The Herts Harriers overcame the Leicester Blue Sox in the quarter-finals of the British Under-17 League Playoffs. This is the first time in the club’s history that a Herts team reaches the semi-final stage at U17 league level.
The Herts Harriers finished in first place during the U17 regular season and this meant that they had to face the sixth-seed team from Leicester. The odds were in favour of the team from Herts, but the team needed to stay focused and deliver a professional performance on the day to progress through to the semi-finals.
Tom Everex-Armstrong was the starting pitcher for Herts and he picked up his fourth win of the U17 league season with 4 innings of work allowing 1 hit and 1 earned run and 11 of the 12 outs came by way of a strikeout. Callum Vangundy, Jose Morillo, Tom Everex-Armstrong, Warwick Byrne and Zack Longboy had a multi-hit game. One of Jose Morillo’s 3 hits in the game was a 2-run inside-the-park-homerun. Morillo then came in as a reliever to pitch the final inning of the game. He did well allowing no hits and no runs continuing his impressive pitching performances from the previous weekend in the AA-League playoffs with the club’s senior league team, the Herts Hawks.
Herts won the game convincingly but credit must be given to Leicester whose youth baseball programme was started this year and they have done very well in their first season in a very competitive U17 league.
The Herts Harriers will now be preparing for a Semi-Final at the newly unveiled Farnham Park baseball venue in Slough on 14 September. The other three semi-finalists are the Cobham Cougars, Halton Polecats and London Mets. The League will shortly be announcing the seedings which will determine which of these 3 teams will be facing the Harriers.
HERTS CARDINALS ELIMINATED IN THE QUARTER-FINALS
The club’s Under-14 league team, the Herts Cardinals, couldn’t progress to the next stage after losing first to the Forest Glade Redbacks and later to the London Mets. The team will be looking to regroup and strengthen over the winter and return stronger in 2014.
The three teams which progressed through to the semi-finals are London Mets, LYBL Bulldogs and Forest Glade Redbacks, the latter winning an exciting quarter-final against LondonSports 13-11.
HERTS DODGERS ARE THE HERTS UNDER-11 CHAMPIONS
The 2013 season of the Herts Under-11 Championship came down to the final game of the season. The Herts Dodgers and Herts Giants have been trading blows all year long and before this final game of the championship series they were tied. In another close encounter, the Dodgers came out on top with a 7-3 win to claim the title for a second consecutive season.
NEXT EVENTS
Herts fans will now turn their attention to the U17 national championships on 14-15 September after which all three age groups (U17, U14 and U11) will be entering the Herts Futures Tournament on 21 September, which is the largest youth baseball tournament in Britain. As always, it will be held at Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead. Teams are still entering (click for entry details). Also any players are welcome to take part in this event. For details how to join the Herts youth teams, please contact us.