Herts Baseball Club has been selected as the host of the 2009 University Fall Cup, which will take place over the weekend of 17-18 October 2009.
This is a competition organised by the British University Baseball Association (BUBA). BUBA is the governing and regulatory body responsible for all university and college baseball played throughout the United Kingdom. Founded in 2007 as a means of making university baseball more efficient and effective, BUBA has grown into a large organisation responsible for large numbers of players, and all official university competitions.
This is the second year of the University Fall Cup. In order to cope with the expanded BUBA membership, the late October competition has had to be split into two separate events. Tier 1, also referred to as the Fall Cup, will feature the top university baseball teams in the country – Nottingham, Southampton, Oxford, UEA and rising stars Leeds and they will battle it out at the home of Herts Baseball Club in Hemel Hempstead. The Tier 2 competition, named the Fall Shield, includes Brighton, Lincoln, Imperial University, Sheffield and Warwick and it will take place one week later at University of Nottingham’s Grove Farm Park.
Due to the odd number of teams competing, and the restricted time in which to compete, a novel system of competition has been developed.
Each team will be assigned a seeding based on their most recent performances in student competition and will play two games on the first day. The standings after the first day will decide who plays who for what on day two.
The fourth (P4) and fifth (P5) placed teams on day one will face off in an elimination playoff with the winner going through to face first placed team (P1) in the first semi-final. The second semi will be contested between the third (P3) and fourth (P4) placed team from day one. The two semi-final winners will go through to compete for the championship whilst the loser of semi-final 2 will go on to face the loser of the earlier elimination game.
|
Day 1 (Sat, 17 Oct) |
Diamond 1 |
Diamond 2 |
||||
|
1100 – 1245 |
S1 |
@ |
S3 |
S2 |
@ |
S4 |
|
1300 – 1445 |
S3 |
@ |
S4 |
S5 |
@ |
S1 |
|
1500 – 1645 |
S5 |
@ |
S2 |
|||
|
Day 2 (Sun, 18 Oct) |
Diamond 1 |
Diamond 2 |
||||
|
1100 – 1245 – Elim |
P5 |
@ |
P4 |
|||
|
1300 – 1445 |
W Elim |
@ |
P1 |
P3 |
@ |
P2 |
|
1500 – 1645 |
W SF 2 |
@ |
W SF 1 |
L Elim |
@ |
L SF 2 |
The games will be played at Grovehill Ballpark, which is the home of Herts Baseball Club. The second baseball diamond is currently being resurfaced in preparation for the 2010 season, but a temporary diamond will be created for this event.
There is no Herts team in this competition, but Herts Baseball Club would find it very difficult to remain a neutral host as Herts’ number 46, Yuchih Lin, will be representing Southampton University. So far this one weekend, Herts fans will be supporting Southampton. Lin was one of the most consistent performers for the Herts Falcons in the National Baseball League this year. He ended the year with a very impressive batting average of .342 (2nd among Herts Falcons), joint Herts Falcons RBI leader (15). He was also the NBL leader in plate appearances (88).
All fans are welcome at Grovehill Ballpark for two days of exciting baseball. Hot and cold beverages and snacks will be available for fans to enjoy. For more details contact Herts Baseball Club