You can learn a lot of surprising things from following @hertsbaseball on twitter or HertsBaseballClub on facebook.

Sure, you get the latest results from the Herts baseball community, including the Eagles’ recent 31-30 triumph over the Raptors. (As our friends at Southampton Mustangs commented, when did Herts switch to playing American football?)

But you also pick up snippets of news from the baseball world outside the HP postcode area. Such as the story that Prince Harry hit a ball out of the park when visiting a team in New York. Or the revelation that David Cameron has been mugging up on baseball books to prepare for his latest meeting with President Obama. Clearly, we need to sign Harry up for the Raptors, and I’m sure Coach Mike can find a role for the PM as assistant U11 coach.

While those negotiations are ongoing, our existing coaching staff continues its work in developing this promising group of Under-11s. And so to the third game in the Giants v Dodgers series, on 18th May. The series was tied 1-1, after the Giants recorded a 7-6 win the previous week.

This time the Giants were the visitors and first up. On the mound: Alex Trautman. Nicholas Durer got the scoring underway with a triple, bringing Christian Lynch home for an RBI. Three strike-outs later, the Dodgers had a chance to reply, as Lewis Auchterlounie made his pitching debut for the Giants. After Alex Trautman reached on error, Lucas Lebrato hit a line drive to the fence and got right round the bases before the Giants were able to get the ball back to the catcher. 2-1 Dodgers.

Top of the second – Lewis Auchterlounie drove in a double, and Alex Jones hit a single to move Lewis to third. Alex turned to run for second, but was tagged out, although this allowed Lewis to reach home base for the Giants’ second run. After detailed post-game consultations regarding rule 10.04, the scorers, perhaps harshly, declined to grant Alex the RBI in this case.

Christian Lynch pitched the second inning for the Giants. A strikeout and two professional-looking groundouts between third baseman Josh Jones and first baseman Nicholas Durer kept the Dodgers scoreless. 2-2.

Back to the top of the order for the Giants. Nicholas Durer hit another double, and made it to home base on error after a single from Ben Jupp. For the Dodgers, Alex Trautman, Lucas Lebrato, Joe Gipple, Noah Haines and Rory Vangundy all hit singles, resulting in three runs to bring the score to 5-3 Dodgers.

In the fourth, both teams had runners in scoring position but couldn’t add to their totals.

In the fifth and final inning, the Giants hit their stride. With Lucas Lebrato now pitching, Josh Jones singled, and Ben Jupp hit a ground rule double. These two made it home on the next play after a couple of errors in the field, to tie the score. At this point, Lucas had struck out two Giants batters, and the Giants had two runners in scoring position. The match hung in the balance. Then Alex Jones singled for an RBI and the Giants had a one-run lead.

Maybe it was the tension, or maybe a little tiredness was creeping in. But the Dodgers seemed to be losing their edge in the field; a string of errors allowed the Giants to score two more, and load the bases once again. Josh Jones then drove in a two-RBI single, and suddenly the Giants were up 10-5.

This proved too much for the Dodgers, who were scoreless in the final inning under pressure from some accurate pitching from Josh Jones.

The Giants and Dodgers now combine forces to represent Herts in under-11 games at an event in Richmond on Saturday 25^th May. Results for those games, together with other important breaking news stories, will be available on your social network of choice.

Season Statistics

The Herts Harriers knew that they are making good progress over the last few months, but they will feel even more satisfaction now that the improvements are being reflected on the scoreboard and in the league standings.

BBF U17 League: Leicester Blue Sox 0 Herts Harriers 15 (click to view box scores)

They started Saturday’s league action with a win against the Leicester Blue Sox. Brodie Caress pitched a complete game shutout allowing only 2 hits and striking out 8. The team from the Midlands was a little unfortunate to lose their starting pitcher in the early innings with a slight injury, but they recovered well in their second game of the day against Horsham. They are a young team which is making its league debut this season and feature many young players who will have several years in this age group to build a title-challenge.

Herts Harriers Manager, Cris Hiche, felt that the high score in the game versus the Blue Sox does not fully reflect the game “We won the game fairly quickly but that doesn’t mean they’re a bad side. One just needs to see how they turned it around against Horsham. I think for us the key was not to underestimate them and be patient at the plate. All our players did extremely well to follow and stick to our game plan and to be aggressive on the bases.”

BBF U17 League: Herts Harriers 5 Horsham Hornets 2 (click to view box scores)

The last game of the day matched Horsham against Herts. Both teams reached the playoff quarter-finals last season and both will be hoping to go further this year and end the dominance of the London Mets and the Cobham Cougars. The game featured 7 players from the Great Britain U19 and U16 National Teams (Horsham-3, Herts-4) and the GB Senior National Team Head Coach, Sam Dempster, was present, radar-gun in hand, to assess them and the other players from the three teams involved on the day.

GB U16 player, Tom Everex-Armstrong, was the starting pitcher for Herts but before he even stepped on the mound he contributed driving in Callum Vangundy with a single in the top of the first inning. Herts held that 1-0 lead for 2 and 2/3 innings with good pitching and defence. Horsham tied the game with 2 two-out hits by Whitton and Cox in the bottom of the third inning.

Herts regained the lead in the fourth inning on hits from Charlie Mayhew and Tom Jansson-Wright who went 2-for-2 with RBI in this game. Conner Brown came home to extended the lead in the fifth inning. Tom Everex-Armstrong kept going strong on the mound pitching very efficiently retiring Horsham with around 15 pitches per inning. He was substituted after 5 innings allowing only 2 runs and striking out 6. Jose Morillo came in to close the game with a 5-2 lead. He did it in style retiring the batters in order with 2 strikeouts and a groundball out.

“We played a fantastic game against a very difficult Horsham team. Their pitching was really good with their starter throwing 67mph and their reliever 72mph. However, our players showed we aren’t afraid of any pitcher and can manufacture some runs. The game was close but we managed to win it by playing a perfect game in every aspect. I’m very pleased with everybody’s performance and this should give us the confidence to dream big this year.” said Cris Hiche.

With only a few games played so far in the BBF U17 league it is too early to start analysing the standings, but Herts fans will enjoy being tied in first place at the moment.

It was the latest match-up in this old, celebrated fixture. These two teams, local rivals, fought for glory. It was top-of-the-table against bottom-of-the-table. Neutrals sided with the plucky underdogs – could they defy the odds?  It was an hour and a half of intense action, back and forth, no quarter given. But, in the last seconds of the game, the favourites were beaten, by a margin of one.

Yes, the FA Cup Final was a cracking game. But earlier, 15 miles away from Wembley, Grovehill Ballpark witnessed the Giants taking on the Dodgers once again.

We kicked off with practice, focusing on hitting and pitching, together with some infield drills. A smaller group of potential pitchers developed their accuracy on the mound. This year’s effort to entrust pitching duties to the players rather than the coaches seems to be the right call.

The under-14s and under-17s had practice sessions, so we had the use of the new diamond, with the fence pegged out barely beyond the adults’ infield. Aspi manned the public address system, and called out the lineups for us. A huddle comprising the cream of the Herts coaching staff stood watching from the pavilion, joined today by Sam Dempster, Head Coach of the Great Britain national squad. Lesser teams might have been daunted by the pressure. But not our under-11s.

The Dodgers were the visitors today, and first up at bat. Ben Jupp was on the mound. William Morillo got the ball rolling with a single, and before long the Dodgers had two runs on the board after a few fielding errors. Lucas Lebrato hit a line drive for a double to bring home Noah Haines for the third run. But with two runners in scoring position the Giants were able to get the third out to keep the score at 3-0.

In reply, with Lucas Lebrato pitching, the Giants picked up their first run when Ben Jupp singled to bring home Christian Lynch. Lewis Auchterlounie repeated the trick, and Noah Lynch hit another single to load the bases with no outs. The Dodgers were relieved to strike out the next three batters, and the score was 3-2 to the Dodgers at the bottom of the first.

The second inning was scoreless for both teams. Jupp pitched a no-hit second inning for the Giants – two strike-outs and a 4-3 groundout. In similar form, Lebrato allowed only one single in disposing of the Giants.

For the third inning, Christian Lynch took over the pitching role for the Giants. Noah Haines reached first on an error, and Lucas Lebrato continued his good form with the bat, with another double, although he was forced out after he and Noah both tried to occupy third base at the same time. Jonathan Wakelam was the victim of a 1-3 groundout, although Noah Haines made it home on the throw. The Dodgers were retired with a 4-2 lead, though, as Alex Troutman struck out looking, leaving runners on first and third.

The Giants quickly loaded the bases, with a couple of errors and a single from Alex Jones. Christian Lynch then hit a two-RBI single, and Nicholas Durer hit a line drive single to bring Alex Jones home. Ben Jupp then fired a ball to the fence for a double and two further runs. That was the maximum five runs for the inning, and 7-4 to the Giants after three.

Nicholas Durer now came in as pitcher. Joe Gipple and Lucas Lebrato both secured RBIs with singles, to bring the score to 7-6. With two outs, and runners on first and second, Lenny Flavin came to the plate, and hit a fly ball up to Oliver Durer at third base. Oliver dropped it, but kept his head, grabbed the ball from the dirt, and tagged Lucas out at third. And that was the ballgame.

Practice over for the under-17s and under-14s, we had been joined by a trio of older brothers. Callum Vangundy cheered on Rory as he batted. Jose Morillo shouted encouragement at William, and Ben Jones offered ‘advice’ to his little brother Alex. Watching the five to ten year-olds giving it their all, Sam Dempster seemed impressed. As he commented, “everyone starts here”.

Game Summary

Season Statistics:

The Little League World Series has been attracting millions of ESPN viewers over the years. Some of the games draw larger audiences than Major League Baseball games which are being played at the same time. The equivalent example for British sports fans would be if the FA Youth Cup attracted more TV viewers than the Premier League game televised on Sky Sports at the same time.

Every August the best little league teams from across the globe travel to Williamsport Pennsylvania to determine the champions in the different age groups. But before this there are a series of qualification games being played at regional level, moving up to national and then continental qualifying rounds, similar to the qualification process for the football World Cup.

Over the last few years only one team from Great Britain has been entering the Little League Europe and Africa qualifying games. This year it looks like more British baseball clubs will be entering the competition and Herts Baseball Club is one of these organisations which plans to apply for entry.

The fact that more than one British team plans to enter implies that the British representatives in the Europe and Africa qualifying rounds will be decided in an elimination tournament later this year.

In order to comply with the eligibility requirements, Herts baseball Club is beginning the process of registering players for this competition. The club is inviting anyone in the following age groups to contact the club with a view to being added to the rosters.

• Little League “Major” Division for players aged 9, 10, 11 and 12 on 1 May 2013

• Junior League Division for players aged 12, 13 and 14 on 1 May 2013

Those who are outside of these age groups can still contact the club in order to sign up for the regular season with the Herts teams in the appropriate age group.

Herts Baseball Club is able to welcome players regardless of previous experience. Even those who have never played the game before can sign up. The coaching staff will assess all candidates and determine the final rosters. To register or to find out more about this opportunity contact Herts Baseball Club.

It has been confirmed that this summer Great Britain Senior Team Manager, Sam Dempster, will be involved in several sessions with the Herts youth and adult baseball programmes.

Over the years Sam Dempster has always taken time to visit Herts and work with the players and coaches. The club has benefited enormously from this. With support from BaseballSoftballUK and the Great Britain National Team programme this effort will continue this year.

Sam Dempster is expected to make his first visit to Grovehill Ballpark this Saturday, 11 May, when the Herts U17, U14 and U11 teams have training sessions and games. In previous years he has worked closely with the players running practice sessions and clinics. This summer the focus is expected to turn more on work with coaches and their development. This is likely to bring much longer-lasting benefits as coaches are able to pass on that added value to the players for many months and years to come.

Herts Club President, Aspi Dimitrov, said: “Everyone at our club knows coach Dempster. The young kids who he has worked with since 2008 have grown into big and strong athletes and he has played a big role in their development and the success of our club”.

Apart from his role as GB team manager, Sam Dempster, acts as an envoy for Major League Baseball around the world, and is also a member of the coaching staff at the Milwaukee Brewers.

It is not too late for boys and girls aged 6 to 16 to join and take part in these sessions and enjoy the summer of baseball coming up. New payers are joining the club every week throughout the year. For more details about joining the Herts teams contact us.

“With the football season ending we are receiving increasing number of enquiries from football players of all ages interested to play baseball during the summer. The chance to train with GB Team Manager, Sam Dempster, is the baseball equivalent of training with England football manager, Roy Hodgson, and our members realize that they are very fortunate to have this opportunity” said Dimitrov.

Herts Baseball Club is one of the largest baseball organisations in this country and it has teamed up with Sportspace (Dacorum Sports Trust) as part of the National Lottery and Sport England’s Sportivate programme to give male and female players the opportunity to play baseball.

From May until July this year there will be weekly training sessions and games for anyone who is interested to play. Participants are able to take part in these sessions free of charge and all baseball equipment will be provided during these sessions. The first session is this Thursday, 2 May, starting at 6pm.

The project is aimed to attract male and female participants aged 14 to 25 and this age range is the main focus but Herts Baseball Club is able to accommodate any age groups from 6 to 55+ year olds, so the club is encouraging anyone who is interested to get involved.

“Over the last 6 months enquiries from people, young and old, interested to give baseball a try have been coming in at an unprecedented rate.” said Club President, Aspi Dimitrov. “It is difficult to say whether this trend is a result of the increasing baseball coverage in the UK or the release of Oscar-nominated baseball movies like Moneyball, but we certainly want to be in a position to satisfy this demand and welcome everyone who wants to play baseball”. Dimitrov added “We are grateful to the Dacorum Sports Trust and the National Lottery’s Sportivate initiative for helping to fund these open sessions and hopefully by the end of the project we will see a large number of people getting involved in the sport and generally staying fit and healthy”

The sessions will be held at Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead which is one of the best baseball venues in the United Kingdom and over the years has been the preferred venue for the British Baseball Federation’s National Baseball Championships.

For those who enjoy the sessions and feel like playing baseball on a more regular basis, Herts Baseball Club is able to add them to one of its adult or youth league teams at any time of the year. Male and female players, from the age of 6 to 55+ from complete beginners to advanced players are all welcome.

To confirm interest in attending or to find out more about these sessions click here.

Honestly, you’d think I’d have learned by now.

After, what, three seasons of taking my sons to Hemel Hempstead to play baseball, I should be used to the unusual climatic conditions to be found at Grovehill Ballpark.

But on Saturday I stepped outside my front door in North London, sniffed the warm spring air, glanced at the boys in their Herts T-shirts and we drove north. We pulled up at the ballpark, under menacing dark clouds, in temperatures fully fifteen degrees lower than when we left. All around me were better-prepared families with puffa jackets, skiing gloves and thermos flasks.

Aspi gathered us together for the Opening Ceremony, sound system at the ready. In truth, Aspi serves as Herts Baseball President solely so that he can play at being DJ to large crowds. Move over Fatboy Slim… Aspi’s in the house.

The massed ranks of the newly-renamed Herts Harriers, Herts Cardinals, and the two Herts U11 teams assembled on the first base line. With them stood the visiting London Mets U17 team, exchanging puzzled looks. On the horizon, it looked grim. Those dark clouds drew nearer.

The National Anthem was played. Caps were doffed; Americans amongst us placed hand on heart and sang lustily, while the Brits kept quiet and looked vaguely uneasy.  It always seems incongruous to hear “God Save the Queen”, rather than “The Star-Spangled Banner”.  Yet, given the approaching precipitation, a better choice might have been “Hail to the Chief”.

After taking refuge in the changing rooms, we headed off to play the U11 season opener. The under-14s had a practice session, so we had the unusual privilege of playing on the old diamond.

The transfer market has been active during the off season. The Giants traded Alex Trautman in exchange for Nicholas Durer, while Noah Haines also made the switch to the Dodgers. Both teams have benefited from a number of draft picks. For the Giants, we welcome Sebastian Bohn, Lenny Flavin, and the Zneimer trio of Lily, Lexi and Leo. The Dodgers are also proud to announce their new signings – Chloe and Callie Amsterdam, Amber Chisholm and Joe Gipple.

The game was a rain-shortened four inning affair. This season we will have players pitching; after four balls a coach will pitch until the batter is out or gets on base.

With the Dodgers as the home team, Ozan Martin opened the pitching with an impressive display of control, striking out the first three Giants batters.

Christian Lynch pitched first for the Giants, and drew Alex Trautman into flying out to Oliver Durer at shortstop, before William Morillo fell to a 4-3 ground-out, and Jonathan Wakelam struck out swinging.  So 0-0 after the first.

After another two strikeouts, the Giants got bat on ball in the second inning; Nicholas Durer and Lexi Zneimer hit singles, leaving Nicholas on third, but alas Lily Zneimer hit a flyball to Ozan as pitcher to end the inning.

Joshua Jones now took over pitching duties for the Giants. With Ozan Martin and Thomas Garton on base, Noah Haines doubled on a wild throw to bring home Ozan for the RBI. Chloe Amsterdam then stepped up to hit a line drive double for a second run, and her sister Callie singled for another RBI, making it 3-0 to the Dodgers after two.

Alex Trautman now pitched for the Dodgers. With one out, Noah Lynch, Leo Zneimer and Lenny Flavin each hit singles to load the bases. Lewis Auchterlounie drove home one run although Leo was forced out at third. The Giants were denied a second run as Lenny Flavin was tagged out at third base.

With Ben Jupp now on the mound, the Dodgers batters hit their groove, with singles from Joe Gipple, Alex Trautman, Jonathan Wakelam, Ozan Martin, Thomas Garton, Rory Vangundy and Noah Haines. Five runs were scored, which automatically brought the inning to an end.  The scoreboard showed 8-1 to the Dodgers after three, and the Giants had a lot of ground to make up.

New signing Lucas Lebrato pitched the last for the Dodgers, an inning characterized by some strong hitting from Ben Jupp and Joshua Jones. But Lebrato managed to find the strike zone with some good accurate pitching, and finally struck out Nicholas Durer to end the inning as the rain returned. With the score at 8-2, that was the ballgame – no need for the Dodgers to bat again.

All the pitchers on display showed great promise – there will clearly be stiff competition for the coveted All-Starts starting pitcher slot.

Players, coaches and supporters alike deserved three cheers and a warming cup of cocoa (available at a very reasonable price on the concession stand). They call baseball players the “Boys [and girls] of Summer” for a reason – it’s a tough game to play in the cold. We should reassure new players and their families that the sun sometimes shines at Grovehill. But whatever Tomasz Schafernaker may say, always throw a coat in the back of the car.

Giants:

Dodgers:

The Herts Harriers opened their 2013 season in the BBF U17 League against the most difficult of opponents. The London Mets have won the U17 national championship in 2 out of the last 3 seasons and are expected to be one of the main contenders again this year.

Tom Everex-Armstrong started strongly on the mound for Herts maintaining a 2-1 lead going into the third inning, however he appeared to pull a back muscle during one of his deliveries and that took him out of the game. Brodie Caress came in relief and he did well allowing only one earned run, however a series of errors proved to be costly. The Mets took full advantage and took a 7-2 lead.

With a very accomplished pitcher like Taichi on the mound for the visitors from London, this game seemed out of reach for Herts, but they received the boost they needed. Charlie Mayhew led-off the inning and he put up a major fight against Taichi. He managed to get on base with a walk after an epic 11-pitch at bat. From the 11 pitches he saw 8 were with two strikes against him, but he kept fighting off the pitches. A simple walk very rarely brings a team back from a 5-run deficit, but it was the nature of the walk that did it for Herts. The Harriers were back in the game. The players were no longer sitting in desolation. Everyone was up on the dugout fence cheering on the next batter.

That walk led to 5 Herts runs to tie the game 7-7. The Harriers took that momentum into the next inning and took a 9-7 lead going into the last inning. The Mets responded taking a 10-9 lead. In the bottom of that final inning Conner Brown worked a walk and stole his way to third base. Jonny Compton-Weight drove him in to take the game into extra innings with the score 10-10.

Herts Manager, Cris Hiche, had a difficult decision to make. Should he utilise the pitchers he had reserved for the second game of this double-header which would almost certainly have resulted in a loss in game two, or should he save those pitchers for game two and try to win game one in extra innings with less experienced pitchers? Not an easy decision to make. At the end Hiche decided to choose the second option and the gamble didn’t pay off for Herts. The Mets scored 14 runs in extra innings. It must be said that they deserved the win outhitting Herts (9-5), committing less errors (4-5) and allowing less walks (11-17). They also did it with only 8 players.

Click to view box scores of game 1

The weather was becoming worse and the teams and officials agreed to postpone game two, and it is to be rescheduled later in the season. If Cris Hiche had known this, he would have undoubtedly used the starting pitcher designated for game two and the outcome of the game may have been different.

A wild game of baseball which generated a lot of excitement for the spectators and gave us a taste of what can be expected this year. One thing is certain – Herts are firmly in the title-race this season.