This Saturday, 14 September, Herts Harriers go into battle with their old rival, the London Mets. Over the years these two clubs have locked horns and have produced some of the greatest games in British baseball.

The generation of players playing in the Under-17 league this season first met in the 2009 Under-14 national final. It was an epic game which the Mets won 1-0 (click to view). The following year the two teams met again in the U14 final. On that occasion Herts had their revenge with a come-from-behind 2-1 win which gave them the club’s first national title at the U14 league level (click to view). In 2011 London and Herts met in the U14 league quarter-finals Herts had the upper-hand again slugging their way to the semis with home runs by Brodie Caress, Richard Ganster and Zack Longboy (click to view). Herts went on to finish second losing in the final to LYBL. 2012 was the first meeting between Herts and London in the U17 league postseason. London dominated winning it 13-2 (click to view).

This season it would take a brave person to predict the outcome of this Saturday’s U17 semi-final between the two teams. They met twice in the regular season. In the first meeting the game was tied 11-11 and went into extra innings, ending with a wild scoreline of 24-11 to the London Mets (click to view). On the final day of the regular season Herts turned the table with a 14-7 win over the Mets (click to view).

What will Saturday’s titanic semi-final clash bring? One thing is certain. There will be drama. The game is scheduled for 10:30am this Saturday, 14 September, and will be played at Farnham Park in Slough (postcode SL2 3BP). The game is expected to attract a record number of Herts fans who will be there to support both the Herts Harriers and the Herts Falcons who are in semi-final action in the afternoon.

The Herts Harriers overcame the Leicester Blue Sox in the quarter-finals of the British Under-17 League Playoffs. This is the first time in the club’s history that a Herts team reaches the semi-final stage at U17 league level.

The Herts Harriers finished in first place during the U17 regular season and this meant that they had to face the sixth-seed team from Leicester. The odds were in favour of the team from Herts, but the team needed to stay focused and deliver a professional performance on the day to progress through to the semi-finals.

Tom Everex-Armstrong was the starting pitcher for Herts and he picked up his fourth win of the U17 league season with 4 innings of work allowing 1 hit and 1 earned run and 11 of the 12 outs came by way of a strikeout. Callum Vangundy, Jose Morillo, Tom Everex-Armstrong, Warwick Byrne and Zack Longboy had a multi-hit game. One of Jose Morillo’s 3 hits in the game was a 2-run inside-the-park-homerun. Morillo then came in as a reliever to pitch the final inning of the game. He did well allowing no hits and no runs continuing his impressive pitching performances from the previous weekend in the AA-League playoffs with the club’s senior league team, the Herts Hawks.

Click to view box scores

Herts won the game convincingly but credit must be given to Leicester whose youth baseball programme was started this year and they have done very well in their first season in a very competitive U17 league.

The Herts Harriers will now be preparing for a Semi-Final at the newly unveiled Farnham Park baseball venue in Slough on 14 September. The other three semi-finalists are the Cobham Cougars, Halton Polecats and London Mets. The League will shortly be announcing the seedings which will determine which of these 3 teams will be facing the Harriers.

HERTS CARDINALS ELIMINATED IN THE QUARTER-FINALS

The club’s Under-14 league team, the Herts Cardinals, couldn’t progress to the next stage after losing first to the Forest Glade Redbacks and later to the London Mets. The team will be looking to regroup and strengthen over the winter and return stronger in 2014.

The three teams which progressed through to the semi-finals are London Mets, LYBL Bulldogs and Forest Glade Redbacks, the latter winning an exciting quarter-final against LondonSports 13-11.

HERTS DODGERS ARE THE HERTS UNDER-11 CHAMPIONS

The 2013 season of the Herts Under-11 Championship came down to the final game of the season. The Herts Dodgers and Herts Giants have been trading blows all year long and before this final game of the championship series they were tied. In another close encounter, the Dodgers came out on top with a 7-3 win to claim the title for a second consecutive season.

NEXT EVENTS

Herts fans will now turn their attention to the U17 national championships on 14-15 September after which all three age groups (U17, U14 and U11) will be entering the Herts Futures Tournament on 21 September, which is the largest youth baseball tournament in Britain. As always, it will be held at Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead. Teams are still entering (click for entry details).  Also any players are welcome to take part in this event. For details how to join the Herts youth teams, please contact us.

Britain’s youth baseball teams are about to enter the most exciting part of the season as they battle for the national title. The action begins with the playoffs for both the Under-17 and Under-14 leagues. The British Baseball Federation announced that this event will be held on Saturday, 31 August 2013. It will be hosted by Herts Baseball Club at their ballpark in Hemel Hempstead (click for venue details).

6 teams from the Southern conference of the U17 League and 5 teams from the U14 League will go into Saturday’s Playoff Quarter-Finals. They have been seeded based on their regular season league record and the format and games schedule is as follows (seeding shown in brackets).

U17 Playoffs (‘home team’ shown second)

10.30am, Bracknell Tornadoes (5th) @ London Mets (2nd) (winner progress to YNBCs)

1.00pm, Leicester Blue Sox (6th) @ Herts Harriers (1st) (winner progress to YNBCs)

3.30pm, Horsham Hornets (4th) @ Cobham Cougars (3rd) (winner progress to YNBCs)

U14 Playoff (‘home team’ shown second)

10.30am, (Game1) Herts Cardinals (5th) @ Forest Glade Redbacks (4th) (winner goes to game 4, loser goes to game 3)

10.30am, (Game2) London Sports (3rd) @ LYBL Bulldogs (2nd) (winner progress to YNBCs, loser goes to game 4)

1.00pm, (Game3) Loser of game 1 @ London Mets (1st) (winner progress to YNBCs)

1.00pm, (Game4) Winner of game 1 @ Loser of game 2 (winner progresses to YNBCs)

Herts U11 Championship Series

The event will also include the Final of the Under-11 Series between the Herts Dodgers and the Herts Giants. The series are perfectly poised with the teams tied 4.5 wins to 4.5 wins. This will be a do-or-die 7-inning decider with the winner declared Herts U11 Champion. The game will start at 11am.

Food, drinks and more

Admission is free and fans and families can enjoy the baseball action along with traditional baseball snacks which will be on offer including hot dogs, Krispy Kreme donuts, Big League Chew and other snacks and drinks. Baseball gloves, bats, bags, and other merchandise including baseball memorabilia will also be on offer at the retail outlets around the ballpark.