The Herts Hawks continued their impressive start to the Single-A season with a 26-10 victory over the Mercenaries, part of the London stable of teams (on Sunday, April 24th).
A huge outburst of offense in the second inning of this game at Grovehill was decisive. After a fairly even first frame, the Hawks scored 13 runs in the second and never looked back.
The powerhouse with the bat was Gilberto Medina, who went 5-for-5 with 2 doubles and 6 RBIs. Hunter Devine and Jon Lewys pitched in with 2 RBIs each, while the joint managers Greg Bochan and Andrew Slater scored 3 runs each.
Bochan also contributed from the mound, striking out a pair, but the win went to Sonam Lama. He struck out 2 over 3 innings, and yielded just 2 earned runs. The Hawks are now 2-0 on the young season, and face Northants next.
An icy day at Grovehill blew no good news for the Herts Falcons of the NBL. They were hosting the three-time champion London Mets for a doubleheader.
The visitors jumped out to a 4-run lead in the top of the first, but the Falcons stayed in touch. Darrin Ward started on the mound, and over five innings he gave up only 6 earned runs. But the Falcons were charged with 9 errors and the Mets piled up runs in the sixth inning to make it a blowout. The game ended 20-4.
Conner Brown got two hits and Luis Goncalves drove in two runs with a double. Brown went 2-4 in the second game as well, and drove in a pair of runs, but it wasn’t to be enough.
The Mets started even faster out of the blocks this time, scoring 4 runs in the first and 6 in the second to take a stranglehold. The Falcons rallied in the fifth but this one ended 18-8.
This is a young Herts team and the season was always expected to be one of rebuilding. Brodie Caress, who has come up through the clubs ranks, pitched 4 innings and gave up just 5 earned runs. Osmel Vazquez was tagged with the loss.
The Falcons have opened their season against some of the most powerful teams in the league and must look to take the positives from these games into their next encounters. They face the London Capitals this weekend.