by BaseballSoftballUK, www.baseballsoftballuk.com
The London Mets kept up their relentless pace atop the NBL standings, but were made to work hard by the Herts Falcons in an entertaining doubleheader. London emerged victorious by scores of 7-2 and 4-3. Reed Wilson was the hero in game one, pitching another dominating game to frustrate the Herts hitters. Game two was much tighter though, with the Mets needing two passed balls, a stolen base and a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth to rally from a 3-2 deficit.
The Mets’ Alex Pike said: “Reed pitched to perfection in the first game and I cannot ask for more than that. Game two was far closer but we still came through. Pressure means nothing to these guys and they always find a way to win. We are going to be missing quite a few of these guys in the play-offs so we need to try out a few new faces, but they are stepping up well.”
For Herts’ manager Jason Greenberg it was a case of what might have been. He said: “In the first game we came up with only one hit, so no surprises in the result there. Game two we could have won and we are very disappointed. Even so I am very pleased that it was a game against the Mets that we controlled from the first inning. The day is getting closer where we beat this team and it is not considered an upset.”
In Sunday’s other action, the Bracknell Blazers cruised past the still winless Croydon Pirates, pounding the Pirates 22-3 and 10-3.
For Croydon manager Dave Ward, it was another day to forget. He said: “It was all about the pitching – ours was not good enough and we got punished. We are still not really gelling as a team, but nobody is getting too disheartened. We have four chances left to win our first game and everybody is determined to do that.”
{mrb-result:2009-07-25|2009-07-26|GB}
{mrb-standing:great-britain-2009}