The Falcons have reached the halfway point of the season with a record of 4 wins and 8 losses standing two games back from the playoff places. Manager, Lee Manning, will be looking for a big effort from his players in the second half of the NBL season. Despite the difficult start of the season, largely due to a series of injuries, the Falcons remain upbeat as their playoff hopes are very much alive and they have their fate in their own hands.
They currently find themselves in sixth place and need to move up two places to secure a playoff place. The Bracknell Blazers are currently fifth, just one game ahead of the Falcons so a sweep against them on 27 July will help them move ahead of Bracknell. The Nationals are in fifth place, two games ahead. A sweep for the Falcons in their doubleheader at the Nats on August 3 will see them move into the playoff zone if they can score 4 runs more than the Nats in that doubleheader. This is due to the league’s tie-break rules which state that if teams end with the same number of wins and losses and have identical head-to-head record, the tie will be broken by looking at the who has conceded the fewest runs in games between the tied teams. The Nats conceded 9 while the Falcons conceded 12 on Sunday so Herts will need to turn that minus-three head-to-head run differential in their favour on August 3.
The London Mets, currently third and 3 games ahead of the Falcons, are also within reach. To go above the Mets in the NBL standings the Falcons will need to win both games of their doubleheader coming up next for Herts on 13 July.
|
Team |
W |
L |
% |
GB |
RF |
RA |
|
Southampton |
10 |
2 |
0.833 |
– |
73 |
52 |
|
Essex |
11 |
5 |
0.688 |
1 |
142 |
86 |
|
London Mets |
8 |
6 |
0.571 |
3 |
110 |
97 |
|
Southern |
7 |
7 |
0.500 |
4 |
74 |
82 |
|
Bracknell |
6 |
8 |
0.429 |
5 |
72 |
78 |
|
Herts Falcons |
4 |
8 |
0.333 |
6 |
87 |
114 |
|
SL Pirates |
2 |
12 |
0.143 |
9 |
56 |
105 |
In summary, the Falcons can overtake any of these 3 teams, but they even have some room for error as they only need to overtake two out of these three teams. The head-to-head meetings with these three teams will be massive occasions, but the race may be turned on its head by other results. It all makes for an exciting second half of the season for Herts fans.