Today we are looking at the statistics of the 2007 season in Great Britain. Obviously this league is not at the same level of the Netherlands and Italy. Nevertheless, the British national team impressed with their play at the European Championship in Barcelona last September. They finished in second place and earned a berth at the last-chance Olympic qualifier next spring.
The London Mets won the British Championship beating the Croyden Pirates in two games in the finals. It is difficult to analyse the numbers in the National League, because only the statistics for the southern league are available. However this is the strong conference. No team from the north had won a title since 1998. So, we cannot provide an overview like we did with the other European leagues.
The Pirates dominated the regular season with 26 wins, creating a run differential of 306 to 52. Runner-up in the south were the Mets with 20 victories. The Liverpool Trojans (19-4), the Menwith Hill Patriots (18-4) and the Manchester Eagles (17-5) were on top of the northern division. The best two teams of each conference reach the final four tournament to determine the champion.
Despite the small sample size we will take a look at the individual performances. Brett TAIT (Croydon Pirates) was the most consistent hitter. He hit .561 with five homeruns, 27 runs scored and 34 RBI. He led the league in homers, hits and RBI. Maikel AZCUYA (Croydon Pirates) scored two runs more to take the lead in this category.
Top 5 Individual Batting Average:
(Minimum 40 plate appearances)
Brett TAIT (Croydon Pirates) .561 (5 HR, 27 R, 34 RBI)
Maikel AZCUYA (Croydon Pirates) .527 (4 HR, 29 R, 26 RBI)
Ryan BARWICK (Croydon Pirates) .517 (3 HR, 25 R, 29 RBI)
Josh CHETWYND (London Mets) .467 (7 R, 15 RBI)
Jason HOLOWATY (London Mets) .421 (18 R, 3 RBI)
Kyle GARDNER (London Mets) was the most dominant pitcher in the south. He won all five of his starts, striking out 52 in 30 innings pitched. However there are only six players with at least twenty innings pitched. Josh CHETWYND (London Mets) had the most with 39. He, GARDNER and TAIT were on top with five wins.
Top 5 Individual Earned Run Average:
(Minimum 20 innings pitched)
Kyle GARDNER (London Mets) 0.60 (5-0, 30 IP, 52 SO, 7 BB)
Jeff ANTONIK (Croydon Pirates) 1.13 (3-0, 24 IP, 21 SO, 4 BB)
Simon POLE (London Mets) 2.03 (3-2, 1 S, 26.2 IP, 25 SO, 10 BB)
Brett TAIT (Croydon Pirates) 2.70 (5-0, 20 IP, 22 SO, 7 BB)
Josh CHETWYND (London Mets) 3.00 (5-1, 39 IP, 32 SO, 21 BB)
Complete Statistics on official website of British Baseball and Softball Federation