Category: Headlines

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Hawks suffer second loss of the season

Louis Hare recorded 8 strikeouts and allowed only 4 earned runs in 9 innings but it wasn't enough for the Hawks

The Herts Hawks hosted the Poole Piranhas after a two-week hiatus due to lack of rain, according to the ongoing hose-pipe ban policy. The old diamond at Grovehill, which is historically resilient to bad weather, was playable (bar a swimming pool in the visitor’s dugout, but, according to Hawks Co-Manager, Greg Bochan, “That’s why it is called the Visitors’ Dugout”.

Hawks were lucky enough to have several players on secondment, including Louis Hare, Kim Saionji, Arnie Longboy and Zach Longboy, and they were all needed. Despite getting off to a shaky start that resulted in the Piranhas taking a 5-0 lead in the first inning, Hare settled down on the mound (i.e. warmed up) and kept the Piranhas from getting away with the game. Unfortunately, the Piranhas’ pitcher was also on top form, throwing a lot of strikes and mixing in some knee-buckling curves with a difficult to hit fastball, and his defence, in particular the Poole short stop, held firm behind him. Auchterlounie, Saionji, Hare and later Zach Longboy all were able to get base hits off him, but the rest of the Herts bats were kept quiet and the first Hawks’ run came in after 4 innings.

Matt Johnston could be out for 4 to 6 weeks with a hamstring injury

The Hawks’ task was made more difficult when outfield dynamo Matt Johnston suffered a hamstring injury while attempting to steal second base. He had to be carried to the dugout and subsequently to the car park. The Hawks team will be hoping for his speedy recovery. Zach Longboy came in to replace him and did a great job, getting a base hit, but despite providing a creditable performance, turning a couple of double plays and staying in the game, Herts were unable to overcome the 5-run first inning deficit. The game finished Piranhas 9, Herts Hawks 4.

Click to view box scores and play-by-play

Herts Hawks Co-Manager, Greg Bochan, felt that the Piranhas deserved the win. He said: “In the first inning there were a lot of cobwebs being knocked off by Louis who hasn’t pitched in a long while. On top of that there were a few errors. This gave Poole a 5-run lead. After the first inning we started to settle into the game and it was pretty close from there on in. Poole had really good pitching and they held on for the win.”

The Hawks travel to the Kent Mariners next Sunday, 13 May 2012. They will need the missing members of their team to be back quickly and return to winning ways if they want to stay in the race for the postseason playoffs.

by Herts Baseball News Editor

This Saturday’s youth league games cancelled

A confirmation has just been received that the BBF U17, U14 and U11 league games scheduled at Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead this Saturday, 5 May 2012, have been cancelled. 

A club spokesperson indicated that “the ballpark is still waterlogged and is still unplayable. There have been several inspections of the venue over the last 48 hours and there is still a significant amount of standing water.”

This comes after it was confirmed this week that this has been the wettest April since records began. This is the third consecutive week of cancellations of youth league games which is causing a major disruption to the league schedule, but the hope is that the baseball season can resume next week.

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Falcons, Hawks and Raptors games rained out

FALCONS @ METS

It has just been confirmed that the Herts Falcons visit to Finsbury Park for their NBL double-header versus the London Mets has been postponed due to rain.

The Falcons’ last game was the visit to the Southampton Mustangs on 15 April, they rest next weekend and return to NBL action on May 13 on the road at the Lakenheath Diamondbacks. This means that they would not see a competitive at bat for a total of 28 days. This is not ideal and the continuing wet weather is threatening to affect the Falcons’ training schedule as well.

hertsbaseball.com understands that the Harlow Nationals vs Southampton Mustangs games have also been postponed which means that the Falcons will remain joint top of the NBL standings after this weekend with 5 wins and 1 loss, same as the Nationals.

REDBACKS @ HAWKS and OLD TIMERS @ RAPTORS

The games scheduled at Grovehill Ballpark tomorrow, 29 April, have also been postponed.  Hawks games versus the RedBacks and the Old Timers visit to the Raptors will be rescheduled and be played later in the year.

This means that the rain has wiped out every single game involving Herts youth and adult league teams this weekend.

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Eagles game in Brighton has been postponed

The Herts Eagles were scheduled to play their first league game on the road this Sunday with a trip to Pavilion Field in Brighton to face the A League expansion team which has been imaginatively named, Hove Tuesday. It has just been confirmed that the game has now been postponed and will be played later in the year.

Hove Tuesday entering the league this year was a very positive development not just because of the growth of the British baseball league, but also because this meant that one of the best baseball venues in the country has found a new tenant and teams will once again be able to play there.

Guess the year of this National League Final played at Pavilion Field in Brighton?

For many years the showpiece end-of-season National Championships were held at Pavilion Field. The facility features top specification dugouts, and had one of the best playing surfaces in Great Britain. In the early 2000s it was the home of the Brighton Buccaneers. The club folded but thankfully the Burgess Hill Red Hats moved in to ensure that the facility kept going. They too folded just a few years later which meant that Pavilion Field was left without a baseball tenant. There was a real fear that this wonderful baseball facility will be lost as local authorities could have converted it to be used by another sport.

It looks like the future of Pavilion Field is now secure once again with Hove Tuesday taking some very positive steps. Similar to Herts, Hove Tuesday also received funding from BSUK not only to bring the diamond to its former glory, but also to create additional baseball and softball fields.

The Herts Eagles will be looking forward to making the trip to Brighton later in the year to play this weekend’s rained out A-League game.

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Falcons off the DL. Could fans be placing bets on NBL games soon?

British Baseball has been paralysed by what seems to be endless waves of rain which has drenched the British Isles over the last two weeks. The prolonged period of rain started as soon as the authorities introduced a hose-pipe ban. Many of this weekend’s league games have already been rained out.

There is no decision yet about the biggest game of the season so far for the Herts Falcons (5-1). They are scheduled to travel to Finsbury Park to face the London Mets (3-1) this Sunday. The team from the capital is seen as one of the favourites in the National Baseball League (NBL). A win for Herts could give them some breathing space at the top of the standings. A sweep for London and they will overtake Herts.

  

On the eve of this massive game, the Herts Falcons have had some good news with confirmation that 2011 MVP, Mahendra Prasad, has been added to the roster after spending the last four weeks on the DL with a knee injury. Another player who is working his way back to recover from injury is catcher Dave Westfallen. He missed the whole of the 2011 season with a persistent shoulder injury. Since the end of last season Westfallen has had fantastic news with the birth of his son and it also looks like his shoulder is recovering well. He is targeting the end of May to return to full fitness and may start with a few games with the Herts Hawks in the AA League before considering a return to the Falcons roster.

Falcons outfielder Jamie Munn has also had to miss the start of the season with an elbow problem, but Falcons Manager, Lee Manning, is hoping that Munn will be back to full fitness in the next few weeks.

With the positive news of players coming off the DL and the club’s new signings making their debuts this month, the Falcons will soon be back to full strength and fans of the club will have the opportunity to see the team firing on all cylinders. But at the moment all eyes are on the skies above.

Fans of the NBL will be interested to know that the league scores now appear on a sports website where various betting companies offer odds for sports fans to place their bets. The fields which are intended to show the betting odds for upcoming NBL games are currently blank but it would be interesting to see whether betting companies start to cover the NBL as part of their wide range of betting markets.

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Rain claims another casualty

The ongoing rain over the last few weeks has taken its toll on baseball fields around the country and another event has now been rained out.

All Herts youth teams were scheduled to travel to Forest Glade in Essex this Saturday for their first league games on the road. However, the Essex RedBacks have confirmed that their field is completely waterlogged at the moment and there is absolutely no chance of the water drying out in time for Saturday’s games.

This is very unfortunate as the RedBacks had put so much work to make this a very special event. It was going to include the official opening of the RedBacks’ second diamond with special guest Josh Dubovie who is a former Eurovision star. Dubovie was scheduled to perform a few hits and the national anthem before throwing out the inaugural first pitch.

The event has now been cancelled officially.

Baseball is not the only sport suffering at the moment. Large horse racing events and other sports are experiencing postponements. Hopefully the weather will improve and we will be able to resume the baseball season soon.

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Herts youngsters receive call-up to Great Britain Team

 

The Herts U17 Team will miss 3 of its players in the last few weeks of the regular season due to GB Team call-ups for the tour of Canada

The Great Britain National Team has confirmed that three members of Herts have been selected in the GB Under-16 National Team to travel for a series of games in Canada with another three Herts players staying in the UK for games with the GB U16 Team to be held around the UK this summer.

A total of six Herts players were part of the GB Under-16 National Team preliminary roster for GB Team pre-season training and games. Carlos Casal Jr, Marty Cullen Jr and Tom Everex-Armstrong will be part of the group of British players which will be representing the country in a gruelling games schedule in Eastern Canada between 12 and 22 July.

Brodie Caress, Callum Vangundy and Jose Morillo, for whom this is a first year with the GB setup, will continue their involvement with the GB Under-16 team in friendly games scheduled this summer which do not clash with the Under-17 and Under-14 British League schedule.

The progress of Herts players with the GB teams is a tremendous boost for Herts as an organisation. The Club is even more excited by the fact that there are many more talented players coming through the various age groups of the Herts youth system, from the U-11 and U-14 teams through to the U-17 age group. The opportunity is there for any young players who want to get involved in baseball to progress and wear the GB Team jersey. But you don’t have to be a GB National Team player to play baseball. Any interested players, boys and girls between 6 and 16 years of age, from complete beginners to advanced players can join the Herts baseball youth teams (click here for more details).

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Bases loaded for 9th inning comeback but Eagles fail to pull trigger

You are not going anywhere - Glen Downer holding a Mavericks runner at first base

British Baseball A-League

Guildord Mavericks 22

Herts Eagles 19

report by Duncan Hoyle

Guildford Mavericks held off a late surge from Herts Eagles to record their second successive win, in a competitively played game at Grovehill Ballpark. 

The Eagles got off to a dreadful start, due to a combination of aggressive baserunning, good hitting from Guildford and some poor fielding to find themselves 7-0 down after the 1st inning. However starting pitcher Theo Scheepers began to find his range, and the Eagles offence started to get some hits to make the score 14 – 5 after 4 innings. 

With the possibility of the Eagles falling foul to the mercy rule, manager Duncan Hoyle made some changes at the end of the 4th, bringing in Zack Longboy as relief pitcher, experienced first base man Glen Downer and Ben Marques, who replaced the injured catcher Oz Kemal. 

Longboy settled in quick and went on to pitch until the end of the game, only conceding 1 run in the 6th and shutting out the Guildford offence in the 7th to allow the Eagles to get back into the game. Strong hitting from Joseph Osborne-Brade, Ben Marques and Zack Longboy brought the Eagles within touching distance. 

Dave Ames dodging an inside pitch on Sunday against Guildford

With the Eagles now having comfortably avoided the mercy rule, the game progressed into the 9th inning, Guildford had added a few more runs to lead 22 – 17. With the Eagles needing 5 to tie and take the match into an extra inning, Marques and Longboy both scored to bring the Eagles within 3. Theo Scheepers looked to have saved the game for the Eagles when he smashed a shot to deep centerfield, however the centerfielder made an excellent catch to keep the runners on base. The Guildford pitcher who had pitched the whole game must have been feeling the pressure, but he kept his cool as it came down to Tak Ashida to try to hit the walk off grand slam, but in giving it his all he could only manager to sky the ball to the third baseman who made the catch and secure the win for Guilford. 

The Eagles travel to the magnificent Pavilion Field in Brighton for their first away game of the season to face Hove Tuesday on Sunday, 29 April (first pitch 12:00).

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Depleted Hawks squad runs out of pitchers in late innings at Croydon

Starting pitcher Liam Green allowed only 2 earned runs and struck out 6 Pirates over 4 innings

The Herts Hawks went into their second game of the season with 14 regular players missing. Despite a valiant effort from the team, the Croydon Pirates picked up the win to go top of the AA League.

Inning
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
R
H
E
Herts
0
3
2
0
2
2
0
9
7
10
Croydon
1
5
0
0
2
6
5
19
8
2

Among the 14 missing Hawks members were the two co-managers, Andy Cornish and Greg Bochan, and so Falcons player and Herts Under-17 Team Manager, Cris Hiche, was in charge and had the difficult task of assembling a team. There were seven changes in the Hawks starting lineup compared to the nine players who started against the Richmond Dragons on Opening Day last week. Only Tim Elkins, Jon lewys and Ilya Dimitrov were part of the Hawks roster. The remaining squad featured players from across the whole Herts organisation, from U17 players Liam and Lewis Green, to Falcons’ Lee Manning, but the majority were members of the Herts Raptors whose A-League game versus the RedBacks was postponed.

Despite this the boys from Hertfordshire managed to get back in the game after trailing 6-3 at the end of the second inning. Hits from Liam Green (2-4 SB), John Kjorstad (1-3), Seth Lipstock (1-2 2BB 2SB), Amit Odedra (1-3 SB), and Lee Manning (1-3) helped the Hawks to stay in touch. They scored two runs in the top of sixth to take a 9-8 lead, but their depleted pitching staff was starting to get tired.

Croydon took full advantage scoring 11 runs in the next two innings to clinch a 19-9 victory and maintain their 100% record in the league this season.

Stand-in manager Cris Hiche felt that “both teams played well which resulted in a close game, which may not be obvious from the final score”. He added “it came down to which rotation was going to get tired first. Croydon’s pitcher was tired at the end but was able to close us down. On the other hand, our pitcher got tired and left some balls up in the strike zone and they were able to capitalize on it with some timely hits. Credit to Croydon, but we will be looking to get a victory next time we face them”.

The Hawks will hope to bounce back next Sunday, 29 April, at home against the Essex RedBacks.

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Raptors pick up a win without throwing a pitch

British Baseball A League

Essex RedBacks 0 Herts Raptors 9 (forfeit win)

The Herts Raptors’ opening league game of 2012 at home against the Essex RedBacks was postponed at the request of the Essex RedBacks. The game was scheduled for 1pm on Sunday, 22 April, however 24 hours before that the Raptors received a request from the RedBacks to postpone the game. The game will be recorded as a forfeit win for the Raptors but the Raptors would have preferred to earn the win on the field of play.

Next up for the Herts Raptors is another home game on Sunday, 29 April. This time they will welcome the Old Timers who have always been a tough nut to crack.