It was another tough weekend for the Herts baseball club. The Falcons travelled to take on the Richmond Flames in the National League, and suffered a pair of defeats. They went down 8-0 in the first game. Starting pitcher Dan Kerry — fresh from scaring BBC presenters with his fastball — struggled with his control, and walked four hitters in a four-run first inning from which the team never recovered. The Falcons' own bats were held in check with only three hits in the game. The second half of the double-header brought no relief. Richmond built an ever-expanding lead, helped by 5 Herts fielding errors, and wrapped it up 14-0. Luis Goncalves got his second hit of the day, but there were few bright spots for the Herts hitters. The Falcons' Aspi Dimitrov admitted “We were not quite right, and we have to accept that.”
Elsewhere in the National League, the London Mets and the Bracknell Blazers started to open a lead at the top of the standings. Mets cruised to a sweep of the Croydon Pirates, while Bracknell put an end to Mildenhall's unbeaten start to the season, again with two wins. The Falcons record is now 2-4, and they are bubbling in mid-table.
Lee Manning's Herts Eagles were relieved to finally play their first games of the season, but they were disappointed by the results. They lost two tight games to the Bracknell Inferno, 6-3 and 14-12. In the second game, they staged a dramatic rally but it was ended by a controversial umpiring decision. The Eagles also suffered a setback in losing speedster Iwan Evans to injury — the club medical team hope he will make a swift recovery.
The Herts Raptors racked up their best run total so far, scoring 11 against the London Marauders — but it wasn't enough. They were undone by one bad innings — in which they surrendered nine runs — and went down 23-11. The Raptors manager, Ken Pike, was full of praise for his players, calling it their best performance yet. Bobby Gould got three hits and stole five bases, Sam Pooley followed up his bright debut with 2 RBIs', and Simon Elkington impressed on his debut at first base. Manager Pike himself managed to flash the leather a couple of times, and lead by example.
The Hawks didn't even get chance to pull on their uniforms. Their double-header against Horsham had to be called off because the visitors could not muster a side.