This article by Michael Jones and David Dunphy was first published on britishbaseball.org

Following a relatively comfortable semi-final win over Halton on Saturday, the Cobham Cougars had to work harder on Sunday 15 September at the BBF’s Pony National Baseball Championships at Farnham Park, but ultimately had enough to overcome a feisty Herts Harriers side and defend their Pony title.

Cobham, defending Pony champions and finalists for the fourth consecutive year, came into this game having swept Halton convincingly in Saturday’s semi-final but were second seeds based on regular season record. The Harriers, many of whom were Bronco Under-14 champions three years ago, were in their first-ever Pony final, and could smell victory, with their legions of fans whooping at every success.

After Herts starter Will Zucker tossed a goose egg in the top of the first inning, Carlos Casal and Callum Vangundy reached base before Conner Brown provided the key hit, driving in two runs with a double through right field to give Herts an early lead.

Cobham pulled one run back, then blanked Herts and tied the score in the top of the third inning when Jonny Fretheim’s deep sacrifice fly was enough for Cobham pitcher Jacob Dean to tag up and score, the pitcher thus helping his own cause.

Cobham failed to score in the fourth inning, but as Herts struggled against Jacob Dean, the Cougars were about to pounce on Will Zucker in the fifth. Patient batting and then hits from Spencer Dellapina and Andrew Lee brought in three runs, with Connor Dellapina then adding another after scoring on a throwing error before Jose Morillo replaced Zucker on the mound.

By the time Cobham had batted around, they led by five runs and it looked like the defending champions would lift the trophy again.

With the fans and coaches lifting Herts, they were soon back to within two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, but the rally ended with the bases loaded.

More Cobham offense restored a four-run advantage, and as Herts came to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning, they needed four runs to take the game into extra innings and five runs to win. The Herts supporters, backing their side with horns and vuvuzuelas, continued to cheer at every opportunity, which was met with some annoyance from other spectators around the ground.

Off-field antics aside, the Herts players knew that they needed to do the damage on the diamond. With runners at second and third and one out, Conner Brown drove in Jose Morillo to start the scoring. But the game ended soon after as Jonny Compton-Weight couldn’t catch up to an outside pitch, ending up in the dirt as he finished his swing.

However, late drama erupted as coaches began arguing about whether the third strike was dropped. Umpire Cody Cain stood by his call – that the ball went straight into Jonny Fretheim’s glove behind the plate – and tensions reached boiling point with Charlie Mayhew ejected following a heated exchange with the umpire, for which he later apologised.

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Winning Manager Jeff Dellapina said of the Cobham title defence: “It was a terrific game and the kids at this age know what they’re doing, so I don’t have to coach much! Herts were great too, and they hit the heck out of the ball throughout the match.

“There’s not much in it between all the teams in this league, especially this year,” Dellapina added, “so it could have been any one of four teams just from the South in the final, let alone the Northern sides.”

Reflecting on Cobham’s chances for next year, Dellapina said: “A lot of our guys are moving up from youth baseball so we’ll work on recruitment over the winter in time for spring and hopefully we can defend our title. It would certainly be interesting to see if we can start to develop a senior team for them to filter into for the future.”

This article by Michael Jones was first published on britishbaseball.org

The Herts Harriers edged the first Pony semi-final in a gripping encounter to start the day, while Cobham Cougars began the defence of their title by jumping out early against Halton Polecats.

London and Herts – the two largest clubs in the country – squared off on the first game of the under-17 semi-finals around half an hour later than scheduled following heavy overnight rain. However, the delay only gave fans more time to prepare themselves for the clash of the titans in this division. With faces painted and spirits high despite the inclement conditions, when they took the field the crowd was ready for action and the juniors themselves eager to perform in their biggest game of the season to date.

The Mets (5-1) – losing finalists in 2012 but consistently in and around the finals of big tournaments – were the lower seeds in this semi-final, but with plenty of playoff experience as the current side is formed from much of the Under-14 champions from seasons past.

But though they made the Harriers work for their outs early on, the Herts side made them well and Tom Everex-Armstrong kept his diamond clean, matched only by opposite number Ewan Clegg. In the top of the first, Clegg was first to cross the plate following a lead-off double, driven in by Takuya Motohashi to get the ball rolling. But it was all the Mets could muster as Herts regrouped and played some good defence.

Everex-Armstrong showed his batting might, leading off with a ground-rule double, but he couldn’t get round the diamond before Clegg struck out the side and maintained London’s narrow advantage.

An error-strewn two minutes saw Dexter Bohn score the Mets second run but that rally was capped too as both sides demonstrated maturity and composure beyond their young years.

Cue the onslaught. Having loaded the bases, Herts sought something big from Jose Morillo and the youngster stepped up with a sac-fly to centre, seeing Charlie Mayhew halve the lead. And then Carlos Casal capitalised on a passed ball to tie things up, before Conner Brown snuck one through the left side to turn the game on its head when he drove in Zack Longboy. But despite loading the bases once again, they couldn’t make more of it and they would have to be satisfied with a 3-2 lead.

Not to be outdone, the Mets themselves put runners on all the bags for Dexter Bohn, whose pop-up deep in the hole was enough to see Max Caplan beat the ball back to home, but again the teams were trading tightly and stifling opportunities to capitalise.

With the potential go-ahead run deciding to make a move as Herts forced the issue, Clegg blocked the dish to stop Charlie Mayhew scoring, but he couldn’t do much as Matt Tarrant narrowly missed a tag on Carlos Casal on the next play as the Harriers edged ahead once more.

Some substitutions to try to spark a little extra into the Mets line-up failed to culminate in a run, while Everex-Armstrong reached his pitch limit and was replaced by Casal on the mound. London’s Clegg also took a break, being relieved by Suhi Kamada as the game neared its dramatic conclusion.

Jonny Compton-Weight made the most of some momentary lapses in London’s defence to get on base, putting himself at second before scoring an insurance run for Herts as Callum VanGundy laced a double to the left field wall, but again that’s all that the scorers were troubled by.

Two strikeouts gave Herts the edge but Bohn lined a single to centre and inspired the side behind him to drive him in, Marty Cullen providing the key RBI. But it was business as usual as the defence rallied to save further inroads into the Herts lead.

Herts then saw Morillo come home to restore a two-run lead, but in trying to extend it Everex-Armstrong was tagged at the plate by Matt Tarrant who turned quickly to pick up a rebound from the backstop.

Three outs remained, London needing two to tie things in the final inning. With runners at one and two with no outs, odds were in their favour to make something happen, but Longboy stayed strong on the mound and induced the final ground-out to advance to Sunday’s final.

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London manager Steve Saltzberger reflected: “Pitching was light this year – one of our guys has gone back to Japan, another is in the NBL roster who were also playing today. But full credit to Herts. It’s a great organisation and that team has been developing for a number of years, running us close all season.

“For some of our kids who have been together for seven years, it’ll be the first time they’ve not been in the final, which is a new experience for them. But most of the kids are still below the upper age limit so there’ll always be next year.”

Harriers Manager Arnie Longboy wouldn’t be drawn in confirming who would pitch tomorrow, but said: “We’ve achieved our first objective, and so we’ll start fresh and go tomorrow ready to win. It’s the furthest our Under-17 team has ever gone.

“I’ve been watching these kids grow up over the past few years. I was with them when they won the Under-14 title three years ago and most of the same guys are still here. We have a great set-up and winning tomorrow will help further develop the programme and the talent from within the club.

The Herts Harriers are through to the U17 League national final after a 6-4 win over the London Mets earlier today. Full report will be published in due course.

They will now face the Cobham Cougars in the national final, after the reigning champions beat Halton Polecats in the other Semi-Final.

The Final will be played at Farnham Park on Sunday, 15 September.  First pitch is at 10:00am.