Category: Adult Leagues

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Sunday’s Falcons vs Nationals doubleheader moved to 3rd of August

Nats and Falcons will have to wait a little longer before their first meeting since last year’s national championships semi-final (photo by Richard Lee richardleephotography.org)

A confirmation has just been received that this Sunday’s scheduled NBL series between the Herts Falcons and the reigning champions, Southern Nationals, has been rescheduled due to issues with the Nationals’ home ballpark.

The game will now be played on Sunday, 3 August.

This news means that the Falcons will have a five week break between last Sunday’s opening series with the Mets and their next game on 11 May 2014 which is a doubleheader away to the Bracknell Blazers.

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Boost for Herts as Russell move may not go ahead

With just over 72 hours until the Herts Hawks open their 2014 league campaign, they appear to have received a major boost ahead of their clash with the London Mammoths this Sunday.

Over the last few weeks the prospect of losing one of the most feared pitchers in the British Double-A League has been haunting Herts Hawks fans. Nick Russell was on the verge of making a switch to his hometown team in Northampton, however late last night news started filtering through that this transaction may be in doubt and Russell could be back with the Hawks in time for Opening Day.

Nick Russell received the Hawks best pitcher award in 2011 and in 2012 when he picked up 5 wins and had an earned-run-average of 2.18. His return is still subject to completing the necessary paperwork, but sources close to the club are confident that this is a real possibility.

On Sunday the Hawks will face the London Mammoths who are many people’s favourites to win the Double-A League after an impressive performance in the Herts Spring League which saw them lose only 1 of their 4 games and that was against Triple-A opposition.

 

by Herts Baseball News Editor

The NBL is back! Mets and Falcons open the season with another classic

Cris Hiche greeted at home after his grand slam which started an almighty comeback (photo by Richard Lee richardleephotography.org)

If the Opening Day games between the Herts Falcons and the London Mets are an indicator of what is to come this season, fans of British baseball would be advised to buckle up as we are in for a wild ride. The games had everything – incredible comebacks, home runs, gutsy pitching performances, heroic plays, heavy collisions and more.

Usually batters take a little longer to get back up to full speed after the winter offseason and pitchers hold the advantage in the first few weeks of the season, but that was turned on its head as hitting dominated throughout despite facing some of the best pitchers from the 2013 season. The starters in game one were Mike Osborne for Herts (6-0 and ERA 1.12 in 2013) and Sam Sproule for London (1-1, ERA 1.91 in 2013), but batters didn’t appear too concerned about those numbers. The Mets took an early 10-2 lead although it must be pointed out that most of these were unearned runs as the Falcons’ new look defence was still finding its feet. “It will take a little more time for us to tune up our defence after losing several key players who moved overseas” said Falcons manager Lee Manning. The Mets conceded an average of 3.36 runs per game last season so it would have been a natural reaction for Herts heads to drop and accept defeat. It was also interesting to see how the squad would react to such a score line. With so many new faces and a much lower average age there was a risk that there would be a negative effect on confidence and team spirit, but that wasn’t the case. In the bottom of the third inning Herts showed that they cannot be written off under any circumstance. A grand slam home run by Cris Hiche to centerfield, 2-run double by Jamie Gregory and a sacrifice fly by Carlos Casal Jr, brought in 7 runs reducing the deficit to 1 run. In the fifth inning a towering 2-run home run by 2013 NBL MVP, Ryan Bird, hits by Abel Salas, Darrin Ward and a sacrifice fly by Dave Tretheway gave Falcons a 13-11 lead.

The Mets responded in a big way not only to come back from this but to build an unassailable lead winning the game 23-13. This included a home run by Martin Tucker and a very scary moment when London outfielders Jonathan Cramman and Josh Saunders made a brave attempt to make a diving catch which resulted in a very serious collision requiring a 10-minute delay while treating both players. Thankfully, both managed to recover and seemed in good shape by the end of the day. There was also an injury to Ryan Bird which seemed innocuous but which may take him more time to recover from. The Falcons had to go into the second game without Bird as he had to be taken out of the lineup.

Abel Salas was the starting pitcher for Herts in game two and he went the distance. The Mets took an early 6-0 lead which included a grand slam home run by Zach Stroman, but from that point Salas was in control of the game and produced a battling performance which gave his team the opportunity to win. To do this, they needed their offence to get back into the game against the London Mets’ best pitcher of 2013, Pietro Sollecito. They responded with 4 runs in the bottom of the first and 3 in the second inning to take a 7-6 lead and added an eighth run in the third inning. The Mets came back to tie it at 8-8 in the fifth only for Herts to retake the lead in the bottom of that inning with 3 more runs. With darkness gradually setting in, both teams knew that the game can be called at any moment so the Falcons needed to keep that lead at any cost. The Mets scored two in the top of the sixth inning but Abel Salas produced two key strikeouts in the final inning to end the game stranding London’s tying run at third base and securing a win for Herts.

“After such an outstanding comeback in the first game we felt that we missed a good opportunity, but we showed character to respond in the second game especially as the team had to do it without the injured Ryan Bird and it is a positive sign that we have players who can step up in difficult situations with the game on the line” said Herts Falcons Manager, Lee Manning.

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Arrows, Mammoths and Marauders clinch HSL titles

(photo by Richard Lee richardleephotography.org)

The Essex Arrows’ 100% record from the first two weeks was sufficient to keep them top in the Majors division. The MK Bucks and Cambridge Royals ended their pre-season preparations with good wins against the London Mammoths and Essex Redbacks, respectively to finish half a game back on the Arrows. The Royals’ superior defensive record of conceding only 1 run per game means that they take the second place on the tie-break rule.

Mammoths’ defeat was the first in the career of pitcher, John Peters, who has taken British baseball by storm since he made his league debut with the London Marauders 12 months ago. This was a pre-season competition so Peters’ regular season record is still intact. He will make his official AA debut on Sunday against the Herts Hawks in the season opener.

Despite the defeat, the Mammoths are the HSL Double-A winners on the tie-break rule pushing London’s U17 team into second place due to a better runs-conceded record of 3.75 runs per game compared to the London U17’s 6.5 runs per game.

In the Single-A Division the London Marauders remained unbeaten with a record of 3-0 this Spring and clinched the HSL Single-A Championship. Their incredible come-from-behind win against the Herts Hawks in week two proved to be deciding.

Click to view the full HSL scoreboard and HSL standings.

And so the 2014 Herts Spring League is complete and all the focus turns to the race in the four league tiers of the British Baseball Federation.
WEAR THE HERTS BASEBALL JERSEY IN 2014

Herts Baseball Club welcomes youth players from 6 to 16 and adult players from 14 to 45+ from complete beginners to experienced ballpalyers. New players can join at any time of the year. For more details on how to give baseball a try contact us.

 

by Herts Baseball News Editor

The Show begins this Sunday as Falcons-Mets rivalry resumes

After two seasons of reaching the postseason but missing out on the NBL title, the Falcons are ready to go at it again – will it be third-time-lucky? They open the 2014 NBL season this Sunday, 6 April, against bitter rivals, London Mets, at Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead. It’s a doubleheader. First game starts at 1:30pm.

Last weekend’s display of home run power was the boost which Herts fans needed. Cris Hiche launched two against the MK Bucks, going the opposite way for the first one and the second to the deepest part of the ballpark in dead-centerfield. Two of the team’s new acquisitions also went deep. Lefty Abelardo Salas drove the ball over the left-centerfield wall, while a day earlier Jamie Gregory went deep over the left field wall.

There was more good news for the Falcons as starting pitcher, Mike Osborne, made his first appearance on the mound after sustaining an injury earlier in Spring Training. The discomfort from the injury didn’t seem to affect him as he put on another of his solid performances which NBL fans have come to expect from him over the last 15 seasons in which he has accumulated 45 wins and 372 strikeouts.

The second week of HSL games gave the Falcons a chance to field many of the club’s youth team players who are part of the Great Britain U19 and U16 national teams. They put on some very encouraging performances so that would suggest that we may be seeing more of the club’s young talent on the biggest stage in British baseball this season.

Over the last few seasons the series with the Mets have always been tense affairs with an average of one bench-clearing per game. The two clubs have a healthy rivalry which has served both clubs well by motivating them to push harder to improve in every department from on-field competitiveness to infrastructure and grassroots development. This has made them the two biggest clubs in the UK.

Among the Mets to watch out for on Sunday are catcher Grant Delzoppo batting .522 (3rd) with 3 home runs in 2013, pitchers Pietro Sollecito (7-2, ERA 0.95), Julian Somers (5-0) and Sam Sproule (1-1) not forgetting Erick Henson who is always a difficult batter to face.

Pietro Sollecito is expected to start one of the two games and perhaps Sam Sproule the other, however there may be one or two surprises as new players are usually unleashed to unsuspecting opponents at this time of the year.

For the Falcons, it looks as though 2012 home run leader, Dave Tretheway, may not be ready in time to make his return after his ankle operation kept him out for the whole of the 2013 season. Louis Hare is in a similar situation having undergone a broken elbow and knee operations following a football accident. No date has been set for his return yet.

Hot and cold drinks, hot dogs, and other snacks and refreshments will be on sale at the ballpark and with many HSL games scheduled on the same day, the venue is expected to be buzzing with home and away fans. The hope is that the weather will co-operate to make it a truly great occasion as Opening Day always is.

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Blow for Herts as Xavi completes move to Germany

Over the last few weeks the Herts Baseball Club front office has been opening mailboxes with trepidation in anticipation of bad news. A final confirmation of that news came a week or so ago. During the winter period the big clubs in Europe have been holding negotiations with the Herts Falcons 2013 MVP, Xavi Gonzalez. The paperwork has been received and the Falcons shortstop will be wearing the colours of the Stuttgart Reds in 2014.

The 24-year-old Venezuelan joined Herts 12 months ago and played a key role in the very successful 2013 season for the Falcons which saw the team finish top in the regular season standings for the first time in the club’s history, with a winning percentage of .857. His outstanding fielding ability was recognised by the league awarding him the NBL Gold Glove at shortstop. There aren’t many 5-tool players in the world and Gonzalez is one of them. His batting average was .411 and slugging average .712 with 3 home runs which made him the joint-team leader in that category. Defensively he committed only 2 errors. We can add his speed to that with 13 stolen bases.

As one of the best players in the NBL last season it will be difficult for the Falcons to replace a player like Xavi Gonzalez, but this means that there is an opportunity for someone to take his spot in the lineup and become a star just like him. The Opening Day clash with the London Mets is just a few days away so it will be interesting to see who will play in the shortstop position this Sunday.

“Everyone in the club will miss Xavi not just because of his baseball ability, but we will also miss him as a person and because of what he brought off the field” said club president, Aspi Dimitrov. He added: “There aren’t many players who would make a 4-hour round trip from Bournemouth every week for games and training sessions”.

Gonzalez is expected to make his debut for the Stuttgart Reds in the Germand Bundesliga this Sunday at 12pm UK time in their Opening Day game against Heidenheim Heideköpfe. The Reds finished fifth in the South Division with a .500 winning percentage.

So does this transaction carry any significance in terms of the long-term prospects for growth and development of Herts Baseball Club and the British baseball league as a whole? Does this mean that clubs like Herts cannot compete with teams in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy due to their financial superiority? Will all of Britain’s rising stars end up playing under similar professional or semi-professional contracts in these countries? A few years ago the answers to these questions would probably have been pessimistic, but there are signs of a shift in direction in the UK. There is a buzz around the leagues right now and obvious signs that clubs are starting to realize that there is potential to grow the sport and secure a market share similar to the British ice hockey and basketball professional leagues. Front offices are beginning to approach the running of their clubs as a business generating extra income which is then quickly reinvested into baseball infrastructure, grassroots development and promoting the game in the community.

“We are very optimistic that in the next few years we will be able to turn the table and compete financially with the big European leagues. The traffic of players will change direction and we hope that we will be able to see Xavi back in a Herts jersey. This gives us one more reason to push even harder” said Dimitrov.

 

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Week two of HSL reveals player trades ahead of Opening Day

We are starting to see team rosters shaping up in the HSL games as the 2014 baseball season is just days away. The Herts Falcons are being reinforced by new signings Abelardo Salas, Andrew Fulford and Jamie Gregory. Another new arrival, Robert Davis, had an emergency and missed the final pre-season games of the Falcons, so we will have to wait and see if he has done enough to be included in the Herts roster on NBL Opening Day this Sunday, or whether he will start in the minor leagues and look to work his way up in the coming weeks. The Falcons picked up a win against MK Bucks. Cris Hiche hit two homeruns in that game. New signings Salas and Gregory also hit homeruns this weekend, which is exciting news for Herts fans.

British baseball fans would have noticed that the NBL’s 2012 Most Valuable Player, Jarrod Pretorius (pictured right), was wearing a MK Bucks uniform this weekend so there is a question as to which team he is likely to play for this season.

Falcons’ second game ended in a tie against the South London Pirates which was awarded as a win for the Pirates on the “count-back” rule. This was the first opportunity to see the Pirates this Spring and they unveiled an interesting starting pitcher (pictured left). The name of the player was not disclosed but he will certainly cause problems for NBL teams this season with a lively arm.

At the same time news was filtering through from Town Mead Ballpark of a potential shift in the balance of power in the NBL. The rumours are that GB National Team player, Maikel Azcuy, Edwin Alcantara and perhaps one or two other members of the 2013 championship-winning Nationals will be wearing the Arrows uniform this season. Home runs are rare at Town Mead Ballpark, but that didn’t seem to worry Azcuy who launched one in the Arrows’ 14-3 win over London.

In a further blow to the reigning champion Nationals it is being reported that their gold glove-winning catcher, Will Lintern, has made the move to Hove Tuesday.

Bracknell and Southampton have announced several big additions. Catcher James Pearson has joined the Blazers, while the Mustangs will look to go one better this year with the addition of Jose Lopez, Marius Urbanavicius and Steve Petzer. We understand that they have lost their base-running king, Victor Aizpura.

GB Team third-baseman Maikel Azcuy is reported to have made a move to the Essex Arrows

Elsewhere during week two of the HSL the London Marauders produced a staggering comeback as they overcame a 10-run deficit going into the final inning of their HSL game against the Herts Hawks. Some would attribute this partially to the Hawks running out of pitchers at the end, but there is no doubt that the Marauders needed a great deal of clutch hitting to make this possible. The U17 league teams all won. London Mets U17 beta Southampton. The Herts Harriers came out on top in a closely fought 1-run game with the London Musketeers. The Ravens (U19/U17) also picked up a win in their game with Cambridge Royals’ second team.

The unbeaten streak continued for London Mammoths pitcher, John Peters, as his team won convincingly against the Essex Redbacks. The Herts Raptors brought the tying run to the plate but Kent Mariners held on for the win on Saturday.

Click to view the full HSL scoreboard and HSL standings.

The action continues next weekend. 8 HSL games are scheduled at Grovehill Ballpark and they will be followed by the main event, London Mets at Herts Falcons, in their NBL season opening series.

WEAR THE HERTS BASEBALL JERSEY IN 2014

Herts Baseball Club welcomes youth players from 6 to 16 and adult players from 14 to 45+ from complete beginners to experienced ballpalyers. New players can join at any time of the year. For more details on how to give baseball a try contact us.

 

by Herts Baseball News Editor

London teams dominate week one of the HSL


Herts Falcons’ John Blose beats the ball sliding into third base. (photo by Will Baxter)

At the weekend the MLB season got underway with the opening series between the LA Dodgers and Arizona D’Backs at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Australia and so did the Herts Spring League at Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead and Town Mead Ballpark in Waltham Abbey.

With the exception of the biting wind and a ten-minute game delay due to hale, this was the ideal way for British teams to make their pre-season preparations. The weekend had everything from home runs and spectacular fielding plays to walk-off wins and shutouts.


The 4 London teams overpowered their opponents winning all five of their games. On Saturday in the HSL Single-A division, the Marauders and Musketeers won against the Kent Mariners and Herts Raptors respectively. This was the first game for the Musketeers as they prepare for their debut season in the BBF Single-A league. They seemed like a fun group of players with some outstanding heavy-metal hairstyles and facial hair.

On Sunday, the London Mammoths and London Metros continued the winning streak with wins over Southampton Mustangs (AA), Herts Hawks and the Herts Falcons. John Peters continued his incredible streak of remaining unbeaten so far in his pitching career. The streak goes back to last season when he appeared on the British baseball scene like Jimmy Morris of the Tampa Bay Rays as depicted in the movie “The Rookie” starring Dennis Quaid. Last season he was a member of the London Marauders but his performances have pushed him up into the Double-A roster of the London Mammoths. He allowed a home run by GB Team player, Gary Davison, but that didn’t prevent him from picking up the win with a final score 11-7.

The London Metros versus Herts Falcons game was much anticipated as it was an opportunity to see a few of the new arrivals for the two teams. Both teams fielded a mix of NBL and AAA players. The Falcons gave debut to Abelardo Salas (pictured right). The leftie had a good outing on the mound working well with catcher Ryan Bird. Errors in the field proved to be very costly for the Falcons as the Metros went on to win the game convincingly. Herts fans were also able to see Robert Davis for the first time. He impressed driving the ball deep into left field in his first at bat. The ball fell just a few inched short of the home run fence and that was with the wind blowing in the opposite direction. The highlight of the game was 2014 NBL MVP, Ryan Bird, at bat against Pietro Sollecito who had the lowest ERA in the NBL last season. It was a 10-pitch battle which started with Bird driving the ball deep over the right field wall only for the wind to take it to the wrong side of the foul pole. Sollecito came back strong forcing Bird to foul-off a large number of pitches. The at bat ended with a not so dramatic walk but everyone knew that this was a battle of titans. It will be interesting to see them clash again on Sunday, 6 April, as the Mets and Falcons open the 2014 NBL season at Grovehill Ballpark.

Over in Waltham Abbey, Essex Arrows won convincingly in the Essex derby with the Essex Redbacks. The Arrows are expected to be in the thick of the NBL title race this year. Milton Keynes Coyotes picked up a good win against last year’s Single-A national runners-up Haverhill Blackjacks.

Click to view the full HSL scoreboard and HSL standings.

The action continues next weekend with the addition of 6 more teams making an appearance.

WEAR THE HERTS BASEBALL JERSEY IN 2014

Herts Baseball Club welcomes youth players from 6 to 16 and adult players from 14 to 45+ from complete beginners to experienced ballpalyers. New players can join at any time of the year. For more details on how to give baseball a try contact us.

 

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Pre-season rosters announced

The managers of the 5 Herts teams which will be playing in the Herts Spring League over the next 3 weeks have announced their 2014 preliminary rosters for these upcoming HSL games.  We understand that these rosters are not fixed and it is very likely that there may be movement between teams over the course of the HSL.  Some players may be asked to play for more than one team as managers look to evaluate players ahead of the announcement of the 2014 Opening Day rosters.

New players are registering every week, therefore some new names may be added over the course of the HSL and into the league season.

   
   

WEAR THE HERTS BASEBALL JERSEY IN 2014

Herts Baseball Club welcomes youth players from 6 to 16 and adult players from 14 to 45+ from complete beginners to experienced ballpalyers. New players can join at any time of the year. For more details on how to give baseball a try contact us.