Herts Hawks v. Sidewinders, May 23rd 2010
by Hawks Beat Reporter, Simon Langton
What started out looking like a nice warm summer day at Grovehill quickly became a nightmare for the Herts Hawks who found themselves on the wrong end of a 24-5 drubbing at the hands of Sidewinders.
Things started reasonably well with the score at then end of the first tied at one. That was not to last long, however, with Sidewinders able to run riot for the rest of the day. Errors followed by extra base hits were a far too familiar sight for the Hawks who – once behind – were never able to recover. The only respite for the Hawks was that Sidewinders only had eight players and so the would-be ninth hitter was automatically out. Despite this, Sidewinders were able to score 24 runs against what was, by the 7th, a very tired Hawks defence.
The Hawks bats were also relatively quiet all day. Good Sidewinders pitching was accompanied by a defence which, despite being short of numbers, was able to deal with any threat the Hawks posed. Their two-man outfield was able to make a virtue of its forced changes – on several occasions, hits which would have dropped into the gaps were caught by a repositioned fielder. By the7th inning, the Hawks only had 2 runs to their name and needed over a dozen just to keep the game going. A three- run rally in the bottom of the 7th showed that the Hawks had not given up but the task would prove too much and the game ended after 7 innings on the mercy rule 24-5.
Credit should be given to Sidewinders who played well and with determination in order to claim the victory. The Hawks will be hoping to forget about the game, hoping that it was just an off day, and getting ready to regroup for the next opposition. And whatever the result, the Hawks have taken their place in history as the first Herts team to play a game on the second diamond.