Category: Adult Leagues

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Hawks lose to the Sidewinders in a closely-fought battle

This was a fast-moving game with 9 innings completed in 2 hours and 20 minutes

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.

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Herts Hawks one win away from qualifying for Playoffs

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.

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Herts almost pull-off the great escape in a wild game versus Oxford

Carlos Velasco-Carus was red-hot going 5-for-8 with 4 RBIs

Herts fans enjoyed the Home Run Derby on Saturday and it seemed like the hit-fest continued 24 hours later in the AAA League matchup between the Herts Ravens and the Oxford Kings. Oxford’s Jorge Machado hit two home runs over the two games of the doubleheader in a 7-for-9 day with an amazing 13 RBIs.

To put 13 RBIs into perspective, Jorge had more RBIs in these two games than any of the Ravens players this season (18 games) before the start of the day. Herts youngster Liam Green responded with a home run of his own over the left-centerfield wall.

Game 1: Oxford Kings 14 Herts Ravens 12 (click to view box scores)

Both games started with the Kings taking control early and seemingly cruising to a victory, but Herts came close to pulling off two amazing comebacks. In the first game they came back from 10-3 down to bring the game to 14-12 with the tying run at the plate, but pitcher Masahara held on for the complete game win.

Game 2: Oxford Kings 14 Herts Ravens 12 (click to view box scores)

The comeback in game two was just as dramatic. The Kings were leading 6-0 in the fifth inning but Herts responded again making it 12-11 leaving the tying run stranded in scoring position.

The wins keep the Kings in the playoff race, but they need other games to go in their favour if they are going to finish in the playoff zone. The Ravens are out of the postseason race, but they have shown their future potential with many young players who will be dominating the AAA League and maybe even the NBL in the coming seasons.

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by Herts Baseball News Editor

The top game of the weekend switched to Hemel Hempstead

It has just been announced that Sunday’s high-profile game between the Harlow Nationals and the London Mets will be played at Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead, the home of their rival, the Herts Falcons.

The reigning champions, Harlow, are the designated home team for this game, but issues with their home field mean that the game will now be played at Herts.

This means that it will be a busy day at Grovehill Ballpark with 5 league games scheduled, including a difficult game for the Herts Ravens against Oxford and a key game in the AA playoff race for the Herts Hawks as they host the Southampton Mustangs II.

NEW DIAMOND

12:00pm AAA League, (Game 1) Oxford Kings @ Herts Ravens (7 innings)

14:30pm AAA League, (Game 1) Oxford Kings @ Herts Ravens (7 innings)

Umpire: Dave Smith

OLD DIAMOND

11:00am AA League, Southampton Mustangs @ Herts Hawks (9 innings)

Umpire: Marty Cullen

 

2:00pm* NBL (Game 1), London Mets @ Harlow Nationals (7 innings)

4:30pm NBL (Game 2), London Mets @ Harlow Nationals (7 innings)

Umpire(s): TBC

*-starts as soon as Hawks vs Mustangs ends

 

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Herts Home Run Derby with a difference

(Note: Event schedule updated to fit in rained out U17 games from earlier in the season, as London Mets U17 confirmed availability)

The superstars of Major League Baseball gathered in front of a packed Citi Field in New York last week for the annual Home Run Derby as part of the MLB All Star week. This week it is the turn of the Herts Home Run Derby.

Herts Baseball Club has members who play in the five senior baseball leagues, but the club also has the youth team players aged from 6 to 16 as well as softball players and all of them will be competing for the Herts Home Run Champion title. Different outfield fences will be set up for the different teams and age groups reflecting the field distances they play on during their league games. This will mean that, for example, 5-year-old William Morillo will be able to compete against his 15-year old brother Jose Morillo, his father Jose Antonio, and also against Herts Falcons and NBL All Star centerfielder, Cris Hiche.

There will be the added angle of buckets filled with water scattered around the diamond. If a hit ball drops into the bucket the batter will be awarded a free drink from the Herts concessions bar.

EXHIBITION GAMES

The day will begin with an exhibition game between the Herts Harriers and a Herts All Star team featuring players from the club’s five senior league teams. There will be baseball activities for all other age groups before the Home Run Derby as the club welcomes newcomers to the game as part of the Olympics Legacy Festival of Sport in Dacorum Borough.

The day will end with an exhibition softball game involving baseball and softball players as well as parents of the Herts youth team players.

FOOD AND DRINKS

Throughout the event, the concessions stand will be running at full capacity offering hot and cold drinks and various traditional baseball snacks from hot dogs to Big League Chew.

EVENT SCHEDULE

10:00am, Updated: Herts Harriers vs London Mets (New Diamond) U17 League Game

11:00am, Baseball drills and exercises for all age groups, youth and adult (Old Diamond)

12:00pm, Lunch

12:15pm, Home Run Derby (New Diamond)

1:00pm, Updated: London Mets vs Horsham Hornets (Old Diamond) U17 League Game

2:00pm, Exhibition Softball Game

3:00pm, Event ends

VENUE

The event will take place at Grovehill Ballpark, the home of Herts Baseball Club (click for venue address and details)

CONTACT US

If you are not already on the club’s mailing lists contact us for details how to take part in this event. Everyone is welcome – male and female players of all ages.

 

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Is Marques the first British player to hit 2 grand slam home runs in the same game?

On Sunday the Herts Raptors won at the Guildford Mavericks to stay top of the British Single-A League and in the process catcher, Ben Marques, hit two grand slam home runs. For readers who are new to the game, a grand slam is a home run with the bases loaded to score four runs with one swing of the bat.

According to legendary pitchers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine “chicks dig the long ball” (see their Nike video below) and we asked Marques whether he has experienced a surge in interest from females since Sunday. He said “my phone has been ringing off the hook all day and night”.

 

Marques’ achievement is certainly a first for Herts Baseball Club. The club has had the back-to-back-to-back 3-homerun game by Jim Denison in the Herts Falcons vs Cambridge Monarchs AAA League game in 2005, but there have been no Herts players who have hit two grand slam homeruns in the same game.

We are now going through the records to see if this feat has been done by any player in any of the British leagues. We contacted Joe Gray of Project COBB for assistance, who said “from my records for the top tier I have only one instance where two grand slams were clobbered in the same game, but that was by two different players (Robbie Unsell and William Schmitt on 21 August 2011 in a Bracknell Blazers vs Richmond Flames NBL game). I don’t have anything formal for lower league tiers, but I have done a fair bit of reading of old match reports and never come across this occurrence”.

Gray added: “Many congratulations to Ben for a tremendous achievement. I just hope that he does not do a “Tony Cloninger” who hit two grand slams in his entire MLB career, and they came in the same game while playing for the Atlanta Braves in 1966.”

If you have come across a player hitting two grand slams in the same game in Great Britain, we would be interested to know, so please contact us or send us a message via facebook or twitter.

 

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Falcons extend winning streak to 14 to stay top of NBL

photos by Richard Lee (richardleephotography.org)

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.

 

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Ravens unable to stop impressive Metros

The Herts Ravens were not able to upset the odds and lost both games of their doubleheader with the AAA League leaders.

AAA League (Game 1) London Metros 17 Herts Ravens 5 (click to view box scores)

The London Metros produced an impressive hitting display in the first game outhitting the Ravens 16-4. Ten of their 16 hits came in the top of the first inning which produced 13 runs. Herts did well to recover after that, scoring 5 and conceding 4 runs from the second inning onwards, but the early deficit was too much to come back from.

Johan Villanueva hit one of three homeruns for the Metros, but it was lefty centerfielder, Andrew Vargas, who stood out for them batting 4-for-5, with 2 home runs and a double, just missing out on the cycle. His two home runs went deep over the right-centerfield wall falling on the new diamond and interrupting the NBL game between the Falcons and Dbacks which was being played at the same time. Given the power which he displayed on the day, it is surprising to see that he does not have any other home runs so far this season and has only 2 extra base hits over the course of the season. On today’s display he is certainly worth a call up to the London Mets NBL team.

AAA League (Game 2) London Metros 10 Herts Ravens 6 (click to view box scores)

In the second game Herts turned the table on the Londoners taking an early 1-run lead. They were still holding on to a 1-run lead going into the fifth inning. Liam Green was in control on the mound for Herts allowing only 3 hits through the first 4 innings, but in the fifth the Metros produced another devastating inning scoring 5 runs. Herts stayed in touch right to the end with debutants JP Prouty and Matt Bucher contributing both defensively and offensively. London reliever, Johan Villanueva came in to pitch very effective sixth and seventh inning to close the game for the save.

The Herts Ravens will be looking to return to winning ways next Sunday, 28 July, when they welcome the Oxford Kings (first pitch 12pm).

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Herts add two American outfielders

J.P. Prouty with the Grinnell Pioneers

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
by Herts Baseball News Editor

Injury setback for the Falcons

Herts Falcons outfielder and 2012 Home Run leader, Dave Tretheway, has missed a large part of the 2013 season already and the latest medical report is not a good one. Tretheway sustained the ankle injury during winter training maintaining fitness by playing squash. The injury did not heal for the start of the season, but he tried to play a role for the team. The ankle ligament injury did not respond well and he has missed the league games since the trip to the London Mets back in the beginning of May.

He is now scheduled to undergo a reconstructive surgery on two ankle ligaments in September which means that he is unlikely to play again this season.