Author: Matt Bell

by Matt Bell

RAPTORS GRILL MARAUDERS

Report from Herts Baseball Newswire Correspondent, JON GAMBLE

 

The Herts Raptors travelled to Finsbury Park on a grey Sunday afternoon with hopes of edging their way closer to the season play-offs. For the London Marauders it has been a long season as they went into the game still without a single win. The barbecue sizzles in the background.

 

The Herts team came out of the pits firing on all cylinders. Nippy base-stealing and a willingness to take advantage of some erratic pitching  quickly put four runs on the board. The Marauders were unable to respond as sharp fielding by the Raptors – including their first double-play of the day – made short work of the early London batting order. Perrie Sherman, returning from international pitching duties in Belgium, was looking at home in the catcher's box.

 

The Raptors made the most of some not-so-sharp fielding errors to add a further four runs in the top of the second. However, debut pitcher Jeff Witter appeared to take a liking to his new job for the Raptors – restricting the Marauders to only one run in reply.

 

The top of the third inning turned into a walkfest for the Raptors as a combination of sound hitting, wild pitching and aggressive base stealing piled on the runs. Someone famously said that there is no defence against a walk. For the London Marauders this was the hard lesson of the day. The Raptors base-stealing operation was working like a high-octane machine but uncontrolled pitching was also making it too easy to get batters round.

 

By the end of the decisive third inning, the Marauders have been grilled to order – as the Raptors lead stretches to 20-2. The Marauders were never able to get a serious rally going. This was largely the result of the disciplined pitching performance of Jeff Witter backed up by a very tidy fielding display from the rest of the Raptors – in which Iwan Evans, Andrew Slater and Paul Curtis should all get special mention. The Raptors improvement in the fielding department – including another crisp double play in the bottom of the fourth – was the hallmark of the game.

 

Of the three contests between these two sides this season, this was the most one-sided. The London Marauders are a genial side who play the game in the proper spirit, while the hospitality at Finsbury Park sets the standard for convivial sportsmanship. For the Marauders the road to baseball success surely lies through solving the pitching riddle. It is a puzzle that the Raptors have also struggled with throughout the season. Jeff Witter's economical performance on Sunday suggest that they have gone a some way towards solving it.

 

 

Herts Raptors at London Marauders
Score By Innings 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Herts Raptors 4 4 12 0 0 3 1 24 8 2
London Marauders 0 1 1 0 3 0 1 6 4 5

Herts Raptors 24, London Marauders 6
Herts Raptors London Marauders
  ab r h bi   ab r h bi
Iwan Evans cf 6 5 3 3 Player 1 p 4 1 1 0
Ilya Dimitrov ss 2 4 0 1 Player 2 c 3 2 1 0
Andrew Slater 1b 6 4 2 3 Player 3 1b 1 2 0 0
Jonathon Lewys 3b 3 2 1 2 Player 4 2b 3 0 0 2
Paul Curtis 2b 2 2 1 0 Player 5 3b 2 1 0 0
Perrie Sherman c 2 1 0 2 Player 6 ss 4 0 1 0
Jeff Witter p 5 0 0 1 Player 7 lf 3 0 0 0
Robert Crouch lf 5 3 1 0 Player 8 cf 1 0 1 0
Jon Gamble rf 1 3 0 0 Player 9 rf 3 0 0 0
TEAM TOTALS 32 24 8 12 TEAM TOTALS 24 6 4 2

E: Paul Curtis, Perrie Sherman, Player 4(2), Player 5(2), Player 6. DP: Herts Raptors
2. LOB: London Marauders 6, Herts Raptors 12. 2B: Iwan Evans, Player 6. SB: Andrew
Slater(4), Jonathon Lewys(4), Ilya Dimitrov(4), Iwan Evans(3), Robert Crouch(3), Paul
Curtis(2), Perrie Sherman, Player 3(4), Player 5(3), Player 2(3), Player 1(2). SF:
Jonathon Lewys, Player 4.

Herts Raptors IP H R ER BB SO
Jeff Witter W 7.00 4 6 3 9 5
London Marauders            
Player 1 L 7.00 8 24 9 23 5

HBP: by Player 1 (Ilya Dimitrov). . , by Player 1 (Jon Gamble). . . . WP: Jeff
Witter(3), Player 1(9). PB: Player 2(7). T: 3:15. A: 98.

by Matt Bell

WOLFHOUNDS TAMED BY HERTS ALL STARS

The Herts Little League All Stars faced their first ever international competition this past Saturday when they hosted an All Star team from southern Ireland in a 7 inning friendly game at ‘the hill’.

With the Herts Little League only in its 2nd season, the question on everyone’s lips was, “can they compete at a higher level?”

The Herts All Stars answered……………………and answered LOUDLY!

From the first pitch, all pre-game jitters seemed to disappear behind the determined game faces of Herts. Starting pitcher, Marty Cullen Jr retired the first 5 batters via the strikeout and didn’t allow a hit in his 3 innings on the mound recording 8 strikeouts. Pitcher Nick Martinez came in and continued the domination recording 5 strikeouts and no hits in 2 strong innings. Assistant coach Arnie Longboy said after the game, “pitching wins games, and we might have the best one two punch in the British youth system right now”. Relievers Mikito Ariga and Zach Longboy also combined for 3 strong innings allowing only 1 run in the rout providing further evidence of the depth in the Herts bullpen.

At the plate, the Herts bats came alive knocking in 25 runs with every Herts batter reaching base via the hit. Doubles and triples were the flavour of the day against a good Irish pitching staff. Herts batters had a record 14 extra base hits including a monster home run to deep center by newcomer Jamie Dix.

Manager Marty Cullen had this to say after the win, “It’s all about preparation. These kids have worked so hard, and it really showed today. I’m so proud of how they came together as a team. They did everything right. For me, this was a prep game for the BBF championships and I saw exactly what I wanted to see.”

The day itself was a tremendous success as the legendary Herts fans came out in droves, soaking up the atmosphere (as well as a record number of hot dogs and donuts). The Irish Wolfhounds also enjoyed the hospitality displayed by Herts and their supporters despite the tough loss. The Irish Manager said, “All credit to Herts. They put on a great event and they play hard. We would definitely come back.”

Next stop…….the BBF Youth Championships. Do the Herts All Stars have what it takes to bring home the Gold? I’m willing to bet that there are a few teams around the Country nervously asking that same question.

 

View More Images from the first youth international game at Grovehill Ballpark

by Matt Bell

BLUE JAYS VS YANKEES IN THE HERTS LITTLE LEAGUE FINAL

FOUR ONE-RUN WINS

The final day of the Herts Baseball Little League did not disappoint producing 4 games which were all decided by 1 run and set up an exciting postseason lineup. 

 

Although the Herts Yankees had already booked their place in the Championship Game, all of the other three teams were in with a chance to clinch second spot and earn the right to face the 2008 Champions in the Final next week.

 

The Blue Jays were in pole position at the start of the day standing one game ahead of the Red Sox, so the matchup between the two was a must win game for the Sox.  It turned out to be a classic with the Herts Red Sox winning 2-1.  This meant that both teams were tied in second position going into the final game of the regular season.

 

On the other diamond, the Cubs found themselves two games back on the second-placed Blue Jays so they needed two wins out of two and hope that the other results go their way.  Despite a courageous effort against the Yankees, their hearts were broken in the final inning when the Yankees came from behind to get the walk-off win.

 

NEEDING A WALK OFF GRAND SLAM

And so it came down to the final games of the regular season.  Blue Jays versus Cubs and Red Sox against the Yankees.  With the Blue Jays having a superior run difference they only had to match what the Red Sox do in the other game to clinch second place.  Both games were on a knife’s edge.

 

The Cubs were out of the race but they almost ruined the day for the Blue Jays, who won it 2-1 but the game could have gone either way.  This put pressure on the Red Sox who were being pegged back by the Yankees.  With news of the Blue Jays’ win filtering through and the Blue Jays players taking their sit on the Yankees side of the field to support them, the Sox needed to win the game by 3 or more runs.  This looked impossible as they were the home team and were trailing so the only way for them to win by 3 runs was to load the bases and then hit a walk-off Grand Slam homerun.  They certainly gave it a go but came just short with the game finishing 9-8 to the Yankees with the bases left loaded.

 

POSTSEASON LINEUP

This sets an exciting final day of the 2009 season.  First the Red Sox and Cubs will face off in the Bronze Medal game, first pitch at 11:30am.  Followed by the Blue Jays and Yankees to decide the 2009 Herts Little League Champions.  Will it be the Herts Yankees (12-4) for a second year in a row, or will the Blue Jays (8-8) cause a major upset by bringing down the team which has dominated the league all year long.

 

View Final Standings of the 2009 Regular Season

 

View More Images from the Final Day of the Regular Season

by Matt Bell

HOLDING IT TOGETHER

It's already ten past eleven. The game was due to start at 11. The rain is falling, and we only have seven players. “Welcome to recreational baseball”  says one wag. This is the time of year when it gets harder and harder to muster a team — people go off on holiday, early season enthusiasm wanes, and players drift off. And when we get a rare rainy day, it's even harder to leap out of bed on a Sunday morning to do your thing.

But with a patchwork team we took the field. Paul pitched for the first time — ever — in a competitive game. I took second base for the first time this season. And things didn't start that well, with the visiting Pirates racking up eight runs off us.  I thought Paul did a really good job but we could have backed him up better. For example, one routine infield pop-up fell to earth needlessly. Off the bat it looked like it had some air on it and, being decisive, I gave a loud shout and moved in. But then it started to die, still yards in front of me. And I realised I wasn't going to get there even with a dive. It was falling close behind Paul, and Ilya was coming in from shortstop, but the ball ended up in the grass between us all.  Now, Ilya had the right to call me off, but we are both learning our positions, so that is the sort of situation where you are exposed by lack of practice as a unit.   

Overall, I think I still have a bit of a tendency to get sucked into the centre of the diamond looking for a play to make, as I have not yet developed the innate sense of where I need to be. Watching some Major League action on Monday I saw players move around so smoothly it made you sick. Earlier this season, my positioning cost me a couple of outs which I could have made had I been standing someplace else. On one occasion in this game when I had moved towards third (arguably for good reason — to help guide the cut off from the outfield, precisely because we are novices) the play ended with a tag out at second base made not by me but by Matt, the right fielder, who had astutely come in to cover.

I was pleased to get in one successful tag of my own. A runner made the turn for second — possibly on an overthrow, I can't remember — but our wily manager Marty, playing first base, saw the opportunity and sent a good throw my way. This time I had been able to think quickly enough about where I needed to be — over the bag, so I was out of the runner's way, but could still make the play in front of it. I was able to apply the tag just in front and get the out. I regret to say that I did indulge in a moment of celebration (for which I hereby apologise to the Croydon manager!). I meant no disrespect, but was merely excited to be part of a genuine bang-bang play. I got to make a couple more plays, including one graceless stop of a ground ball threatening to disappear up the middle, which ended with me crawling after the ball on the infield dirt. It's the results that matter, that's what I say!

And it was another week of terrible swings at the plate. Two strikeouts — the first from an at-bat which started 2-0 — and then a walk once I had got myself under enough control to foul off pitches and leave alone the junk! I'll give myself a brownie point for reaching base on a dropped third strike, the first time I remember ever having the presence of mind to do so. We put together a good rally in the final inning and it was a really fun game to play in. Once you get to late July, you have to enjoy the fact that you can keep it together at all. 

by Matt Bell

INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY – HERTS ALL-STARS VS IRISH WOLFHOUNDS

Immediately after this Saturday’s Herts Baseball Little League games, Grovehill Ballpark will host an international matchup. 

 

Visiting from Ireland are the Irish Wolfhounds.  They will go up against a Herts All-Star team.  This will be a very useful game for the Herts All-Stars as they start to prepare for the British Baseball National Championship which will start in August with the playoffs on the way to London for the National Baseball Championship weekend on 12-13 September.

 

The game will start at 2:30pm.  This is a fantastic opportunity to come and support the next generation of Herts baseball while enjoying a hot dog at Grovehill Ballpark.

 

by Matt Bell

STATS ATTACK – LITTLE LEAGUE LEADERS

Last Saturday Lewis Paterson hit his third home run of the year and that gives him the lead in the Home Run category, as we go into the final weeks of the 2009 Herts Baseball Little League season.  As the number of league games scored increases it is interesting to see the league leaders in other statistical categories. 

 

BATTING AVERAGE*

Name

Team

Avg

Jamie Paterson

Herts Yankees

        1.000

Bradley Edgar

Herts Blue Jays

        0.750

Marty Cullen Jr

Herts Yankees

        0.750

Stella Dixon

Herts Blue Jays

        0.500

Lewis Paterson

Herts Blue Jays

        0.500

 

Batting Average (Number of Hits (divided by) Number of At Bats) is an indicator of a player’s ability to make good contact with the ball.  In MLB an average of .300 or higher is considered to be outstanding. 

 

SLUGGING %*

Name

Team

Slug

Jamie Paterson

Herts Yankees

            1.250

Lewis Paterson

Herts Blue Jays

            1.250

Marty Cullen Jr

Herts Yankees

            1.000

Zachary Longboy

Herts Blue Jays

            0.800

Bradley Edgar

Herts Blue Jays

            0.750

 

Slugging Average (Number of (Singles + [2 x Doubles] +[ 3 x Triples] + [4 x Home Runs]) divided by At Bats) A players Slugging Average, or Slugging Percentage, is directly defined as total bases per at-bat. To calculate a player's total bases you award a 1 for a single, a 2 for a double, a 3 for a triple, and a 4 for a home run then add them all together. Divide that by the total number of at bats a player has and you can easily determine the overall number of bases a player generally touches during his at bats.  Slugging % is one of the most popular indicators of a player’s ability to hit the ball with power.

 

ON BASE %*

Name

Team

OBA

Jamie Paterson

Herts Yankees

            1.000

Bradley Edgar

Herts Blue Jays

            0.833

Marty Cullen Jr

Herts Yankees

            0.750

Lewis Paterson

Herts Blue Jays

            0.667

Kieran Manning

Herts Blue Jays

            0.667

 

On Base Percentage ((Hits + Walks + Hit-By-Pitch) divided by (At Bats + Walks+ Hit-By-Pitch + Sac Flys)).  The On Base Percentage statistic was originally created to measure the percentage of times a player reaches any base. It is easily one of the most important statistics and it is specifically written with managers in mind.

 

 

It is notable, and probably not surprising, that the top 5 performers in these offensive categories all come from the Herts Yankees and the Herts Blue Jays who currently lead in the league standings.

 

PITCHING (EARNED RUN AVERAGE)*

Name

Team

ERA

Jamie Paterson

Herts Yankees

            0.00 

Liam Green

Herts Cubs

            4.50

Micky Watson

Herts Red Sox

            6.00

Bradley Edgar

Herts Blue Jays

            6.75

Rhys Whitney

Herts Blue Jays

          10.80

 

Experts say that pitching wins ballgames.  The Earned Run Average (ERA) is one of the best pitching indicators.   It shows how many earned runs a pitcher allows on average over 9 innings ((Number of Earned Runs x 9) divided by (Number of Innings Pitched)). 

 

PITCHING (OPPOSITION BATTING %)*

Name

Team

OBA

Liam Green

Herts Cubs

          0.143

Jamie Paterson

Herts Yankees

          0.250

Rhys Whitney

Herts Blue Jays

          0.250

Lewis Green

Herts Yankees

          0.375

Bradley Edgar

Herts Blue Jays

          0.450

 

The Opposition Batting Average simply shows how well opponents bat against that particular pitcher.  The lower the average, the more effective the pitcher.

 

* It is important to note that not all of the Herts Baseball Little League games were scored since the start of the 2009 season and therefore some player performances have not been reflected in the above stats.  The Herts Little League will be aiming to score absolutely every league game in the coming years which would give us fascinating information about player and team performances just like they do it in Major League Baseball (click to view)

by Matt Bell

KEEPING SCORE WITH THE HERTS LITTLE LEAGUE

This article by Matt Smith appeared first on www.baseballgb.co.uk

If you turn up at a Herts Little League day and spy some parents glancing at an electronic device, don’t be too hasty in criticising them for not paying attention.  They are probably not checking their e-mails or writing a shopping list.  They are much more likely to be playing an important role in documenting the game.

Official scorers at Little League games are an unfamiliar sight in Britain, but they are the latest example of the forward thinking that has become a hallmark of Herts Baseball Club. 

Adults and Little Leagues working together

The importance of a quality adult league system should not be underestimated in a historically baseball-resistant country.  However, the future of the sport revolves around Little Leagues.  Getting kids playing baseball at a young age is crucial in producing good adult players and coaches, as well as ensuring that future generations are interested in the sport. 

Successful Little Leagues and successful senior set-ups should go hand-in-hand.  That sentiment was at the heart of the decision by Herts to introduce official scorers to Little League games, as Club President Aspi Dimitrov explains.

“Our Club’s Executive Board came to the conclusion that our Youth Programme has to work alongside our Adult Programme.  Although the Herts Baseball Little League has existed only for two years it is gradually catching up with the Adult Programme and is incorporating many of the methods and procedures applied by our adult teams.  Marty Cullen, who is the Herts Little League Commissioner, is also the Manager of one of the Herts adult teams, so he is in a good position to do this”.

“Addicted to stats”

The benefits of keeping score are manifold.  The activity itself makes the games more meaningful as every hit, stolen base and put-out is recorded as an important event.  The consequence of recording all of these details is that they make it possible to produce meaningful statistics: the lifeblood of the sport.

“Stats play a key role for our adult teams when analysing player and team performance.  It also is a fantastic tool for the motivation/self-motivation of players to perform better and to increase their satisfaction from the game.  All of these arguments apply equally to our youth players and teams.

The first thing on the agenda for most of our club members on a Monday morning is to check their box scores from the day before and how their season stats have been affected.  Good game stats for a player on a Sunday can be the difference between joy and misery for the next seven days until the next game.  Our weekly schedules pretty much revolve around baseball stats.  We hope that our youth members will become just as addicted to stats as our adults”.

Scoring in an electronic age

The art of scoring has captivated baseball fans for over a century.  Many an old black-and-white photograph of a Major League crowd shows fans intently scribbling notes down on their scorecard and the tradition continues today.  For most fans and scorers, the traditional method of pencil and paper remains the system of choice, but Herts have decided to go down the electronic route instead and Dimitrov explains that the production of statistics was a key part of this decision.

“In the past we struggled with the time-consuming task of converting the stats from a paper score sheet into a digital form which can then be presented on our website.  As our club started expanding into two, three and now four adult teams we were desperately short of non-playing members who knew how to score on paper.  We started looking into alternatives and came across a few software packages.  Some of them had demo versions available to use which gave a chance to try them out and most of them seemed to be very easy and intuitive to use”. 

The lure of a shiny Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) was seen as another mark in favour of scoring electronically. “I guess the idea of paper and pencil does not look as attractive as holding a hand-held computer device so we thought that it may also help us to encourage more of our players to score so that all of our teams can do it on our own without relying on non-playing scorers.  As it turned out, these days Herts players simply pass the PDA from one bench player to another and we manage to maintain stats without the need for extra volunteers”.

Making your choice

If scoring electronically is deemed the way to go, a quick Google search reveals a whole host of different software options to be considered.  Herts researched several and came to a useful conclusion.

“From the various software packages which were on offer we could see that there were some differences in the graphics and one or two of the software features, but essentially the packages were offering more or less the same functions.  On that basis it came down to the price and at $49.95 (or around £30) at the time, it didn’t seem like we were taking too much of a risk by giving it a go with Fixed It!”.

Fixed It! have been producing scoring software since 1996 and their products cover several different sports, from basketball to football.  Full details about the baseball version, including the price increase since Herts bought their copy, are available on their website at http://www.fixedit.com/baseball.shtml

“The software is quite versatile and it gives us options to use it on a desktop or laptop computer, or on a Pocket PC or Palm hand-held devices” said Dimitrov.  “Members in our club already had such hand-held devices so they were happy for the club to use them for scoring, which meant no hardware costs.  Like every software product we became better at it the more we used it and in the process became more aware of the intricacies of baseball scoring and how every player’s contribution to the team is recorded as well as judgement calls on hit or error, wild pitch or passed ball etc.  I would say that anyone can score a game using the software with as little as a 10-15 minute tutorial”.

Getting started

Getting to grips with the full intricacies of scoring requires some consultation with the official rule book, but the basics of scoring should come naturally to anyone familiar with the sport.  Using Fixed It! to do the task clearly doesn’t make things any more complicated.

“It is quite simple.  You watch the game and after every play you click one or two buttons to transfer what you have seen into the device.  For example, the pitcher throws a strike and you click the strike button.   Then the batter manages to reach first base safely so you click a button to indicate that the player got on base after which you are asked to indicate how he got on base (e.g. hit a single, double, triple, was hit by pitch etc.).  The software is very user-friendly so at every stage it is prompting you the available options.  All the scorer has to do it select the appropriate option to describe what has just happened”.

From there, you can upload all of the data onto your website once the game is over, allowing the players to see how their stats have been affected and making visitors aware of how individuals are progressing over the course of a season.  This capability comes as part of the Fixed It! software, although Herts have taken it a step further.

“Initially, we used the HTML stat reports which the software provides and which could be easily uploaded on our club’s website at a touch of a button.  With the evolvement of the Club’s website, the Club appointed Greg Bochan as the Statistics Officer.  He has programming knowledge and together with Webmaster, Jason Greenberg, created code which allowed visitors of www.hertsbaseball.com to have a more interactive experience with the player and team stats”.

Parents getting involved

As with anything in British baseball, the success of the project relies on volunteers getting involved.  Herts are fortunate to have a good group of parents more than willing to do just that.

“At the start of the Herts Baseball Little League we were not sure whether the parents would be interested to contribute in various volunteer roles or whether they would see our baseball programme as going to an entertainment venue for a bit of fun for the kids on a Saturday.  With every week we are becoming more and more impressed how passionate the Little League families are about the Herts youth baseball programme.  Everyone has been so positive about volunteering and we have even reached the stage where the families are becoming really pro-active about wanting to contribute and make the baseball programme better”.

That enthusiasm has carried over to Herts’ latest project.  “Irrespective of this, we didn’t know how they would react to the idea of scoring on a PDA.  But the response has been amazing.  In Spring Training we had brought a few PDAs to see if we can convince the parents to give it a go.   So many mums, dads and even some players stepped up that we did not have enough PDAs and had to ask them to rotate in groups of 3-4 per PDA.  Some have become so interested that they have installed the free desktop version on their home computers to practice and have even referred to various scorekeeping handbooks online to learn more about judgement calls etc.  We are quite lucky actually to have such great people among our Little League families”.

Following Herts’ lead

Such goodwill may not immediately exist in all areas, but Herts are proof that dedication, ingenuity and enthusiasm can win people over.  Whether it’s developing playing facilities, successful player recruitment drives or introducing official scorers to Little Leagues, ballclubs throughout Britain are constantly coming up with new ideas, and sometimes learning from mistakes, that could be of great use to others. 

Away from the competition of ballgames, greater cooperation between ballclubs is the best way to make the sport stronger overall.  There’s growing evidence that this is becoming more common and that should be encouraged.  Perhaps some other teams will be keen to learn more about how they can develop their scorekeeping practices.  If so, I’m sure Aspi and the folks at Herts will be more than happy to provide some further advice on their system.

For more information on keeping score in the UK, please visit the Great Britain Baseball Scorers Association website.

by Matt Bell

RICHMOND BESTS HERTS, MOVES INTO 2ND PLACE

NATIONAL BASEBALL LEAGUE: WEEK 13

(this article was first published on www.britishbaseball.org)

 

London Sweeps Bracknell, Continues To Dominate NBL

 

The London Mets show no signs of slowing up at the top of the standings after earning another doubleheader sweep on Sunday, brushing off the Bracknell Blazers. The Mets emerged triumphant by scores of 13-1 and 10-8, stretching their record to an impressive 14-4 as the season hots up.

 

Reed Wilson and Jonathan Cramman claimed the wins, with Callum Woods smacking a home run to lead off game one. But they had to rely on a piece of defensive brilliance to claim game two, Giovanni Escalon making a leaping catch at the wall with two outs in the seventh to rob Ryan Trask of a game-winning three-run shot.

 

The Mets’ Alex Pike said: “We put lots of pressure on them today and it told. In game one we were very aggressive in our baserunning and they couldn’t handle it. In game two we did what we had to do. A win is a win as far as we are concerned, but Giovanni made a magical play.”

 

Bracknell coach Rob Rance admitted his side had been caught out. He said: “They played some good ball today. They caught us on a day when we were missing a few players and we did not do the simple things right.”

 

 

Richmond Bests Herts, Moves Into 2nd Place

 

Richmond came out on top in a battle of the chasing pack when they swept Herts Falcons 4-3 and 20-1.

 

The Flames came out on top in a real pitcher’s duel in game one, stealing the game in the bottom of the final inning. Ryan Bird pitched the win and belted a two-run home run, Darrin Ward taking the loss.

 

But things could not have been more different in game two, with the Flames blasting 13 runs in the first inning alone en route to a lopsided win. Cody Cain, Matt Spaulding, Ryan Bird and Haydn Chin smashed home runs, with Jason Greenberg providing the solitary response with Herts’ first homer of the season.

 

Richmond’s Grant Delzoppo said: “Things went really well for us. It was a good battle between two teams chasing London Mets and it was a good pair of wins. This will give us a lot of confidence to take forward.”

 

Herts Manager Jason Greenberg was understandably disappointed with the losses, but remained resolute about his team’s accomplishments thus far. “Baseball is about momentum, and when the Flames took the walk-off win in game one they also took the wind out of our sails. It’s already forgotten. We’re ecstatic with our season thus far and we’ll fight hard to win our four remaining games.”

 

GAME 1

Herts Falcons at Richmond Flames
Score By Innings 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Herts Falcons 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 3 3 1
Richmond Flames 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 4 10 3

Richmond Flames 4, Herts Falcons 3
Richmond Flames Herts Falcons
  ab r h bi   ab r h bi
Marty Visser cf 4 0 1 1 Luis Goncalves ss 4 1 1 0
Haydn Chin ss 3 0 1 0 Kimiyoshi Saionji lf 3 1 0 0
Cody Cain p-rf-1b 3 1 1 0 Lin Yuchih 2b 3 1 0 0
Ryan Bird 4 rf-p 3 2 3 2 Darrin Ward p 3 0 1 0
Grant Delzoppo c 2 0 0 0 Jason Greenberg c 3 0 0 0
Mike Osborn 2b 3 0 0 0 Lee Manning 1b 2 0 1 1
Guy Lidbetter 1b 3 0 2 0 Carlos Casal rf 3 0 0 0
(t7) Matt Spaulding rf 0 0 0 0 Nick Goetz 3b 3 0 0 0
Brett Wakeley lf 3 1 1 0 Jamie Munn cf 2 0 0 0
Yushi Saito 3b 3 0 1 0 (t7) Aspi Dimitrov cf 1 0 0 0
TEAM TOTALS 27 4 10 3 TEAM TOTALS 27 3 3 1
E: Player 2, Player 4, Player 9, Carlos Casal. LOB: Herts Falcons 5, Richmond Flames
6. 2B: Player 4. HR: Player 4. SB: Player 4, Lin Yuchih.
Richmond Flames IP H R ER BB SO
Cody Cain 5.33 1 0 0 2 7
Ryan Bird W 1.67 2 3 0 0 3
Herts Falcons            
Darrin Ward L 6.00 10 4 3 1 4
WP: Darrin Ward(2). T: 1:38. A: 38.

GAME 2

Herts Falcons at Richmond Flames
Score By Innings 1 2 3 4 5 R H E
Herts Falcons 0 1 0 0 0 1 6 3
Richmond Flames 13 2 3 3 0 21 18 0

Richmond Flames 21, Herts Falcons 1
Richmond Flames Herts Falcons
  ab r h bi   ab r h bi
Player 1 cf 3 4 2 0 Luis Goncalves ss-p 3 0 2 0
Player 2 ss 3 1 1 4 Kimiyoshi Saionji cf 2 0 1 0
Player 3 3b 4 3 2 3 Lin Yuchih dh-rf-ss 3 0 0 0
Player 4 1b 4 3 3 4 Darrin Ward 3b 2 0 0 0
(t4) Sub 1 2b 1 0 1 1 Lee Manning c 2 0 0 0
Player 5 c 4 2 3 0 Jason Greenberg 1b 2 1 1 1
Player 6 dh 4 1 1 1 Carlos Casal 2b 2 0 1 0
Player 7 2b-p 3 1 1 0 Aspi Dimitrov rf-p 2 0 0 0
Player 8 lf 2 3 2 3 Jamie Munn lf 2 0 1 0
Player 9 rf 3 3 2 4 Nick Goetz p 0 0 0 0
Sub 7 p-1b 0 0 0 0
TEAM TOTALS 31 21 18 20 TEAM TOTALS 20 1 6 1
E: Jamie Munn, Lee Manning, Nick Goetz. LOB: Herts Falcons 4, Richmond Flames 8. 2B:
Player 3, Player 9. HR: Player 3, Player 9, Player 4, Player 2, Jason Greenberg. SB:
Player 5(2), Player 1(2), Luis Goncalves, Carlos Casal.
Richmond Flames IP H R ER BB SO
Sub 7 W 3.00 4 1 1 0 3
Player 7 2.00 2 0 0 0 3
Herts Falcons            
Nick Goetz L 1.67 14 15 9 2 0
Aspi Dimitrov 1.67 3 5 5 5 0
Luis Goncalves 0.67 1 1 1 1 1
HBP: by Nick Goetz (Player 3). , by Aspi Dimitrov (Player 2). . . WP: Luis Goncalves.
PB: Lee Manning(3). T: 2:05. A: 38.

by Matt Bell

BLUE JAYS FIND ANOTHER GEAR

The Herts Baseball Little League is in its final weeks and the Herts Blue Jays look like the team which has the momentum.  They extended their winning streak to 4 on Saturday which lifted them into second place in the standings.

 

They opened the day with a 17-1 demolition of the Herts Cubs.  Zack Longboy picked up the win.  In their second game of the day they met the league-leading Yankees.  In a repeat of last-week’s 2-1 epic it was once again Marty Cullen Jr and Nickolas Martinez who started on the mound for the Yankees and Jays, respectively.  It was the Blue Jays that ended up on top again in another walk-off win.  In the process, Lewis Paterson launched another home run for the Jays.  This was his third of the season and he now has, what seems to be, an unassailable lead in the home run race.

 

The Yankees did manage to get a win earlier in the day, beating the Red Sox 6-4, despite the fact that the Sox sent their ace pitcher, Liam Green, up against the Yankee lineup. 

 

The day didn’t get any better for the Red Sox as they went on to lose to the Cubs.  They put together a late rally but it was too little too late and the Cubs won it 7-4.

 

Click here for more images from Week 8 of the Herts Little League.

 

Next week is the final Saturday of the Little League regular season which will decide the lineup for the postseason.  Saturday's programme will also include the first ever youth international game at Grivehill Ballpark.

by Matt Bell

WATCHER OF THE SKIES

It's Thursday. The sun is shining, sporadically. The rain is falling, intermittently. It's the time of the week when you start to get unnaturally nervous about the weather. It's especially true for me this week as I have taken the day off from work on Sunday just so I can play for the Raptors against Southampton. A rainout would be doubly annoying. And in the context of the weather we have had this year, it might even be considered trebly annoying. When I started the blog I joked that there would be a bit about the weather in it, because it normally plays quite a role in any British summer sport. But for the most part this year has been glorious. Even on occasions when we thought it would rain, it didn't, and one game — against Guildford I think — was sunny against all odds.

I don't know what is considered the “perfect weather” for baseball. I remember some absolute scorchers, many of them against Richmond for some reason, but is that really the best? It is certainly good for your suntan, but four hours on a baking field in long pants and a heavy shirt is not ideal.  We got through about four litres of water each at one of those Richmond games. And after one in Essex I had to drive home round the M25 and then go to work and do a night shift. However, don't think I am arguing in favour of the cold and wet option. I may be British to the core, but I'm not that daft.

Whatever happens on Sunday, let's just hope it's playable. Or I might sulk. Again.