On an eventually sunny Sunday in August, the Herts Hawks travelled to exotic Enfield to face the Sidewinders in the first round of this season’s AA league playoffs. Both sides were enthused with the prospect of eventually playing at the new venue of Farnham Park in the finals, and the preparation reflected the occasion. The setting was made perfect when two of the best umpires in the British Baseball League, Darrin Muller and Geoff Hare, reported for duty to officiate the game.

The Hawks were facing a tough challenge, with their ace Nick Russell (0.83 ERA ranked 2nd in the League), the middle reliever Andrew Slater, and their sluggers Andy Cornish and Tim Elkins all missing, but they all had more than able replacements. However, they were met with a hard-slugging Sidewinders side and, to top it off, with the masterful pitching of Tadaaki Sakurai, who appeared in control on the mound throughout, with able support from the Sidewinders fielders.

The Hawks took some time to start reading Sakurai’s pitches, while the Sidewinders were swinging hard for starting pitcher Greg Bochan’s stuff. Due to his high degree of accuracy, some luck (and we believe, supporting wind, close fences and a number of other intangibles), by the fifth inning the Sidewinders had piled in a number of hits, including four home runs. Two of the home runs were hit by Toshio Watanabe. During his home run trots it became obvious that he was carrying a serious knee injury and his trot was more of a hobble which took 2 minutes to complete. We understand that after that second home run the Hawks coaching staff were considering walking him intentionally in his next at bat in an effort to clog up the bases, but that tactical move came too late as the Sidewinders substituted Watanabe immediately after his second home run.

The Hawks were undaunted, and a strategic decision by co-manager Bochan put young Jose Morillo on the mound for the last two innings, and he successfully shut down the Sidewinder’s bats pitching 2 innings and allowing not hits or runs. It did prove a little bit too late, and despite a valiant effort in the seventh, Hawks went down to a 13 – 3 defeat. Click here to view box scores.

Still, this was a successful season for the Hawks, who finished the regular season with 9 wins and 7 losses, had one more year of postseason baseball, and were able to meld experience with youthful quality throughout the season. You can’t win them all, but you can very well try, and enjoy yourself in the process. That has been and remains the motto of the Hawks: “Veni, vidi, perfrui.”

The Herts Hawks begin their postseason campaign this Sunday, 25 August. Their fifth-place finish means that they will be facing the Sidewinders, which is probably one of the most liked teams in the league. The core of the team is made up of Japanese players and they always play in the Japanese tradition with the utmost respect to the game.

The Hawks’ late come-from-behind win against the Mariners on the last day of the regular season is considered by many to have done a big favour to the Daws Hill Spitfires who were pushed down into sixth place as a result and will face the Guildford Mavericks. Although the Mavericks finished one place above the Sidewinders, the recent reinforcements by the team from Enfield make them a formidable opponent and perhaps marginally stronger than Guildford going into the playoffs. Mavericks fans will probably disagree.

The Hawks go into this playoff game missing several key players. One of them is Nick Russell who has been the ace of the team on the mound with an ERA of 0.83 this season (ranked second in the league). They will be missing the home run power of co-manager Andy Cornish who hit his third homerun of the season last weekend. Also missing are Sunday’s game one winning pitcher, Andrew Slater, and slugger Tim Elkins.

So a depleted Hawks squad will be making the short trip to North London, but the team is still more than capable of winning against the higher seeded Sidewinders. The Sidewinders won the last meeting of the two teams in an exciting 5-4 game. Another close game is expected this Sunday.

Playoff games are special and the players will have that tingly feeling in their stomachs on Sunday. There is an extra incentive this year as the prize for the teams which go through the first two playoff rounds is a place in the Semi-Finals to be played on 7 and 8 September at the brand new Farnham Park – British Baseball’s equivalent of football’s new Wembley Stadium.

The game will start at 1:30pm in Enfield (click for directions) this Sunday, 25 August.

by Andy Cornish and Greg Bochan

With the Hawks already through to the playoffs, this was all down to where they were going to finish in the table and determine their next round opposition. The first game went as planned but the second was much tighter and needed something a playoff deserved.

Game 1 started in style; with a runner on base, Andy Cornish belted his third home run of the season deep over the left field fence. From there, the bats kept going with 13 runs crossing the plate in the second inning. On the other side Andy Slater kept throwing strikes, and ended the day with a solid 7 strikeouts over 5 innings. The game ended 22-9 going 5 innings. John Kjorstad ended the game batting 4-5, with 5RBIs, and Cornish 3-5 with 5RBIs.

In the second game Kent came out firing and the Hawks were giving them help along the way in the form of a multiple misplays and even an error on the number of outs. With runners on first and second, a ground ball went to Devine at short. He fielded cleanly, tossed to Ben Marques at second, who fired to John Kjorstad at first, a smooth double play. John flipped the ball towards the mound and the infield trotted off. Quickly, the outfield got message to the infield that it was only 2 outs, but by then the runner from third had crossed the plate.

Hawks are getting a reputation for losing count. This latest blunder goes along with the club’s 2012“knob out” trophy which they were awarded last year for thinking they won the game an inning early.

Alas, Hunter Devine wasn’t finished with this story. With an inside the park home run, putting Devine second in the HR category for the team, the Hawks tied the game going into the final inning. Kent were able to get one back. And they could have plated additional runs were it not for the final out at home. With Cornish mis-playing a pitch, he was able to retrieve the ball and get back to the plate in time to block the runner coming in from third.

Hawks now needed one run to tie and two to win. Paul Auchterlounie was able to get around the bases and score the tying run with one down. It was now Hunter’s turn to once again do some damage. With Bobby Gould at third and Greg Bochan at second, Devine crushed a pitch through the middle to score Bobby and end the second game. Devine finished 3-4 with 4RBIs and his second walk off hit of the year. Ben Marques went 2-2 but went off injured – Aspi’s special massage lotion has been sent to ensure that he is ready for the playoff games. Greg Bochan finished with 7 innings pitched, 5 earned runs, 7 strike outs, and a hard fought 13-12 win.

A dramatic win to end the season, something that was a bit too close for comfort, but a good season all round, ending 5th in the table with a 9-7 record. The Hawks can look forward to going straight into their post season with a game on Sunday against the Sidewinders, a team that beat the Hawks 5-4 only three weeks ago.

Andy Cornish, Hawks co-manager, commented ‘Jeez, what a game! We didn’t help ourselves in that second game. Maybe we were already eating our burgers, but we managed to get through. Everyone played their part, and we need to just build on that and enjoy the next few games. We have exceeded my expectations for this season, but now my expectations have changed and every week, I want to win. Every other team had better watch out, Here come the Hawks baby!’

News of the surprising 9-0 win by the Kent Mariners over the Daws Hill Spitfires filtered through the newswires last week. This meant that the Mariners were the only team which could leap over the Herts Hawks into sixth place which is the last unclaimed ticket to this year’s Double-A League playoffs. The schedule published at the start of the year had determined that the Herts Hawks will face the Kent Mariners on the final day of the regular season (18 August) with the winner progressing through to the first round of the playoffs. The stage was set – a baseball clash at Grovehill Ballpark with everything on the line.

However, the second-from-the-bottom Southampton Mustangs did not read the script and on Sunday produced the shock of the weekend sinking the Mariners convincingly 26-3.

This means that there will not be a do-or-die scenario this coming weekend in Hemel Hempstead, but the Hawks can start to celebrate a place in the playoffs for a second successive year.

Under the authoritarian regime of co-managers Andy Cornish and Greg Bochan, the Hawks have managed to keep up with the top teams in this league, despite losing the majority of their 2012 roster, after many of the players moved up to the club’s Triple-A expansion team, the Herts Ravens. The Hawks currently stand with a record of 7 wins and 7 losses (.500 winning percentage), but despite clinching a postseason spot, they would love to end the regular season above .500. This Sunday’s matchup with the Kent Mariners may not have the drama which everyone was expecting, but there will certainly be a lot to play for, as far as the Hawks are concerned. It will also be an opportunity for the managers to make a final assessment of the team roster and decide on the starting lineup for the first round of the playoffs which will be played on Sunday, 25 August. Some players, like Ilya Dimitrov, have just changed their flights to make sure they can land in time for the postseason games, so the preparations have began.

Next week we will be publishing further information about who the Hawks will be facing in the playoffs.

report by Kal Dimitrov

Both Sidewinders and Hawks came to play this rescheduled game with an eye on the upcoming playoffs. Sidewinders were already assured a spot, but had a chance to move ahead of the Spitfires in the table, while Hawks needed the win to pull away from the Richmond Dragons and possibly the Kent Mariners.

The first three innings were completely dominated by pitching and remained scoreless. Tadaaki of the Sidewinders was changing speeds and locating his pitches masterfully to jam hitters and induce easy plays for his defence, while Nick Russell for the Hawks had his two-seam fastball dancing around in a way that baffled the somewhat overeager Sidewinders.

The game started breaking open when batters found their timing, but there were few occasions for a big inning for either team. Sidewinders eventually managed to build a lead of 4 runs to 2 into the seventh, but Hawks came back to tie, with only the slightly lackadaisical attitude of Kal Dimitrov on third base preventing him from scoring the go-ahead run on a throw down to second by the catcher.

In the eighth, with the game tied, Sidewinders made a pitching change that proved decisive – it resulted in 5 strikeouts and a ground-out, while in the bottom of the eight they manufactured a run that proved to be the winning one.

The win takes Sidewinders above the Spitfires, while the loss ensures that Hawks can only reach sixth place in the table. Still, they have every chance of making the playoffs, as the Richmond Dragons have played all their games and Hawks have a double-header against Kent left, and even if tied, head-to-head will come into play (in their games against Richmond, Hawks won the first one 13 to 8 and lost the second one 11-9). The other possible contenders are Kent, who need to win all their four remaining games to tie with the Hawks. So, everything to play for on August 18.

report by Hunter Devine

The Herts Hawks continued their march towards the AA playoffs last Sunday with a match-up against the Southampton Mustangs II at Grovehill Ballpark.

Herts struck first, in the bottom of the 1st inning, with some heads-up base running, from shortstop Hunter Devine, who reached third base on a passed ball all the way from first, and then scored on a second passed ball a few pitches later.

This would be all the offense that both clubs could muster in the early goings, however, thanks to some strong pitching and defence.

Hawks Ace, Nick Russell, was on the mound once again and stymied the Mustangs offense all day; recording 5+ strikeouts and pitching another complete game. Russell was assaulting the strike zone with all his pitches, forcing many of the Mustangs’ hitters to fall behind early in the count and was in complete control all afternoon, also preventing their momentum by making several confident plays on bunts and weak grounders.

When the Mustang’s hitters did managed to get the bat on the ball, the Hawks defence was outstanding. Hawks co-manager, Greg ‘the motion’ Bochan, lead the way making several tremendous plays at third base; including a slick force-out at third – throw out at first double play, while the outfield, of Andy Cornish, Ross Asquith and Kal Dimitrov, also made several key outs in important situations with strong throws to prevent runners from advancing.

The Hawks struck once again with 2 outs and runners on second and third thanks to a 2RBI single from Devine, who would finish the day with 5 RBIs, a triple to the notch in left field and a double.

From here, the Hawks offense continued to pile on runs in bunches with important stolen bases from Tim Elkins, who also played a strong first base all game, and some big hits from left fielder, Ross Asquith, who hit a 2 RBI triple, DH Jim Arnott and young second basemen Callum Vangundy.

In the bottom of the 8th, with an 8-run lead, Hawks’ catcher Paul Auchterlounie sealed the victory (by way of the mercy rule) with a walk-off 2 run double.

With this victory the Herts Hawks moved one step closer to clinching their second playoff spot in as many seasons. With three games remaining, and in sole possession of the 6th and final playoff spot, the Hawks only need to win one remaining game in order to clinch a postseason berth.