The Herts Falcons clinched their place in the National Baseball Championship (NBC) with a 11-4 win at the Croydon Pirates last Sunday. Their second game was rained out and unlikely to be played due to the congestion in the schedule caused by the wettest baseball year in living memory.
Despite this, the Falcons still have the NBL pennant on their mind. They host the playoff-chasing Lakenheath Diamondbacks at Grovehill Ballpark this Sunday (12pm start), with the Harlow Nationals just one-and-a-half games ahead in the standings. At this point of the season and a place in the NBC secured, they have to go for it and hope that the Nationals stumble against the Croydon Pirates.
Even if they don’t, there are efforts being made to play the rained out game between Harlow and Herts on 19 August, as both teams are through to the postseason and can use that Playoff Sunday to play the doubleheader. This is an exciting prospect to determine the best NBL team in the 2012 regular season. But first Lee Manning’s men will need to win both games of this Sunday’s doubleheader against Lakenheath, which is not going to be easy. Anything less and the proposed clash with the Nationals on 19 August will be nothing more than a warm-up game ahead of the NBC on the Bank holiday weekend (25-27 August).