This article first appeared on www.britishbaseball.org
The British National Baseball Championships (NBC) entered their final weekend with the Youth competition at Finsbury Park, home of the London Mets. The Bronco (10-13) and Pony (14-16) leagues each welcomed four contending squads, making up the top eight youth teams in the BBF. In addition to the host Mets, the Halton Polecats, Cartmel Valley, Herts Baseball Club, the Bracknell Tornadoes and the Horsham Hornets survived the gruelling stretch of playoff games to reach the NBC.
BRONCO SEMI FINALS
On Saturday the tournament hosts, the London Mets, advanced to Sunday's BBF Bronco Final. By overturning a courageous Cartmel Valley comeback, the Mets batted their way to a six-inning win.
Later that afternoon, Herts won in extra innings against Halton after their Polecats tied the game but then stranded the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth inning. (A regulation Bronco game is six-innings long, while a Pony game is seven.)
Herts – as away team – will face the Mets on Sunday afternoon in a six-inning title bout.
Full Bronco box scores and game stats from Saturday's prelims and Sunday's finals will appear in Monday's full weekend championships report.
Click for more images from the 2009 National Youth Baseball Championships
2009 BRITISH NATIONAL BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP (UNDER-13s)
12 SEPTEMBER 2009, SEMI-FINAL
| Herts All Stars at Halton Polecats | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score By Innings | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| Herts All Stars | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 15 | 11 | 4 |
| Halton Polecats | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 11 | 6 |
| Herts All Stars 15, Halton Polecats 10 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herts All Stars | Halton Polecats | ||||||||
| ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | ||
| Carlos Casal Jr 2b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Harry Pickup p-ss | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| Mikito Ariga p-c | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Patrick Hansford 3b | 5 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Nickolas Martinez ss | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Alex Jones c | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Liam Green cf-p | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | Jamie Evans rf | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Lewis Paterson 1b | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Jonas Grader 2b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Marty Cullen Jr c-p-3b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Spencer Roberts 1b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jamie Paterson 3b-cf | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | Owen Williams lf | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Zachary Longboy lf | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Andrew O'Brien cf | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| (t5) Michael Davis lf-rf | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Ed Williams ss-p | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Kieran Manning rf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| (b3) Jonathan Compton-Weight r | f | ||||||||
| TEAM TOTALS | 33 | 15 | 11 | 9 | TEAM TOTALS | 32 | 10 | 11 | 4 |
| E: Nickolas Martinez, Marty Cullen Jr, Kieran Manning, Lewis Paterson, Alex Jones(2), Jonas Grader(2), Harry Pickup, Patrick Hansford. LOB: Herts All Stars 6, Halton Polecats 9. 2B: Nickolas Martinez(2), Liam Green(2), Lewis Paterson, Jamie Paterson, Marty Cullen Jr, Harry Pickup. HR: Andrew O'Brien. SB: Lewis Paterson, Zachary Longboy, Alex Jones, Jamie Evans, Harry Pickup. CS: Zachary Longboy, Carlos Casal Jr, Jonathan Compton-Weight, Spencer Roberts. |
| Herts All Stars | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Mikito Ariga | 3.00 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| Liam Green W | 2.33 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 4 |
| Marty Cullen Jr | 1.67 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Halton Polecats | ||||||
| Harry Pickup | 4.00 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 6 | 6 |
| Ed Williams L | 2.67 | 9 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| HBP: by Liam Green (Andrew O'Brien). . . WP: Liam Green. PB: Mikito Ariga(5), Marty Cullen Jr, Alex Jones(8). T: 2:38. A: 147. |