good battle between two teams chasing London Mets and it was a good pair of wins. This will give us a lot of confidence to take forward.”
Herts Manager Jason Greenberg was understandably disappointed with the losses, but remained resolute about his team’s accomplishments thus far. “Baseball is about momentum, and when the Flames took the walk-off win in game one they also took the wind out of our sails. It’s already forgotten. We’re ecstatic with our season thus far and we’ll fight hard to win our four remaining games.”
GAME 1
| Herts Falcons at Richmond Flames | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score By Innings | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| Herts Falcons | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| Richmond Flames | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 3 |
| Richmond Flames 4, Herts Falcons 3 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richmond Flames | Herts Falcons | ||||||||
| ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | ||
| Marty Visser cf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Luis Goncalves ss | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Haydn Chin ss | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Kimiyoshi Saionji lf | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Cody Cain p-rf-1b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Lin Yuchih 2b | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Ryan Bird 4 rf-p | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | Darrin Ward p | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Grant Delzoppo c | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Jason Greenberg c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mike Osborn 2b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Lee Manning 1b | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Guy Lidbetter 1b | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Carlos Casal rf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| (t7) Matt Spaulding rf | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Nick Goetz 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Brett Wakeley lf | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Jamie Munn cf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Yushi Saito 3b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | (t7) Aspi Dimitrov cf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TEAM TOTALS | 27 | 4 | 10 | 3 | TEAM TOTALS | 27 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| E: Player 2, Player 4, Player 9, Carlos Casal. LOB: Herts Falcons 5, Richmond Flames 6. 2B: Player 4. HR: Player 4. SB: Player 4, Lin Yuchih. |
| Richmond Flames | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Cody Cain | 5.33 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 |
| Ryan Bird W | 1.67 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Herts Falcons | ||||||
| Darrin Ward L | 6.00 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| WP: Darrin Ward(2). T: 1:38. A: 38. |
GAME 2
| Herts Falcons at Richmond Flames | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score By Innings | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | R | H | E |
| Herts Falcons | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 3 |
| Richmond Flames | 13 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 21 | 18 | 0 |
| Richmond Flames 21, Herts Falcons 1 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richmond Flames | Herts Falcons | ||||||||
| ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | ||
| Player 1 cf | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0 | Luis Goncalves ss-p | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Player 2 ss | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | Kimiyoshi Saionji cf | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Player 3 3b | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | Lin Yuchih dh-rf-ss | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Player 4 1b | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | Darrin Ward 3b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| (t4) Sub 1 2b | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Lee Manning c | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Player 5 c | 4 | 2 | 3 | 0 | Jason Greenberg 1b | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Player 6 dh | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Carlos Casal 2b | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Player 7 2b-p | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Aspi Dimitrov rf-p | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Player 8 lf | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | Jamie Munn lf | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Player 9 rf | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | Nick Goetz p | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sub 7 p-1b | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| TEAM TOTALS | 31 | 21 | 18 | 20 | TEAM TOTALS | 20 | 1 | 6 | 1 |
| E: Jamie Munn, Lee Manning, Nick Goetz. LOB: Herts Falcons 4, Richmond Flames 8. 2B: Player 3, Player 9. HR: Player 3, Player 9, Player 4, Player 2, Jason Greenberg. SB: Player 5(2), Player 1(2), Luis Goncalves, Carlos Casal. |
| Richmond Flames | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Sub 7 W | 3.00 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Player 7 | 2.00 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Herts Falcons | ||||||
| Nick Goetz L | 1.67 | 14 | 15 | 9 | 2 | 0 |
| Aspi Dimitrov | 1.67 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| Luis Goncalves | 0.67 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| HBP: by Nick Goetz (Player 3). , by Aspi Dimitrov (Player 2). . . WP: Luis Goncalves. PB: Lee Manning(3). T: 2:05. A: 38. |