After a solid start to the season at Grovehill, the Herts Raptors took their season on the road in the past two weeks, writes Rob Jones. They were disappointed by the results, coming up short on long trips to Kent and to Norfolk.

This Sunday saw a visit to the Norwich Iceni, who are playing their first season in the BBF leagues. The team was undefeated so far in Single-A, and clearly posed a strong challenge.

A few Raptors players made the trip a day early, to settle in and sample the Norwich nightlife. Some Iceni players graciously helped them do that, and clearly a fine time was had by all. So what would Sunday bring?

Herts set themselves up well in the first inning, with runners on the corners and one out. But slick handling of an infield grounder meant the runner on third got tagged out, and a fly-out ended the threat.

The second inning was a similar picture – good contact but no runs. Steve Patmore got the first of two hits on the day before being stranded on the bases, and Giuseppe Basilea’s giant drive was caught on the warning track.

But Herts were holding their own defensively. Norwich scored only one run in the first. Matt Jackson made an astonishing running catch in centre field.

In the second, an unassisted double play from third baseman Ben Sinclair limited the damage with the bases loaded. He snared a hard hit liner and stepped on the bag. Again, Norwich scored only one.

As the game went on, second baseman James Emblow and first baseman Basilea were the defensive stars for the Raptors. They combined for a series of crucial plays.

But, come the third inning, Herts could not hold back their hosts any more. The Iceni put 12 runs on the board with booming hits to the outfield. In fact, even their infield mishits did not hurt them, as they were always half a step faster than the Herts infield.

For Norwich, Adam Ray went 4-for-4 with a double, while Tom Thornhill drove in 3.

It ended in a mercy rule victory for Norwich, 16-1. Manager and starting pitcher Paul Barton scored the only Herts run of the game, driven in by Steve Patmore.

A week earlier in Kent, a somewhat depleted Raptors squad had made a good start against the Mariners. The two teams had met in the Herts Spring League, with the Raptors coming off best on that occasion.

Kent were 1-2 going into this game — including a loss to the Norwich Iceni – and the teams appeared evenly matched.

Raptors capitalised on a series of first inning walks issued by the Mariners starting pitcher. Catcher Rob Jones got the first hit, driving in 2 runs, and in all the Raptors scored 6 to jump out in front.

But the Mariners came back strongly, tying the game up by the end of the third. Jose Valero was their offensive powerhouse on the day, going 4-for-6, with 3 RBIs. David Ratcliff hit a double and got the win in relief.

After the see-saw opening innings, the game did settle down into an even and quality contest. It went all nine innings before Kent claimed a 19-13 win, and the score for the final five innings was a tight 6-4.

Left fielder Michael Johnson got 3 RBIs for Herts, while Darren Butterworth went 3-for-5 with the bat as well as striking out two in his pitching debut. James Emblow and Giuseppe Basilea could again be pleased with their performance in the field.

Acting manager for the day, Rob Jones, doffed his cap to Kent. “It all came together for them today, and we just couldn’t pull it back. Some of our guys did great work though, and that helps us a lot going forward.”

The road trip drops the Raptors back to 2-4 on the season so far. They return to Grovehill this weekend to take on the Cambridge Royals.

 

It was a weekend of offensive fireworks for the Herts teams, perhaps inspired by the surprise arrival of some Spring sunshine. Five home runs and three wins were put in the bank.

Let’s start in Single-A, and start with a question. When was a Herts Raptors batter last given an intentional walk? And if you can answer that one, here’s another — when was the last time a Raptors batter was intentionally walked twice in the same game?

It was a fitting reward for a dominant offensive display by Ben Sinclair in Sunday’s home game against the Old Timers. His first at-bat produced an inside-the-park home run, the second a triple.

Before the third he mused about whether to aim for the cycle, and it was suggested that two home runs would look better on the write-up. It seems that Sinclair was listening, as he hit another inside-the-parker.

He reached on an error on his fourth plate appearance, but hit the ball hard so the Old Timers did not pitch to him again.

This all suggests a rosy picture for the Raptors’ day in the sun at Grovehill, but actually they had started the game poorly. The Old Timers hadn’t managed to get a full team to the field, but the players they did have struck hard in the first two innings.

A handful of Herts defensive errors, and too much pressing at the plate, combined to give the visitors a 7-1 lead after two innings. The Old Timers were looking to make their experience pay.

Sinclair drove in three of the first four runs for the home team, but as the game went on more of the young Herts talent settled down and started to deliver, too.

Centre-fielder Michael Johnson went 4-for-6 with three RBIs, and was just a home run short of the cycle. The story was pretty much the same for Tom Carson, making his first ever appearance as catcher, whose four hits included a single, double and triple.

Veteran Arnie Longboy was doing sterling work on the pitching mound. A day after he played for Herts first ever softball team, the Buzzards, in their maiden competition, he threw over a hundred pitches for the Raptors.

He struck out four and walked only three before handing the ball over to Ben Sinclair for the final innings. Longboy helped his own case with four hits, and stayed in the game after an injury as the home side was also pretty short on players.

With improved defense, the Raptors made their superior numbers pay — and perhaps their youth, too. They scored runs in bunches in the second half of the game.

It ended 21-14 to the home side and the Raptors now move to 2-1 on the season.

Rob Jones, the stand-in manager for the day, paid tribute to the performance: “It was great to see the team come back from a bad start. Instead of getting down, they had confidence in their abilities and turned things around.”

Up in the AA-league, the Herts Hawks were stretching out their year-long winning streak to 22 games. Gilberto Medina hit the team’s first home run of 2017 to help them to a 22-6 win at the Guildford Mavericks.

 

The Hawks’ joint manager, Greg Bochan, was back on the mound for the first time since the epic Single-A final at Farnham Park last year. On his return from a knee injury, he pitched a complete game and took the win.

The Herts Falcons of the National Baseball League were playing at home at Grovehill, hosting the London Capitals. A home run from Moises Velazquez was the big blast early in the first game to give Herts the lead.

It was tied at two apiece by the bottom of the fourth inning, when the Falcons scored six to blow it open. It ended 9-4. Young South African phenom Tyler Badenhorst got the win, with Darren Meintjes getting the save.

Cris Hiche drove a no-doubter over the fence at the start of game 2 of the double-header. But the Capitals came back, and a 2-run homer from their Ben Mercal in the top of the fifth gave them the lead.

The Falcons fought hard but came up short in this one, losing 7-5. They are now 3-6 on the year, and travel to Brighton next.

Some races are tight. Some go right down to the wire, and beyond it. And sometimes two deserving winners can’t be separated.

After a year which saw the Herts Raptors reach their greatest ever heights, the players have voted for two team-mates to share the MVP award for 2016 – Matthew Jackson and Michael Cresswell.

Matt made his first appearances for the Raptors last year, as they came together as a new force in the second half of the season. This year he swiftly became a rock in centre-field, addressing one of the team’s great needs with a series of crucial outfield catches.

His batting also became a potent weapon for the Raptors, and he rose to the the occasion in the playoffs. Matt went 3-for-4 in the visit to Tonbridge, hitting a triple for the first big Herts blow. He hit two more triples in the losing effort against the Hawks.

Enjoyable

For joint manager Michael Cresswell it is his second career MVP award. He helped lead the team to the post-season; batted a rumoured .800; picked up his first career pitching win; and was nominated for play of the year.

Mike has been an increasingly important part of the Herts baseball family since he came on board in 2012. He was MVP of the Herts Raptors in 2014, and Best Pitcher in 2015. But he has called the 2016 season “the most enjoyable ever”.

Voting had to be extended in the MVP race because of the tie, and then had to be extended again. We don’t know the full details, due to intense secrecy, but it’s clear there were heroes a-plenty for voters to choose from in the Raptors year.

It started in May with a visit to the London Musketeers, the beaten semi-finalists in 2015. The Raptors won this one 7-3, and for players schooled in the slugfests of Single-A it was possibly the most high-quality game they’d ever been part of.

The new pitching ace Matt Corran was the hero here, racking up strikeouts after emerging in late 2015 as a force. But Michael Cresswell was crucial on this day, too, earning his Play of the Year nomination for an unassisted double play which snuffed out a London threat at a critical time.

Sparkling shortstop

The season saw more wins, then progressed to Haverhill for an epic victory which showed the renewed fighting spirit in the team as well as the talent.  Matt Jackson polished his reputation for excellent outfield catches in this game, including saving a home run and securing the final out.

Joint manager Paul Barton picked up his first career pitching win in this game, and started 4-for-4 with the bat. He would go on to have another tremendous season in all parts of the field, building on his 2015 MVP win.

In a blowout defeat against Essex in May, young Aaron Witter had started his bid to be a Raptors hero. After a wobbly bit of pitching, he switched to shortstop and sparkled. The managers took immediate notice.

In a home game against London in July he was the pick as starting shortstop. His first play of the game was a major-league style backhand stop and a powerful throw to nab the runner. Aaron’s hero status would grow in the playoffs, and his contributions throughout the year have earned him the Rookie of the Year Award for the Raptors in 2016.

The team secured their place in the post-season with a win over Essex Archers at Grovehill. Mike Cresswell capped it all with a walk-off, inside the park grand slam home run to secure the 26-11 victory.

OK, so maybe the “official scorer” wouldn’t have chalked it up as a home run. But the “official scorer” doesn’t write stories like this.

And he couldn’t have written the story of the Raptors’ playoff win over the defending Single-A champions, Tonbridge. The fixtures were changed late, with Herts switched to what clearly looked a more daunting tie.

Crucial catch

They were playing away. They had only 9 players. One of them drove more than 200 miles to get there. Another had only just had laser eye surgery.

But Herts won this 23-18, and wrote history.

The youngest guy on the team, Aaron Witter, drove in a fistful of runs and pitched brilliantly for the save in the tensest of circumstances. The oldest regular, Rob Jones, made what was probably the most crucial catch of his life as he secured the second out of the ninth inning with a sliding infield grab.

Cresswell and Barton were again superb, with the latter turning in his finest ever pitching performance. Jim Arnott, who had become an important relief pitcher as well as a constant hitting threat, was masterful. And Jackson again made the final catch, deep in the outfield.

The Raptors’ playoff run ended at the hands of the eventual national champions, the Herts Hawks, in a game which was tight until the Hawks ran away in the sixth. But overall, 2016 has to be recorded as a “win”.

It it was a season in which so many had played a role, too many to mention. Michelle Johnson made a great impact after a long layoff from the club; while Darren Priest was an invaluable clubhouse presence.

But the Raptors have now voted and the men deservedly holding the MVP trophy are Michael Cresswell and Matthew Jackson.

The other Herts adult teams — the Hawks and Falcons — will announce their own awards in the coming days. The club as a whole will also hand out awards for the Play of the Year and the very opposite, the Nob Out Award, given for a moment of baseball-related foolishness.