On Sunday the last two semi-finalists in the National Baseball League were decided at Grovehill Ballpark. The reigning champions, Harlow Nationals, are through after a 17-4 win over the Bracknell Blazers. Matt Gilbert was the winning pitcher. Slugger Edwin Alcantara loosened up for Farnham Park with a home run.

Southampton Mustangs had a real fight on their hands against the Essex Arrows but eventually secured a 10-6 win. Tomas Zondra was the winning pitcher.

The results mean that the Herts Falcons will face the Harlow Nationals in the semi-final in a repeat of last year’s NBL Final. Southampton will face the London Mets in the other semi-final.

Both games will be played at Farnham Park on Saturday, 14 September. The Herts Falcons vs Harlow Nationals game will be the second game of the day with an estimated start of 2:30pm. Mustangs and Mets start the day at 10:00am. Judging by the amazing race in the regular season these are expected to be thrilling encounters.

Despite Herts Falcons finishing in first place and being the top seed in the NBL, most of the experts have tipped the London Mets as the favourites to lift the NBL championship trophy.

 

24 hours after Saturday’s Youth Playoffs it will be the turn of the country’s top tier league teams to commence their postseason campaigns.

The Herts Falcons and the London Mets have already booked their place in the National Baseball League (NBL) Semi-Finals by virtue of finishing first and second, respectively, in the regular season, but for the teams occupying the next four places in the NBL standings, it will be do-or-die this Sunday, 1 September.

The BBF has announced that both NBL Quarter-Finals will be played at Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead – the home of Herts Baseball Club.

The first NBL playoff game is at 11:00am between fourth-placed Harlow Nationals and fifth-placed Bracknell Blazers. Harlow are the reigning NBL champions, but they will have a difficult task against the Blazers who have proven to be very difficult to play against with good pitching and a defence which on their day can limit opponents’ offences to just a handful of runs. The two teams have met twice this year. On both occasions Bracknell came out on top with 6-4 and 6-5 wins.

In the second quarter-final third-placed Southampton Mustangs will clash with sixth-placed Essex Arrows. Southampton have had their best ever season in the NBL with 23 wins and only 5 losses. Some would say that they were very unlucky to have to go through the playoffs after finishing just a game back on the leaders and they were pushed into third after applying a tie-break rule. They go into this game with a 16-game winning streak. The Arrows sneaked into the playoffs on the last day of the season jumping over the Lakenheath Diamondbacks who lost to the Nationals. This has energised their fans. Can this momentum carry them into the Semi-Finals? If it does, it would be a major upset. The game starts at 2:00pm.

Admission is free for this event. Click here for address and directions to Grovehill Ballpark.

 

The Herts Falcons won their home doubleheader versus the Essex Redbacks to end the regular season on top of the National Baseball League, for the first time in the club’s 17-year history. They finish with a record of 24 wins and 4 losses. The London Mets (23-5) and the Southampton Mustangs (23-5) finished a game behind, but it is the Mets who clinch second place on the tie-break rule (head-to-head record between the two teams). This means that London join Herts to go through to the Semi-Finals, while Southampton have to go through the quarter-finals of the Playoffs, despite an outstanding regular season which they ended on a 16-game winning streak.

The Falcons beat the Redbacks 7-3 and 15-0 at Grovehill Ballpark. Michael Osborn was the winning pitcher in the first game picking up his sixth win of the season for an overall record of 6 wins and no losses. 14-year-old Tom Everex-Armstrong made his NBL debut for the Falcons and fans of the club hope that this is the first of many NBL seasons with Herts.

Ryan Bird produced another outstanding pitching performance throwing a complete game no-hitter for a second consecutive game after his no-hitter at the Pirates last weekend. Only a walk allowed in the third inning prevented him from making it a perfect game. He ends the regular season with an ERA of 0.00 and a record of 5-0, despite starting only 2 games.

Game 1 Box Scores (click to view)

Game 2 Box Scores (click to view)

The Redbacks ended the season with 2 wins and 26 losses and may feel that they could have done better in their debut season in the NBL, but this should not discourage them. They have an amazing group of people at the club and perseverance will help them to go through this difficult period and come out stronger on the other side.

Sunday’s games may not have been the edge-of-your-seat-drama which Herts fans have become accustomed to, but this was all about making history winning the club’s first ever NBL pennant. The players and coaching staff took the opportunity to thank the club’s loyal fans, whose number has been growing visibly over the course of the season.

The date for Falcons supporters to put in their diaries is Sunday, 15 September which will feature the Semi-Final between the Herts Falcons and one of the teams which will join them at Franham Park via the Playoffs.

 

by Cristobal Hiche

If baseball was decided on paper, the Toronto Blue Jays should be on top of the AL East rather than in last place. Similarly, every Herts fan (and Falcons players too) could have thought the Falcons (20-4) would just get two easy wins against South London Pirates (7-17). However Falcons players knew quite well that a loss would mean losing 1st place and possibly having to play quarter-finals playoff games. This meant for those die-hard fans who went all the way to South London to watch the games, they got to see the ‘Blitzkrieg’ offensive style in the first game and a rare gem in the second game.

The first game started with some Bingo Bango, with Falcons scoring 4 runs in the top of the first inning. This was partially helped by various errors by the Pirates defence. The relentless Herts offence continued with runs scored in each inning and by the top of the 4th it was already 12-0 thanks to another great day with the bat for Ryan Bird (3-4, 4RBI), Xavi Gonzalez (2-4, 4R, 3RBI), Carlos Velazco-Carus (2-3, 2RBI) and John Blose (3-3, 1RBI). As usual, Robbie Unsell was pitching a solid game but in the bottom of the 4th he got himself in a bit of trouble and with men on 1st and 2nd, allowed a base-clearing double by Aaron Rowlands to make the score 12-2. Herts Falcons scored another run in the top of the 5th and closed the door on the Pirates’ batters to win it on the mercy-rule with the final score 13-2.

The second game started the same way with 2 runs scored by the Falcons in the top of the 1st. Now I could continue to describe about the good offensive performances of Ryan Bird (3-5, 3RBI), Xavi Gonzalez (3-5, 2RBI), Cris Hiche (2-3) Darrin Ward (2-3) or any of the other players that hit well this afternoon. However, the story of the day is the gem thrown by Ryan Bird in his 1st start of the season. Ryan Bird threw a complete, no-hitter, shutout game which is probably one of the finest performances in the recent history of the NBL. Not only that, but he did that by striking out 15 batters (71% of all the outs) and only walking two batters in the entire game. Maybe it was the very unusual all-lefty battery (Ryan pitching and Cris Hiche catching), or the Bingo Bango written in a player’s forearm, that confused and maybe intimidated the Pirates’ lineup. But I think most likely it was the great command of Ryan’s fastball and his ability to constantly and accurately hit the corners of the plate.

With these two wins Falcons stay in 1st place and are one step closer to finishing 1st in the regular season, which would be a great achievement in itself for this team. Falcons Manager, Lee Manning, summarised the day by saying: “We played two great games. It was important not to take Pirates for granted and all the players showed that. Everybody gave 100% and hit well”. He had special words for the pitchers: “Robbie pitched very well as usual but Ryan stole the spotlight by throwing an amazing no-hitter shutout. This gives us the confidence of having great depth for the finals and that Ryan can pitch at least 6-7 solid innings”. He would not comment if Ryan has won a starting spot for the playoffs, but quipped that this is bad news for all the other teams.

The die-hard Falcons fans left the ballpark happy seeing such unique performance and that their long trip was worthwhile. It’s possible that history might be re-written once again this Sunday when Falcons face Redbacks for the season finale at home. Therefore I really encourage everyone to come this Sunday to Grovehill, enjoy the sunny day, get a tan, and of course watch some exciting Bingo Bango baseball.

 

written by Cristobal Hiche

After a weekend off where some Falcons players joined the Herts Team in the London Tournament and a few others played with the NBL All-Star Team, it was back to business to finish the season strong and continue with the winning streak. However, the always dangerous Lakenheath Diamondbacks were standing in the way. If they have all their players available they can be a real threat and it started that way in the first game.

NBL (Game 1) Herts Falcons 7 Lakenheath Diamondbacks 2 (click to view box scores)

Dbacks got ahead early in the game and every Falcons player was trying to adjust their strike zone and Kevin Carr was pitching very well for the Dbacks, exploiting the outside corner of the plate and a good repertoire of fastballs and wicked curveballs. By the bottom of the 4th Falcons had only 1 hit and had left few men on base. Kevin was striking out too many Falcons (8 in total) and the Falcons realised they needed just to put the ball in play if something was going to happen. With Carr getting a little bit tired, he walk a few batters and with bases loaded and 1 out, Michael Osborn being down 0-2 battled to a 2-2 count and put the ball in play on a grounder to second base but an error was made on the catch and then trying to rush the throw to first base it went wild and two important runs were scored. This changed the momentum of the game and gave the Falcons the lead. That was probably a psychological boost for the Falcons and also the realisation by Lakenheath that the game might be slipping away. Why? Because, although Robbie Unsell allowed an early run, he was still pitching a gem and for the most part taking control of the game. However with the score 3-1 in the top of the 5th, Robbie made a small but costly mistake hanging a slider in the middle of the plate which Kevin Carr smashed to left field reducing the Herts lead. However Falcons regained control and ended up scoring 4 more runs with the help of Ryan Bird who went 2-3 (1RBI, 1R, 1 double) to give Falcons a final score of 7-2.

NBL (Game 2) Herts Falcons 17 Lakenheath Diamondbacks 0 (click to view box scores)

The second game ended up being a slug fest for the Falcons. Let’s make no mistake, Lakenheath starting pitcher Shawn Benton had a good slider and curveball. In fact, he managed to strike out Cris Hiche twice who up to these games had only 5 all season. However, he abused too much of his breaking balls and Falcons jumped all over them. With a final score of 17-0 is difficult to find the player of the match. Although Robbie Unsell (2-3, 4R, 1RBI, 1BB), Xavi Gonzalez (2-3, 3R, 4RBI, 1 Triple) and Jordan Farkas (2-4, 1R, 2RBI) had their usual amazing performances, it was once again Ryan Bird who stole the show (in the reporter’s opinion) finishing 2-3, 3R, 1BB, and an impressive 6RBI, including a clearing bases double. That’s Bingo Bango right there!…And even though it now sounds like a broken record, it’s impossible to avoid mentioning another stellar performance by Michael Osborn who pitched a shutout.

Manager Lee Manning had this to say at the end of the day: “I’m very happy with the way the whole team played today. It was a slow start in Game 1 but we found the runs when we needed to”. He then added: “Game 2 was a hitting show with Michael doing an amazing job once again on the hill. Bingo Bango!”

Falcons have another weekend off since they have only 2 weekends left in their regular season in the next month and a half. It seems such a shame since Falcons are playing so well, carrying lots of momentum and the beautiful weather screams for baseball games. But although in the US summer is associated with baseball, beers, hot dogs and apple pie, given UK’s recent rainy summers it makes complete sense to have started the season quite early in the cold days of spring. Unfortunately there wasn’t any rain and now there won’t be much baseball in the best UK summer in decades. With playoffs pushed all the way to September, and God forbid there isn’t a downpour that weekend, let’s hope Falcons can keep the winning streak going until the end. So Falcons fans can relax this weekend, spend time with the family, and plan for the last two home dates for the team on 11 and 18 August and of course the September playoffs.

 

With big games coming up this weekend, Herts have confirmed that they have added two players to their roster.

J.P. Prouty is a 25-year-old outfielder. He comes from Stilwell, Kansas. The 6’1” tall right-handed batter has played at the college level in America for several seasons with Grinnell College alongside Herts Falcons pitcher and infielder, Robbie Unsell. His stats with Grinnell College are shown below.

Also joining is Matt Bucher, who played high school baseball at Marquette Catholic High School and is currently a history/business teacher and the head American Football and junior varsity baseball coach at Marquette Catholic.

Both players have been registered in time for this Sunday’s league games.
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J.P. Prouty statistics with Grinnell College Baseball

Year	Avg.	GP	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	Slg%	OB%
2007	0.286	22	56	9	16	0	1	0	6	0.321	0.328
2008	0.292	33	113	16	33	5	0	0	16	0.336	0.346
2009	0.302	29	96	21	29	4	1	1	16	0.396	0.382
2010	0.243	14	37	3	9	1	0	0	2	0.27	0.282
Totals	0.288	98	302	49	87	10	2	1	40	0.344	0.347