Herts Baseball Club is receiving a very timely boost with the return of pitcher Zack Longboy. Over the last few months Longboy has been unavailable for selection as he has been competing in the American varsity league, as a pitcher for his American school team, ASL Eagles. The varsity league season ended on Saturday with the ASL Eagles finishing second after a 3-2 loss to ACS Cobham in the final. Longboy has had another outstanding varsity season. His record is 5 wins 0 losses, with an ERA of 1.85. At the weekend he was voted into the All-Tournament Team, which is the varsity league equivalent of MLB’s end of season awards such as the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards. This is the second consecutive year that Zack Longboy finds himself nominated in this prestigious list.
The Herts Hawks and the Herts Harriers have missed Longboy but he is back now and his return is coming at a crucial stage of the season. The Hawks have 4 wins and 6 losses so far this season and they need to start winning series to go above .500 and stay in the playoff race. They travel to Brentwood this Sunday for a doubleheader with the Brentwood Stags. The Harriers are preparing for four crucial games against the LYBL Bulldogs on the road to the Little League UK Qualifier on 14 and 15 June. The first of these is this Saturday, 31 May. Herts will lose Longboy along with six other players who will be flying to Florida with the Great Britain under-17 national team. Hopefully, this will not be too costly.
These have been difficult few weeks for Herts as they suffered major setbacks with key players out with injuries. Several of those players should be back fit very soon and this, combined with the return of Zack Longboy and the upcoming NBL debut of Andrew Fulford, could give Herts teams the momentum they need to get back in the playoff races in the various leagues.