written by hertsbaseball.com correspondent, Chris Jones

Growing up on Merseyside I had only the vaguest idea about baseball. It was one of those sports that took place in other countries, like camel-wrestling or wife-carrying races.

I first saw the game when working in Japan. We would take our seats in the stands at the Tokyo Dome to watch the Yomiuri Giants take on the Yakult Swallows (really), and we would drink Asahi, cheer on the players and bang plastic sticks together at appropriate intervals.

Twenty years later I find myself with two half-American sons. Most Saturdays we come to the ballpark, and I watch, score and act as assistant coach. I know the game a little better now, but retain a somewhat sketchy grasp of the rules. Luckily at under-11 level, the intricacies of the dropped third-strike or the infield fly are not central to our games.

Of course, I’ve had to adopt a major-league team. My elder son favours the Mariners, while I cheer on the Boston Red Sox, for no better reason than that they share an owner with Liverpool Football Club. My morning ritual at the office includes dropping in at mlb.com to check the overnight scores; as it happens the Sox are on the road in Seattle as I write. Sometimes the overnight game has been a high-scoring affair, 15-4 or 13-12 after extra innings. Other times, the pitchers have prevailed: 1-0 or 2-1.

But in the Herts Dodgers matchups against the Herts Giants, we leave those pitching duels to the professionals; we believe our crowds turn up to see a festival of hitting. And so it was on Saturday at Grovehill.

The Dodgers took a 2-1 lead into this game, and the Giants were looking to restore parity after narrowly losing to their rivals last week. After some training, including a competitive game of ‘hit the lawn chair from twenty yards’, it was time to play.

The Dodgers fielded essentially the same team as last week, while the Giants rang the changes: the Lynches and Trautmans were unavailable for selection, but back in came Lewis Auchterlounie and Rory Vangundy. The Giants also welcomed Ben Jackson-Preece to the lineup. Both teams also acquired a temporary player from the U14s; Bai Frisby for the Giants and Blake Edwards for the Dodgers.

Unlike the tense encounter of a week ago, this game was one-sided. The Giants were scoreless in the first, while the Dodgers replied with the maximum five runs with no outs. In the second, the Giants picked up a run, but were undone after some good infield play at third base disposed of base runners in two successive plays.

At the bottom of the second, the Giants made two outs, but then allowed a further five runs to end up 10-1 down after two.

The bleak situation brightened up for the Giants in the third: it was their turn to score five runs. But anything the Giants could do, the Dodgers could do just as well, as they batted around and scored another five to take the game to 15-6 after three innings.

In the fourth, the Giants could do nothing to respond to the Dodgers’ clinical fielding, as Oliver struck out and Rory and Alex both grounded out at first. The Dodgers added a run to leave the Giants with the daunting task of hitting ten runs to make the Dodgers bat again. Despite good hits from Bai Frisby and Cameron Manning, this was too big a margin, and the Giants succumbed 16-9.

The coaches feel we are continuing to see signs of improvement in all areas of play. Plenty of batters in this game hit the fences: Cameron, Rory, Bai, Nicholas, Katie, Ozan and Blake. There were a number of neat plays in the infield. And perhaps most importantly, when coach Mike asked if his Dodgers players had enjoyed the game, there was a unanimous shout of ‘yeah!’. You can’t ask for much more.

Picture credit: Aidan C. Siegel

written by hertsbaseball.com correspondent, Chris Jones

Saturday’s skies were clear across Southern England from Penzance to the Wash. Three days on from the summer solstice, the air was hot, heavy, humid. A dog lay on the pavement, motionless but for a pant of the tongue and a flick of the ear. Dragonflies hovered over the river, their faint buzzing the only sound to be heard. In the distance a flag drooped, still, like the pendulum of a long-stopped grandfather clock. The sun was merciless, the black streets baked like the hot charcoal of a barbecue.  Young children took refuge in cool, blue, rippling paddling pools, old women closed their shutters and waited for the cool of evening.

Click here for the scorecast, and choose Replay in the top right corner to follow the game.

The London Mets who are the reigning national champions in the British Under-17 league came to Grovehill Ballpark and continued their devastating run with two wins against the Herts All Stars.

Two weeks ago Herts shocked the league with a win at the Cobham Cougars and they threatened to upset the form book again on Saturday. They took a 5-4 lead against the Mets. Herts starter Marty Cullen Jr had another good outing against a difficult opponent. The team kept in touch with the champions right up to the final inning when they were trailing 9-6, but 7 runs in the top of the sixth inning opened an insurmountable lead for the Mets and they secured the win. Relief pitcher Taichi with the win. Herts recorded 5 hits in this game – Liam Green 2-3, Marty Cullen Jr 2-3 2B, Carlos Casal Jr 1-2 2B.

Click to view box scores and play-by-play from game 1

London started game 2 with pitcher Kazuma on the mound. He showed tremendous control with his fatsball and a nasty curveball which had many players bail out of the batters box only to hear the strike three call by the umpire. Kazuma struck out 11 and didn’t allow a hit all the way into the 4th inning, but with two outs Herts ended the no-hitter. 11-year-old Gavin Peterson received a call up from the Herts U14 team to appear as a pinch hitter against the japanese pitcher who was twice his size. He fought off several pitches and with two strikes drove a line drive over the leaping Mets second baseman for a single. Herts put together a late rally with 3 more hits by Jake Caress, Kyle Lloyd-Jones and Kieran Manning before the end of the game, but Kazuma shut the door for a complete game shutout.

Herts’ starting pitcher Liam Green also did well allowing only 5 hits but the Mets took advantage of another 5 batters reaching base on balls as well as 3 others who reached base after being hit by pitch to establish a commanding 7-0 lead. They scored another 4 in the final inning to complete a convincing win. The game included a home run over the right field wall by Jamie Dix.

Click to view box scores and play-by-play from game 2

The Herts U14 team faced LYBL in a repeat of last year’s U14 National Final. With so many of Herts U14 players from last year moving up into the U17 age group the team is made-up of younger players who may not be able to match the top teams in the league at this stage of their development, but the club hopes that the youngsters will develop over the next few years to challenge for the title.

LYBL won both games convincingly and they move up the standings closing in on second-placed London Sports.

NO-HITTER BY VANGUNDY

A look back at the box scores from the Herts U14 games versus London Sports confirms the impressive performance by Callum Vangundy who pitched a no-hitter over 4 and two-third innings not allowing any earned runs and striking out 7 batters at which point he reached his 85-pitch limit and had to be substituted in accordance with league rules. He also had a good day at the plate hitting his second and third home runs of the season.

Click to view box scores and play-by-play from game 2 of London Sports at Herts U14

Tom Everex-Armstrong who started game one against London Sports also had an effective outing with no earned runs through 3 and one-third innings allowing only 1 hit.

Click to view box scores and play-by-play from game 1 of London Sports at Herts U14

written by hertsbaseball.com correspondent, Chris Jones

The latest match in the series between the Herts Dodgers and the Herts Giants was held on Saturday 16th June at Grovehill.

The Dodgers came to the game one-up in the series after a 10-4 victory on May 26th. For the Dodgers, Thomas Garton and Cameron Manning came in for Ozan Martin, William Ahern and Alex Jones, while the Giants brought in big hitter Joshua Jones in place of Rose Burgess-Van Dort and Talia Martin. With seven players per side, both coaches elected to omit centre and right fielders.

Despite apocalyptic warnings of “once-in-50-year” rainstorms, the Grovehill field was playable, and the weather held up just enough to allow the game to proceed. Elsewhere on the field the concession stand pavilion was straining at its guy-ropes, threatening to sail off towards St Albans. Spectators kept themselves wrapped up well, thermos flasks at hand, and your scorer wore one woolly glove while tapping the plays into the computer.

The Giants took the first turn at-bat. All of the first six batters hit singles, and four runs were scored in all. In reply, the Giants had their opponents scoreless with two outs, but let the opportunity slip. Again, a parade of singles brought runner after runner to home plate, five runs in all.

Another three runs to the Giants in the second, to take a 7-5 lead. The Dodgers were restricted to two, after some efficient infield play forced out runners at third and second. Scores were tied after two innings.

Into the third, the Giants hit more infield singles, plus a line drive to the left-field fence from Joshua Jones to bring home Oliver Durer. 10-7 to the Giants, and the pressure was on the Dodgers to reclaim the lead. All was set, with bases loaded and one out, before a strike-out and a 1-3 ground-out (Alex Trautman and Oliver Durer) closed the inning without a run scored.

The Giants turned the screw in the fourth inning, scoring the maximum five runs, the highlight an unstoppable ground rule double by Joshua Jones. Now facing an eight-run deficit, the Dodgers couldn’t repeat their batting form from the start of the game, scoring only one in their last two innings. A fly-out to pitcher and catcher at the bottom of the fifth brought the game to a close, the Giants running away with a 15-8 win to tie the series.

After the game, the coaches were encouraged by the continuing improvement we are seeing from these two teams. Fielding seemed sharper, and there was more awareness of where to make the plays. We have plenty of areas to work on, including throwing accuracy and base-running, but there’s a lot of promise here – sometimes we have to remind ourselves how young some of the players really are.

To relive the full game with full statistical analysis fans can view a new facility which Herts Baseball Club is testing at the moment. CLICK TO OPEN THE GAMECAST AND PRESS REPLAY IN TOP RIGHT CORNER

Herts U17 All Stars picked up two important wins versus the Feltwell Redbacks which count towards the postseason playoff seeding of the National Baseball Championships.

On Friday afternoon all youth league games scheduled at Herts for Saturday were cancelled due to waterlogged fields. By midnight Herts and Feltwell managed to salvage their U17 League games by switching them to RAF Feltwell.

The Feltwell Redbacks are affiliated with the Redbacks organisation but are a team consisting of players from the US airbase at RAF Feltwell. This is their first year in the league, but despite this they proved to be a difficult opponent especially in the second game which could have been won by either team.

In game one Marty Cullen Jr started on the mound for Herts. He gave another impressive performance pitching a complete game allowing only 1 hit and 2 runs and only 1 of these 2 runs was earned. Richard Ganster went 4-4 with a double and 2 RBIs. Jake Caress, Kyle Lloyd-Jones and Marty Cullen Jr each had 2 hits in the game. Marty Cullen Jr’s two hits were a double and a triple. Liam Green continues to torment opponents with his bat. He went 3-4 which included a single, double and an inside the park home run. He just missed out on completing the cycle, with a just a double missing.

Click to view Game 1 box scores and play-by-play

Game 2 was a very different contest. Chris Kiefer who is one of the most promising young players in the league took the mound for the Redbacks and he made it very difficult for Herts to repeat their dominant offensive results from the first game of the day. At the same time Herts pitchers walked 12 batters and hit another 5. This made their task even more difficult. Their Manager, Cristbal Hiche had to use 4 different pitchers to try to steady the ship. Herts had a slight advantage with 8 hits against Feltwell’s 5 but the game was ultimately won by the team which committed the fewest errors. Feltwell committed 7 errors in the field, while Herts had their best fielding performance of the season without any errors in game 2.

In the bottom of the last inning the RedBacks put the visitors from Hertfordshire under tremendous pressure. They loaded the bases with the runner on first base representing the winning run. It seemed like Feltwell were about to complete a memorable turnaround, when the backstop came to Herts’ rescue. A Redbacks runner decided to come home from third on a passed ball. The ball rolled to the backstop and bounced hard off the wooden panelling giving Herts catcher, Marty Cullen Jr, enough time to throw to pitcher Jake Caress who was covering home plate, to apply the game-ending tag.

Click to view Game 2 box scores and play-by-play

Herts return home with two vital wins in the race for the National Championship, but the Redbacks deserve a lot of credit for making this a very exciting and tense second game.

The Herts Under-17 team is showing signs that it can compete against the top teams in the U17 British Leagues. On Saturday they visited the Cobham Cougars who were the national runners-up last year.

Cobham went into the game as the favourites to win both games of the doubleheader despite missing several of their starting nine. They took an early 1-0 lead but Herts responded with hits form Liam Green and Tom Everex-Armstrong bringing in 3 runs. Herts maintained their lead but the Cougars were always dangerously close reducing the lead to 4-3. In the fourth inning the youngsters form Herts switched up a gear to take the game beyond Cobham. Once again Liam Green and Everex-Armstrong delivered crucial hits to bring 3 runs in. Everex-Armstrong went 3-4 in the game. Starting pitcher Zack Longboy was pitching a gem and despite a late rally by Cobham, he took the win. Marty Cullen Jr closed the game for the visitors to pick up the save.

Click to view Game1 box scores and play-by-play

That win for Herts went contrary to the form book and it was even more surprising when Herts took a 7-1 lead in the second game of the day. Herts maintained the lead all the way to the middle of the fifth inning when they had a 9-3 advantage. Liam Green stood out offensively batting 3-4 with two doubles. One of the two doubles came just a few inches short of being a 2-run home run. Marty Cullen Jr had an impressive performance on the mound allowing only 3 runs over 3 and two-third innings against a very awkward opponent.

Jose Morillo relieved him and although he did his job, Cobham managed to score 4 unearned runs thanks to 3 errors which proved to be very costly at the end. Liam Green then took the mound looking to shut the door in the final inning with a 9-7 lead. He is probably one of the hardest throwing players in the U17 League but Cobham showed why they reached the National Final last season. They managed to deliver crucial hits and took advantage of some passed balls to advance runners and tie the game 9-9. With 1 out and the infield and outfield playing in to stop the winning run scoring from third base, the Cougars delivered a final blow with a hit to left-centerfield which the batter took advantage of and stretched into an inside the park home run to end the game.

Click to view Game2 box scores and play-by-play

This was a spectacular comeback by Cobham which was heartbreaking for Herts but it didn’t overshadow the fact that they had performed exceptionally well to take an away win from the Cougars. There is a break in the U17 league action over the Jubilee weekend.  The league games resume on 9 June when the Herts All Stars will face the Feltwell RedBacks at Grovehill Ballpark in Herts.