The University of East Anglia (UEA) lifted the 2009 University Fall Cup trophy after two gruelling days of baseball played at the home of Herts Baseball Club in Hemel Hempstead.

 

The British baseball season would usually shut down in early September and prepare to hibernate over the winter period, but since the establishment of the British University Baseball Association (BUBA) the baseball calendar in this country has changed and nowadays October-baseball is played in this country too. 

 

This was the second year of the University Fall Cup and the UEA Blue Sox was the team that set the pace from day one winning their first two group games.  First they came out on top in a close game against the Oxford Kings.  They followed this with an 8-4 win against the Nottingham Thieves.  This meant that, regardless of the outcome of their final group game against Southampton on Sunday, they had booked their place in Sunday’s Final.

 

In the final round of group games Nottingham came up against Oxford.  Both teams came into this game knowing that they needed to win to reach the Final against UEA.  This turned out to be an epic battle.  With time running out, Oxford went into the bottom of the fifth inning with what appeared to be a comfortable 5-3 lead with starter Paul Boland still on the mound for Oxford and keeping Nottingham’s offense quite.  Despite this the Thieves somehow managed to score two runs on 1 hit and 2 errors.  This took the game into extra innings with the scores tied 5-5.  Oxford again took the lead on a sacrifice fly by starting pitcher Boland to drive in Chris Hayes.  This did not discourage Nottingham.  They came back again in the bottom of the inning and Maurice Lessing was the man to deliver the final blow with a walk-off 2 RBI double. 

 

This nerve-wracking game must have taken its toll and the UEA Blue Sox took full advantage in the Final.  They pounced on the previously invincible Nottingham pitcher, George Lintern, with a phenomenal hitting display which produced 21 runs on 22 hits.  UEA starter, Gary Ward, picked up the win pitching a complete game allowing only 3 earned runs and 4 hits, striking out 6 Nottingham batters in the process.

 

More images from the 2009 University Fall Cup at Herts

View the 2009 University Fall Cup Leaders

 

GROUP GAMES

Southampton 5  Oxford 6

Nottingham 16  Southampton 3

Oxford 4  UEA 6

UEA 8  Nottingham 4

Oxforf 6  Nottingham 7

UEA 5  Southampton 12

 

STANDINGS

UEA (2-1)

Nottingham (2-1)

Southampton (1-2)

Oxford (1-2)

 

BRONZE MEDAL GAME

Oxford 7 Southampton 13

 

FINAL

UEA 21  Nottingham 4

 

 

 

 

 

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BOX SCORES – FINAL, 2009 UNIVERSITY FALL CUP

 

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UEA Blue Sox at Nottingham Thieves
Score By Innings	1	2	3	4	5	R	H	E
UEA Blue Sox	4	1	0	1	15	21	22	3
Nottingham Thieves	0	0	0	2	2	4	4	9

UEA Blue Sox 21, Nottingham Thieves 4
UEA Blue Sox					Nottingham Thieves
	ab	r	h	bi		ab	r	h	bi
Robbie Jones cf	5	4	3	2	Maurice Lessing 2b	3	1	0	1
Ed Waller lf	5	3	4	2	Luke Goddfrey cf	3	0	1	1
Shing Kwok ss	5	2	2	2	George Lintern p	2	1	1	0
Gary Ward p	4	3	2	2	Francisco Funes c	3	1	1	1
Mark Gould c	5	2	2	0	Dave Smith ss	2	0	0	0
Sam Rounce 3b	5	1	3	1	Zenhar Marolia 3b	2	0	0	1
Matt Goldspink rf	5	2	3	1	Shay Sharma 1b	2	0	0	0
Sam Southwood 2b	3	2	1	0	Rich Edwards lf	2	1	1	0
Sam McIver 1b	4	2	2	2	Simon Byrne rf	1	0	0	0
					(b5) Rori Burnard rf	0	0	0	0
TEAM TOTALS	41	21	22	12	TEAM TOTALS	20	4	4	4

E: Shing Kwok, Gary Ward, Sam McIver, Dave Smith(5), Luke Goddfrey, Maurice Lessing, Zenhar Marolia, Rich Edwards. LOB: Nottingham Thieves 3, UEA Blue Sox 7. 2B: Sam Rounce, Matt Goldspink, Francisco Funes. 3B: Ed Waller. SB: Shing Kwok, George Lintern(2), Maurice Lessing.

UEA Blue Sox	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Gary Ward W	5.00	4	4	2	2	6
Nottingham Thieves
George Lintern L	5.00	22	21	10	1	3

HBP: by George Lintern (Gary Ward). WP: George Lintern. PB: Francisco Funes. T: 1:45. A: 48.

 

Herts Baseball Club has been selected as the host of the 2009 University Fall Cup, which will take place over the weekend of 17-18 October 2009. 

 

This is a competition organised by the British University Baseball Association (BUBA).  BUBA is the governing and regulatory body responsible for all university and college baseball played throughout the United Kingdom. Founded in 2007 as a means of making university baseball more efficient and effective, BUBA has grown into a large organisation responsible for large numbers of players, and all official university competitions.

 

This is the second year of the University Fall Cup.  In order to cope with the expanded BUBA membership, the late October competition has had to be split into two separate events. Tier 1, also referred to as the Fall Cup, will feature the top university baseball teams in the country – Nottingham, Southampton, Oxford, UEA and rising stars Leeds and they will battle it out at the home of Herts Baseball Club in Hemel Hempstead.  The Tier 2 competition, named the Fall Shield, includes Brighton, Lincoln, Imperial University, Sheffield and Warwick and it will take place one week later at University of Nottingham’s Grove Farm Park.

 

Due to the odd number of teams competing, and the restricted time in which to compete, a novel system of competition has been developed.

 

Each team will be assigned a seeding based on their most recent performances in student competition and will play two games on the first day.  The standings after the first day will decide who plays who for what on day two.

 

The fourth (P4) and fifth (P5) placed teams on day one will face off in an elimination playoff with the winner going through to face first placed team (P1) in the first semi-final. The second semi will be contested between the third (P3) and fourth (P4) placed team from day one.  The two semi-final winners will go through to compete for the championship whilst the loser of semi-final 2 will go on to face the loser of the earlier elimination game.

 

Day 1 (Sat, 17 Oct)	Diamond 1			Diamond 2
1100 – 1245	S1	@	S3	S2	@	S4
1300 – 1445	S3	@	S4	S5	@	S1
1500 – 1645	S5	@	S2
Day 2 (Sun, 18 Oct)	Diamond 1			Diamond 2
1100 – 1245 – Elim	P5	@	P4
1300 – 1445	W Elim	@	P1	P3	@	P2
1500 – 1645	W SF 2	@	W SF 1	L Elim	@	L SF 2

 

The games will be played at Grovehill Ballpark, which is the home of Herts Baseball Club.  The second baseball diamond is currently being resurfaced in preparation for the 2010 season, but a temporary diamond will be created for this event.

 

There is no Herts team in this competition, but Herts Baseball Club would find it very difficult to remain a neutral host as Herts’ number 46, Yuchih Lin, will be representing Southampton University.  So far this one weekend, Herts fans will be supporting Southampton.  Lin was one of the most consistent performers for the Herts Falcons in the National Baseball League this year.  He ended the year with a very impressive batting average of .342 (2nd among Herts Falcons), joint Herts Falcons RBI leader (15).   He was also the NBL leader in plate appearances (88).

 

All fans are welcome at Grovehill Ballpark for two days of exciting baseball.  Hot and cold beverages and snacks will be available for fans to enjoy.  For more details contact Herts Baseball Club