Jose Sosa was majestic on the mound from start to finish of game 1 (photo by Paul Holdrick)

Daniel Levitt reporting from Grovehill Ballpark

Everybody on the Herts Falcons knew the stakes, it was now matter of everyone fulfilling their expectations.

The Falcons sat three games behind the playoff spots heading into their double-header with the Southampton Mustangs on Sunday, after losing a pair to the London Mets last week that crippled their postseason hopes

In the week leading up to crunch two-game series, the Falcons learned that they would again be without star pitcher and hitter Abel Salas, out with an illness for the second straight week.

Their mission just got a whole lot tougher.

With their fate in their own hands still, the team knew that they could not afford any more hiccups. The table-topping Mustangs were no pushovers by any stretch of the matter, but for 13 of the 14 innings played on Sunday, the Falcons looked as though they would escape this chapter unscathed and with two wins under their belts.

In Salas’ absence, centre-fielder Jose Sosa stepped onto the pitcher’s mound to produce perhaps the best outing of his career. Facing a stacked Mustangs line-up, Sosa was military like, sitting down hitters as though they were being ordained.

Sosa had just two rough innings, not bad for someone known more for his offensive exploits. After giving up a solo shot in the second and facing bases loaded with nobody out an inning later, the Cuban took advantage of his pinpoint fastball and some heads up defense by third-baseman, Jamie Gregory, to escape the major jam with just one run given up.

Having weathered the storm early on, it only got better for Sosa and his team.

Entering the sixth inning down 2-1, the Falcons unleashed a rally as if their lives depended on it.

Sosa himself started the comeback by reaching base for the third time in the game, courtesy of a throwing error to first and even managed to advance to second on the play. A Darrin Ward single between the third-base-shortstop gap prevented Sosa from advancing, and when a sacrifice bunt forced the pitcher to be tagged out at third, you couldn’t help but think it just wasn’t their day.

Enter John Blose.

The left-fielder has been largely unmentioned thus far this season, but he seldom fails to get in on the action. A double to straight away centre-field cleared the bases and, just like that, the Falcons had taken the lead. A wild pitch was enough to score Blose and make it 4-2.

Sosa then reeled off 1-2-3 in the last inning to seal the deal, including a terrific grab off a line-drive that would have otherwise taken his face off, had his glove not been there.

The sweep was on the cards and another step towards the fourth and final playoff spot, but the finale could not have panned out worse for the Falcons early on.

Starting pitcher Michael Osborne, suffering from lingering inflammation around his throwing shoulder, could only manage one inning before the pain eventually got too much. Third-baseman Jamie Gregory stepped into to try and fill the void, but he too was unable to do so.

After two innings, the Falcons found themselves down 11-2.

As Ryan Hackle took control for the last 5 innings of the second game, Herts fans arriving late for the game were asking whether this is Robbie Unsell (photo by Paul Holdrick)

But as Falcons fans have been accustomed to for much of the season, they were about to witness a soaring comeback that forced them to stand for the rest of the game.

Very rarely does a team score double digits in one inning, so the Falcons knew the deficit would have to be broken down inning by inning.

When Gregory swapped the glove for the bat and hit a single to lead off the 4th inning, Phil Clark then slugged his third home run over the right-field fence to make it an 11-6 game. A nervous energy began to fill the ground.

Phil Clark greeted at home after his 2-run homerun in the second game (photo by Paul Holdrick)

Ryan Hackel led the 5th inning off with a double and then proceeded to score on a throwing error. Darrin Ward cashed in Zac Malone to put the game on a knife point at 12-8. Another run batted in by Gregory and the Falcons were within a long-ball of tying the game.

That’s where it all ended however, as failure to convert a Jose Sosa double in the sixth meant the Falcons were on the wrong end of yet another agonizing defeat.

The Mustangs on the other hand, will count themselves lucky to escape Hertfordshire with even one game, and return to the south coast knowing they had been within three runs of a humiliating collapse.

The Falcons remain three games out of the playoff spots and face a double-header at home against the Bracknell Blazers on Sunday. The series proves to be the most important of the season thus far and, the ability to move within one game of the Southern Nationals will be on the minds of the home team.

Jose Sosa willing Ryan Hackel on to score against the Mets (photo by Paul Holdrick)

Daniel Levitt, reporting from Grovehill Ballpark

The Herts Falcons saw their playoff hopes take a huge dent on Sunday, as they dropped a pair of games to the London Mets in Finsbury Park.

Starting the afternoon already two games behind the reigning champion Southern Nationals, the Falcons knew they had to escape the capital with at least one win under their belts. The fact that they departed with zero, serves as yet another major hump in a bumpy road this season.

The Falcons, whom have been plagued with injuries all season long, were up against it from the start, after news broke that star pitcher and hitter Abel Salas would be unavailable for both games due to illness. A testament to the team was that they fought right to the death, and could have actually walked away as winners of both games.

It wasn’t to be however.

Game 1 saw centre-fielder, Jose Sosa, step in at the eleventh hour and perform a quality outing in just his second start on the mound this year. The Dominican flashed the heat throughout, striking out 11 in total and appeared in control and relatively unfazed, but a run in the each of the first, fifth and sixth innings proved to be his downfall.

On another day, Sosa would have played the hero, instead he was the losing pitcher.

There were positives that the Falcons could take into the second game of the afternoon, with Michael Osborne and Liam Green each tacking an RBI onto their season totals, while shortstop Ryan Hackel once again flashed the leather on defense, turning another string of impressive double plays.

One trend the Falcons continued was their indefatigable commitment and unwillingness to give in, and relentlessly fought back to just a 3-2 deficit heading into the final inning.

With runners on second and third and two outs, the game could have gone either way. It wasn’t meant to be however, as Mets closer Jamie Thomas sealed a tough loss for the Falcons.

Falcons manager, Lee Manning, will not know how his team lost game 2, but a mid-game collapse may have just cost his side a spot in the postseason. After sprinting to a 6-0 lead in the third inning, the Falcons steadily surrendered the lead and eventually lost in extra innings.

Having gone ahead early through a Hackel RBI single, a two-run double by Osborne and three RBIs courtesy of three consecutive walks, the Falcons seemingly took their foot off the gas and began thinking about next week’s match-up.

By the sixth inning, they were tied.

The Mets then took the lead in the sixth, scoring on a single to go up 7-6.

The seesaw game took to another turn when the Falcons managed to tie the game once again, courtesy of a John Blose RBI single in the top of the seventh inning to send the game into extra innings.

The Falcons’ fate was sealed when they allowed the Mets to score the winning run on an overthrow, a bitterly disappointing way to lose a thrilling game.

Osborn and Ward combine to pick off a London runner (photo by Paul Holdrick)

With that, the Falcons now find themselves at 4-10 for the season and 3 games out of the playoff places. With a crunch 2-game series coming up against the table-topping Southampton Mustangs, the Hertfordshire based club cannot afford to lose any more ground if they are to be serious playoff contenders.

The double-header takes place at Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hemstead, with the first pitch scheduled for 12pm.