Words and images by Joe Gray
The HERTS FALCONS came out on top in two close games against the BRACKNELL BLAZERS last Sunday. The results see HERTS join two other teams at the top of the NBL.
In game one, the BLAZERS crossed the plate first with Henry Collins tripling to lead off the second inning and then scoring on Connor Vernon’s single. The FALCONS quickly turned the deficit into a lead, trading in their next nine outs for 5 runs, while keeping the visitors’ offence quiet during the third and fourth innings. In the top of the fifth, BRACKNELL struck back with a 4-run, game-tying rally built on Collins’s and Vernon’s second hits of the game. HERTS were again quick to move ahead, though, with catcher Jason Greenberg (pictured above left) leading off the bottom of the fifth with a single and coming round to score the go-ahead run. Two shut-out innings from the FALCONS’ starter Darrin Ward sandwiched an insurance run for the home team in the sixth. Ward scattered nine hits in his seven-inning complete game, conceding 3 earned runs while striking out four and walking three. Matt Maitland was charged with the loss.
In game two, the FALCONS faced deficits of 5-3 after three innings and 6-5 after five, but a 5-run rally in the sixth powered them past the BLAZERS and gave Nick Goetz a complete-game victory in which he conceded just 2 earned runs. This time it was Henry Collins who took the loss. Ward and Tom Bray both turned in 3-for-3 performances with the bat in the game.
The FALCONS have yet to hit a home run in the National Baseball League (NBL), but that should not worry them too much as the LONDON METS did not manage a regular-season round-tripper in 2007 (compared with 37 from the other three teams combined) but still went on to win the national title.
South of the River Thames, CROYDON posed few problems for a strong RICHMOND line-up. The slaughter rule was invoked after five innings in both games. Michael Osborn picked up the win in game one, with Jose Sosa suffering his sixth loss of the current campaign. Ryan Bird (pictured right in batting practice) connected for a home run and also picked up hits in his other two at-bats in game one.
Bird took the mound in game two and the manner with which he overpowered the PIRATES’ hitters in the first three innings suggested he had a chance of registering a perfect game. In the fourth, the bid looked to have suffered a blow when Delzoppo’s throw to prevent Tadashi Zushi reaching on a dropped third strike caromed off the back of the base-runner into foul territory. Zushi, however, was adjudged by plate umpire Petter Nordwall to have run inside the baseline and was therefore called out.
Unfortunately for RICHMOND, the perfect game attempt suffered a fatal blow when Ron Almonte, the next batter up, reached on a throwing error form third baseman Cody Cain. With the ball in foul territory, Almonte tried to reach second, but Guy Lidbetter recovered the ball in time to gun down the base-runner. Cain relieved Bird in the fifth and completed a five-inning no-hitter in which RICHMOND pitched to the minimum number of CROYDON batters. Cain, Bird, and Lidbetter all had two hits in the game.
The FLAMES’ two victories put them joint top with the FALCONS and the METS.
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Joe Gray writes for BaseballGB and also looks after Great British top-tier statistics, Project Cobb, and the Great Britain National Team archive.
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June 23, 2009 | 11:51 pm
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