Category Archives: British Baseball Beat

Matt Smith’s Thursday morning column, looking at all the latest news, results and fixtures on the British baseball circuit

British Baseball Beat: Unbeaten no more

Leave a reply

Two teams entered the latest round of British baseball league games with unbeaten records to protect.

By the end of Sunday, the hopes of a perfect season by the Nottingham Rebels and Daws Hill Spitfires had been dashed.

Daws Hill downed by Hove

In the case of the AA-South Spitfires, they went into their double-header against Hove Tuesday knowing that their unbeaten record was about to be put to its toughest test so far.

That proved to be the case as the league leaders shot down the Spitfires in the first game of their double-header by a score of 12-2, ending Daws Hill’s winning run at seven games.

The Spitfires were missing several players on the day and ended up dropping the second game too, although this was a ding-dong 15-14 affair that could have gone either way, showing that the Spitfires may have lost their unbeaten record but they certainly hadn’t lost their fighting spirit.

The results put Daws Hill in third place in the league, three games behind Hove Tuesday but with several games in hand on those around them. The Spitfires will face another tough double-header this Sunday against the fourth-placed Guildford Mavericks. The Mavericks had a four-game winning streak ended by Hove on 16 July so both teams will be out to put losses against the top team behind them.

Blue Sox do it again

There was always a good chance that Hove might end the Spitfires’ streak, but the AAA-Midlands’ Nottingham Rebels looked well placed to build on their 12-0 start and to make it all the way to the end of the regular season leaving a pristine ‘0’ in the loss column.

Their first game against the Leicester Blue Sox last Sunday suggested that this was likely to be the case, although not due to Nottingham running away with a dominant home win.

The Blue Sox, who came into the double-header with a 2-7 record, pushed their rivals all the way and the two teams could not be separated in the regulation seven innings. The Rebels were able to break the deadlock in the bottom of the eighth to capture an 8-7 win and you could be forgiven for seeing it as a typical champion victory: coming through and winning the game even when they were not at their best.

However, far from being frustrated by narrowly losing the opener, the defeat seemed to galvanize the Blue Sox as they jumped on the Rebels’ starting pitcher, Shannon Henry, in the second game and put eleven runs on the board in the first inning alone. Nottingham’s 13th win of the season proved to be unlucky as they saw their unbeaten run come to an end in an 18-7 5-inning mercy-rule defeat.

The Rebels may have had Yogi Berra’s ‘it’s de ja vu all over again’ quote running through their heads on Sunday evening. They started the 2012 season 11-0 only to have their unbeaten season ended by the same Blue Sox.

Nottingham are still in a strong position leading the division by three games, but it’s sure to rankle a bit that Leicester tripped them up yet again. The Rebels will need to put the loss behind them quickly as they face the second-placed MK Bucks this Sunday and they won’t need reminding that they played the Bucks after their loss to Leicester last year and suffered a second straight defeat.

As for the Blue Sox, last year they followed up their victory over Nottingham with a 15-2 win over the Stourbridge Titans and they will be hoping to repeat the trick on Sunday to put themselves back into playoff contention.

A good day for Southampton

The AA-South Southampton Mustangs II had the reverse experience of the Spitfires and Rebels on Sunday.

Southampton’s second team had started their league campaign with ten consecutive losses, but a trip to Croydon to take on the South London Pirates III team saw them finally break their duck. A narrow 11-10 victory in the first game got them off and running and they followed it up with a more comfortable 13-3 win in the second game, scoring nine of their runs in the first inning.

Results-wise it was a good trip all around for Southampton as the first team picked up two wins against the Pirates in the National Baseball League. The only sour note came from the manner in which they were awarded the second victory, as the game was forfeited by the Pirates when their sole remaining pitcher was ejected.

The Mustangs’ manager Ben Davis expressed his displeasure in the BBF NBL report, stating, “I am not happy about a forfeit win for the second game.  It is a long way to go to play one game and I don’t believe in the top league in the country that this should happen”. His frustration was very understandable, but his team has now won eight in a row and all of those victories have come on the road. They will now finish their regular season with four consecutive home double-headers, the final one coming against the Pirates.

London’s 6-0 Sunday

The London Mets Baseball Club went two better than the Mustangs on Sunday.

Both of their AAA-South teams, the Metros and Mets II swept their double-headers against the Cambridge Royals and Oxford Kings respectively, whilst the NBL London Mets took two wins on Sunday against the Lakenheath Diamondbacks in a rearranged double-header (the Mets were originally scheduled to face the Essex Arrows) to improve their season record to 11-3 and to make it a 6-0 Sunday for the Club.

The Mets’ wins in the top-tier were matched by the Herts Falcons also winning both games of their double-header against the Essex Redbacks.

The results leave the Falcons top of the NBL on 14-4, the Mustangs narrowly behind on winning percentage points on 15-5 and the Mets one game back on 11-3 with four games in hand on the Falcons and six on the Mustangs.

The Harlow Nationals are a further four games behind the Mets on 9-9, so it’s looking like a three-way battle for the top two automatic NBC spots.

British Baseball Beat: How far to Farnham Park?

3 Replies

BaseballSoftballUK announced recently that the official Opening Day and ceremony to mark the completion and use of the UK’s first dedicated baseball and softball facility at Farnham Park will take place on 20 July.

The facility has already been put to good use with school softball, local softball league games and a softball tournament all being staged there in its opening week. The BSUK’s story even notes that the Herts Falcons paid a flying visit and left extremely impressed by the sight of an international-specification full-size baseball diamond here in the U.K. at last.

With this great new facility being the expected home of this year’s National Baseball Championship, now seems like the ideal time to take a trip around the leagues to see whose visions of Farnham may become a reality later this season.

N.B. the following reflects the scores and standings as published on the BBF website on the evening of 19 June.

National Baseball League

Postseason set-up: the top two go straight through to the NBC. Teams finishing 3rd to 6th go through to a single nine-inning showdown (3rd v 6th, 4th v 5th) to decide the other two NBC participants.

As things stand today, the Herts Falcons (12-2) and the Southampton Mustangs (13-5) would automatically qualify for the NBC. The Mustangs showed their playoff credentials by taking two wins on the road against the reigning two-time champions the Harlow Nationals last Sunday.

The third-placed London Mets (9-3) are only one game behind the top two in the standings and have several games in hand. It looks like those three teams will battle the rest of the way for the two spots, with the team that misses out joining the Harlow Nationals, Bracknell Blazers and either the Lakenheath Diamondbacks or the Essex Arrows in the qualification round.

AAA

Postseason set-up. The top two from both the North and Midlands will meet in regional qualifiers (N1 v M2, M1 v N2) to produce two NBC entrants. The top four teams from the South will meet in a regional qualifier round to produce the other two.

The smart money would be on the Liverpool Trojans (11-1) and Nottingham Rebels (11-0) being the two Northern/Midlands NBC representatives; however, even though both look strong bets to win their respective divisions, they will then have to win a play-in game to book their place and anything can happen in a single nine-inning contest.

On the regular season form so far, the Milton Keynes Bucks (8-2) would likely be the other Midlands contender, with second place in the North being a battle between the Cartmel Valley Lions (7-5) and the Halton Jaguars (6-8).

The AAA-South is arguably the most competitive division in British Baseball this season and the battle for the top four playoff spots, followed by the playoff games, is sure to produce some exciting and dramatic baseball over the next couple of months.

Prior to last Sunday it looked like a case of five teams fighting for four spots, but the Herts Ravens’ two victories over previous division-leaders Oxford Kings suggests they may be able to put together a late run to get into the mix too. Those wins still leave the Ravens four games below .500 (5-9) so it’s fair to wait for a couple more weeks to see if they can truly be classed as real contenders.

As it is, the top five teams are the London Metros (11-5), Cambridge Royals (11-5), Bristol Badgers (10-6), Oxford Kings (10-6) and London Mets II (9-7).  They’ll be competing over the rest of the season to make sure the are not the one team on the outside once all the regular season games are complete.

AA

Postseason set-up. The North/Midlands regional qualifiers will include the top three teams from the AA-North and the third placed team from the AAA-Midlands, once again competing in single-game showdowns to produce two NBC entrants. The top six in the AA-South will make the playoffs with the third to sixth placed teams playing the first qualification round (3rd v 6th, 4th v 5th) and then the winners of those matches playing either the first or second placed team to earn qualification to the NBC.

The Birmingham Maple Leafs (5-7) hold a 2.5 game lead over the Leicester Blue Sox (2-7) for the third-placed Midlands spot, albeit with the Blue Sox having three games in hand to try to claw back the deficit. Current AA-North leaders the Hull Scorpions (11-1) seem a shoo-in to take one of the three Northern spots (at the very least). The Manchester A’s (9-4) and Harrogate Tigers (7-4) currently hold the other two playoff places, but both the Bolton Robots of Doom (6-5) and Sheffield Bladerunners (4-4) could still mount a serious challenge.

In the South, the current top six are the teams with winning records so they all look like having a strong chance to make it to the postseason. Richmond Dragons (6-5) and Sidewinders (6-4) probably will settle for first-round qualification spots, whilst Hove Tuesday (10-1), Daws Hill Spitfires (7-0), London Mammoths (8-2) and Guildford Mavericks (8-3) battle it out for the top two spots and the other two qualification spaces.

Hove and Daws Hill are the front-runners and they’ll meet this Sunday in a highly-anticipated match-up in High Wycombe. Hove Tuesday are sure to be the Spitfires’ biggest threat to their quest for an unbeaten season. They defeated the Mavericks 7-5 last Sunday and Guildford’s manager Matt Bruce was effusive in his praise after the game in the BBF report, stating, “Hove are easily the best team we have faced since 2011 and the same goes for the pitcher [Thomas] Izuta.  Our coach Tony Oliva thought he was throwing around 85mph, and as a team they’re going to be tough to beat”.

A

Postseason set-up. The regular season format splits twelve teams into three Pools of four. The two Pool winners with the best record (or the next relevant tie-breaker criteria) go straight through to the NBC. The other Pool winner and the next three teams with the best winning percentages, regardless of the Pool they are in, will play a qualification round to determine the other two NBC participants.

This one is trickier to predict as tie-breakers may well be a factor, so let’s just work through who would be the in the playoffs if those spots were awarded today.

The two teams going straight to the NBC would be the London Marauders (6-2 in Pool C) and Herts Raptors (6-2 in Pool A). The Milton Keynes Coyotes have the same 6-2 record as the Raptors but are listed in second place in the Pool A standings, so they would take one of the other four playoff spots. They would be joined by Pool B leaders the Haverhill Blackjacks (4-3) and then two teams from Pool C, Guildford Mavericks II (4-2) and Tonbridge (4-4).

British Baseball Beat: Falcons flying on 7-game winning streak

Leave a reply

There’s a new sole leader in the National Baseball League (NBL).

The Herts Falcons (12-4) are flying high with a one-game lead over both the London Mets (9-3) and the Southampton Mustangs (11-5) after they swept a double-header on the road against the Bracknell Blazers (7-9) last Sunday.

The victories, by scores of 9-1 and 13-1, extended the Falcons’ winning streak to seven games, firmly establishing them as the form team in the NBL.

The Southampton Mustangs and Harlow Nationals (9-7) are also both on a good run having won their last four games each respectively. The Mustangs got the better of the Lakenheath Diamondbacks (7-7) at RAF Feltwell last Sunday, whilst the Nationals picked up two wins at home against the Essex Arrows (7-9) to make it six wins from eight games for the two-time reigning champions.

Something will have to give this Sunday as the Mustangs and Nationals meet for a double-header at the latter’s Northbrooks Park. The two teams met in the reverse fixture on Opening Day back in April and took one win apiece.

In fact, all four double-headers in the NBL this Sunday are a repeat of the Opening Day schedule.

Herts Falcons will travel to Croydon to take on the South London Pirates (4-10). The division-leaders would seem a good bet to complete a sweep on the back of their current winning streak and their broom-waving against the same opponents on Opening Day. However, the Pirates’ surprising win last Sunday in the second game of a double-header against the London Mets should warn Herts off from underestimating their opponents at all.

The Mets, currently dealing with several injuries, have now lost three of their last four games after winning their first eight in a row. It’s far from being a crisis, but they will be keen to get back on track this Sunday against the Lakenheath Diamondbacks, who they defeated twice to start their season in style on Opening Day.

As for the Essex Redbacks (2-14), they will travel to the Bracknell Blazers carrying the weight of a ten-game losing streak. The Blazers were the Redbacks’ first NBL opponents in this their debut season and what better way to end a losing sequence than by gaining a measure of revenge against the team that ‘welcomed’ them to the top-tier with two defeats.

Around the leagues

Elsewhere, the Nottingham Rebels are now 11-0 in the AAA-Midlands after two victories over the Birmingham Maple Leafs last Sunday. The Stourbridge Titans (1-11) will have the next attempt to end the Rebels’ run, although the odds are in Nottingham’s favour to extend their streak to 12 games.

The Liverpool Trojans lead the way in the AAA-North with a 10-1 record and, once again, you would expect them to add two more wins to their tally this Sunday as they take on AA-North teams the Oldham North Stars and Bolton Robots of Doom. Bolton did get the better of the AAA-North’s Halton Jaguars last Sunday and after a stuttering start to the season, losing four of their first five games, the Robots have won five in a row to pull themselves back into contention in the AA-North division, which the Hull Scorpions still lead with an 11-1 record.

The Cambridge Royals and Oxford Kings couldn’t be separated last Sunday as the two teams split a double-header and they are locked together at the top of the AAA-South division with 10-4 records. The Royals travel to Richmond to face the Knights this Sunday, whilst the Kings are at home against the Herts Ravens.

Hove Tuesday (9-1) won two games against the Kent Mariners last Sunday to stretch their winning streak to nine games and to keep the Daws Hill Spitfires (7-0) behind them in the AA-South even though the Spitfires beat the Herts Hawks 15-3 to continue their unbeaten start to the season. Both teams face tough games this Sunday, with Hove taking on the 8-2 Guildford Mavericks and Daws Hill hosting the 8-2 London Mammoths.

As for the A-South, the Herts Raptors and Milton Keynes Coyotes both earned a victory to improve their records to 5-2. The team on the rise is the 2013 debutants Haverhill Blackjacks. After dropping their first two games of the season, the Blackjacks have won four in a row and they will face a good test of their recent progress this Sunday against the 5-2 London Marauders.

iScore therefore I am

Last week, the British Baseball Federation endorsed the iScore app as the preferred scorekeeping application for British baseball.

As an entrenched pencil-and-paper scorer, the prospect of scorekeeping being reduced to tapping on an iPhone does sadden me a little (‘enhanced features’ for me means using coloured pens), but then again my scorekeeping is normally done for enjoyment rather than what you could describe as an administrative task.

There are various benefits to British baseball fans of teams using the iScore system. Using the technology may make the task of scorekeeping more appealing to more people for a start, subsequently resulting in more records being created.

We then have the benefit of the MLB.com Gameday-esque iScorecast feature that allows fans to ‘watch’ the game from anywhere in the world. Finally it should make the collation and publication of stats an easier task and therefore, hopefully, see more of this data collected and available for fans and researchers to look at.

A number of teams have previously used the GameChanger scoring system that works in a similar way to iScore; however you have to pay the company a ‘Premium’ subscription fee to get to individual player stats (even for box scores from individual games). For a developing sport that wants to get more people interested in the domestic leagues, having the stats behind a paywall was a major drawback and one that the iScore system will rectify as the stats will be imported directly into the BBF website, on public display where they should be.

Hopefully the move to iScore will prove to be a positive step for teams and fans alike.

British Baseball Beat: From Three to Two

Leave a reply

There are now only two teams in the British Baseball Leagues that remain unbeaten after the London Mets’ brilliant winning start to their campaign was ended at eight games last Sunday.

The Nottingham Rebels and Daws Hill Spitfires kept their perfect seasons going, but the Herts Falcons won both games of a double-header against the Mets and showed just how competitive the National Baseball League is this year in the process.

British Baseball Federation NBL report

AAA-South report

AA-South report

The Mets may have lost their unbeaten record but, as you would expect, they showed plenty of quality whilst trying to keep the run alive. At 2-0 down heading into the top of the seventh inning of the opener, the Mets scored twice and could have taken the lead had reliever Jordan Farkas not managed to escape a bases-loaded jam. With three Mets base-runners left stranded, the momentum swung firmly in the Falcons’ favour and they completed the 3-2 victory in the bottom of the inning with a walk-off single by Dave House.

The second game was just as tight as the Falcons prevailed by a score of 4-2. The fact that the games were low-scoring affairs suggests that they were two crisply-played games and that impression is emphatically backed up by Cristobal Hiche’s closing comments in the Herts’ Website review of the double-header:

“I have been saying it for the last two weeks and I’ll repeat it again, this is quality baseball not only by the Falcons but by most teams in the NBL. Every game is going to be close with great pitching, good hitting, and fantastic defence. Just as an example, only 2 errors were made in the 2nd game by both teams combined! That’s MLB level right there.

Just take a look at the box score and replace the Falcons name with the Yankees and you would think this box score was taken out from the MLB subway series (i.e. Yankees-Mets rivalry). So come down to the ballpark and check out the Falcons next time”.

Despite the Mets’ two losses, they remain at the top of the National Baseball League standings with an 8-2 record having played four games less than both the second-placed Falcons (10-4) and the third-placed Southampton Mustangs (9-5), who gained two comprehensive victories over the Essex Redbacks in what was a thoroughly disappointing day for Redbacks Manager Vince Warner.

The London Mets’ pitching has been excellent so far this season and the team has conceded an average of only 2.8 runs per game through their first ten contests, over half a run better than the next best 3.5 (over 14 games) allowed per game by the Mustangs. At the other end of the scale, NBL-newcomers the Redbacks are currently giving themselves a mountain to climb while conceding an average of 11.19 runs per game in their sixteen contests.

As for run-scoring, the reigning champion Harlow Nationals lead the way both in actual runs scored (103) and runs scored per game (7.36). They added 21 to their total last Sunday with 8-6 and 13-0 victories over the South London Pirates.

The second game was most notable for an impressive pitching debut by 15-year-old Marty Cullen Junior. He went the full five innings in a mercy-rule shortened game, shutting out the Pirates and allowing only two hits. They were two much-needed wins by the Nationals who evened up their record to 7-7 and put themselves firmly back into the playoff race.

Photos from Grovehill Ballpark

The Mets-Falcons double-header didn’t just produce some quality baseball. It also inspired some great shots by intrepid baseball photographers, most notably:

Jim Garnett

Richard Lee

And our own Joe Gray (@Project_COBB):

 

Rebels and Spitfires

Outside of the NBL, the Nottingham Rebels and Daws Hill Spitfires remain as the two unbeaten teams.

The Rebels have won their first nine games of the season and lead the AAA-Midlands division by 2.5 games ahead of the MK Bucks (6-2). The Birmingham Maple Leafs will be the latest team looking to end the Rebels’ run as they host the division  leaders at their Marston Green field this Sunday. The Leafs suffered two defeats, by scores of 14-3 and 12-2, when the two teams met in Nottingham back on 21 April, but they go into this fixture in good form having won their last three games.

As for Daws Hill, they sit on top of the AA-South division with a 6-0 record, just ahead of Hove Tuesday (7-1) and the London Mammoths (7-2), with games in hand on both. The Spitfires took two wins on the road against the Brentwood Stags last Sunday and go for win number seven this weekend in a home game against the Herts Hawks. The Hawks are 2-3 so far this season and will be eager to return to action after their scheduled game against the Sidewinders last weekend had to be postponed.

British Baseball Beat: London Mets remain the team to beat

1 Reply

The London Mets (8-0) preserved their unbeaten start to the National Baseball League season with two wins against the Southampton Mustangs (7-3) last Sunday.

Both teams had won six consecutive games going into the double-header, but it was the Mets that came out on top by scores of 10-0 and 1-0, the latter going into extra innings in a tightly-contested affair.

Although it is still early in the season, the match-up seemed to carry more significance than a standard regular-season twin set due to the teams involved.

Considering the Mets won both games on the road, and kept their opponents off the scoreboard in the process, they are quite literally the team to beat in the NBL right now.

British Baseball Federation NBL report

AAA-North report

AAA-South report

AA-North report

AA-South report

A-South report

NBL form

With the Mets snapping Southampton’s six-game winning streak, the next big match-up takes place this Sunday when the Mustangs take on the third-placed Herts Falcons.

Herts couldn’t take full advantage of the Mustangs’ losses last Sunday as they could only obtain a split against the Essex Arrows. The Falcons have lost three of their last four games after winning five of their first six; far from being a true loss of form but something that manager Lee Manning would want to see his team rectify soon. A home double-header against the Mustangs gives them a challenging, but exciting, opportunity to do that in style.

As for the form of the rest of the NBL, both the Harlow Nationals and Lakenheath Diamondbacks have won four of their last six games to make for solid starts to the campaign. The Nationals host the Blazers this weekend aiming for a sweep to push the defending two-time champs above .500 for the first time this season.

The Essex Arrows and South London Pirates have been consistent of late, both splitting their last three double-headers after being swept in their opening match-up. At the other end of the scale, the Bracknell Blazers have lost five of their last six and the Essex Redbacks, NBL newcomers don’t forget, have lost six in a row.  The Redbacks will look to break that sequence with a home double-header against local rivals the Essex Arrows. The teams split a double-header back on 21 April.

Trojans still ahead in the AAA-North

When it comes to teams in form, you don’t get much better than the Livepool Trojans in the AAA-North. After taking a loss in the first game of a double-header against Cartmel Valley Lions on 28 April, the reigning champs have won seven in a row including a double-header sweep over those Lions last Sunday.

Halton Jaguars are the next team to take on the Trojans. The Jaguars have won three in a row and, with Liverpool being a very strong bet to take the division, they already appear to be locked in a battle with the Lions for the second playoff spot.

Halton (5-3) currently sit one game ahead of Cartmel Valley (4-4) in the standings and with the Lions playing a double-header against the 0-9 Menwith Hill Patriots this Sunday, it is likely that they will need to win at least one of their games against the Trojans to stop themselves dropping to third before the teams enter a period of games against AA-North competition.

Teams on the rise in the North

The AA-North is starting to look like being a great battle this season between several clubs.

Bolton Robots of Doom were expected to be a leading contender having moved down from the AAA Level, but they had an underwhelming start to the season, going 1-4. Somebody must have rebooted the Robots at that point as they’ve won their last four games to move over .500 and into joint-third in the standings alongside the Harrogate Tigers (5-4).

The Tigers have actually slipped back as last Sunday they became the latest victim in the Manchester A’s winning streak. The A’s have won all six of their games since dropping their season-opening double-header against Hull Scorpions, moving up into second place.

Hull were not in action last Sunday but they still lead the way with a 7-1 record and will look to build on that with a home double-header against the Newton Aycliffe Spartans (1-5) this Sunday.

Royals reign in AAA-South

The Cambridge Royals currently top the AAA-South after a split against the Oxford Kings on Sunday improved their season record to 7-3.

Most of the rest of the division have played eight games, with the Kings, London Mets II and London Metros all holding 5-3 records and the Bristol Badgers at an even 4-4.

The two London teams are the only AAA-South sides in action this weekend. The Metros got the better of their club-mates last Saturday in winning both games of their double-header and they will join the Royals at the top of the division if they can repeat the trick this weekend. However, the Mets II ran the Metros close in both games last Saturday and they’ll be keen to gain revenge one week on and push themselves up to the top of the table.

Close competition in the A-South

The Richmond Dukes’ 20-8 victory over the Old Timers last Sunday means that all 12 Single-A teams now have at least one win on the board after three or four games.

The London Marauders have won three games in a row since dropping their season opener against the Guildford Mavericks II and they take on the Herts Raptors (2-2) this Sunday. The Raptors’ club-mates, the Eagles, have won their last two games to even their season record at 2-2 and next they will face the 3-1 Milton Keynes Coyotes.

High-flying Hove

Hove Tuesday have made a flying start to life in the AA-South. After losing the first game of their season-opening double-header against Herts Hawks on 21 April, Hove have won six a row to catapult themselves to the top of the table.

Hove’s form is even more impressive when set alongside their debut season in the BBF leagues last year. They had a perfect 9-0 Single-A regular season in 2012, meaning that they’ve gone 15-1 in BBF regular season games so far.

Hove lost out to the Leicester Blue Sox in the Single-A National Baseball Championship final last year, but they did win a quarter-final and semi-final along the way. Add it all together and they have won 17 of their first 19 BBF games: a very impressive record to say the least.

The AA-South division looks like another that will be keenly contested this year and Hove are sure to be one of those firmly in the mix.

British Baseball Beat: Mets and Mustangs meet on Sunday

Leave a reply

The action from the British Baseball Federation leagues last weekend saw the number of unbeaten teams come down to three.

BBF NBL report

AAA-South report

AA-South report

A-South report

Mustangs v Mets this Sunday

Mustangs Field in Southampton is set to host a top-of-the-table clash this Sunday in the National Baseball League.

The London Mets sit at the top of the standings after two wins last Sunday against the Essex Redbacks improved their season record to 6-0. Meanwhile their nearest challengers, the Southampton Mustangs, won two games on the road against the Bracknell Blazers to keep the pressure on with a 7-1 record.

The two teams meet this Sunday with the Mustangs intent on breaking the Mets’ unbeaten start to the season, whilst London will see it as a chance to put some distance between themselves and their rivals.

The third-placed Herts Falcons (5-3) didn’t play last weekend and will get back to action this Sunday with two away games against the Essex Arrows (3-5). Herts had won 5 of their first 6 games before being dealt two losses by the Mets last time out.

Another no-hitter in the AAA-South, and this one was perfect

The Bristol Badgers’ Miguel Peralta laid down the gauntlet to the rest of the AAA-South pitchers by pitching no-hitters in his first two games of the season.

This past Sunday, the Oxford Kings’ Santo Militello took up the challenge against the Richmond Knights and proceeded to pitch a perfect game, shortened to five innings due to his team mates plating 10 runs to see the game end early on the ‘mercy’ rule.

Which AAA-South pitcher is going to do it next?

The Knights rebounded from being no-hit by winning the second game of their double-header 14-6 and it goes to show how competitive the division is going to be this season. The London Mets II (5-1) lead the way with Cambridge Royals (6-2) – beneficiaries of two forfeit victories this past Sunday from the Leones de Feltham – right there with them, the Oxford Kings (4-2) one game back and the London Metros and Bristol Badgers both within striking distance with 3-3 records.

The Mets II and Metros are scheduled to face each other in an intra-club double-header at Finsbury Park on Saturday, with the Cambridge Royals and Oxford Kings meeting at the latter’s Horspath Road field on Sunday.

Eagles eke out victory against Raptors

The Mets II v Metros clash is sure to be a thriller if it follows the lead set in Single-A between the Herts Eagles (1-2)  and Herts Raptors (2-1). The two teams combined for 61 runs and were only separated by a single one of them at the end of the game when Mike Cresswell won the bragging rights, as explained on the Herts Baseball website:

“[The Raptors] were in front, 30-28, as the Eagles went in to bat in the bottom of the ninth. The stage was set.

The first man got on, stole second. And up stepped pinch hitter Adrian Smithers, last year’s home run champion. He’d not played since the first game of the season, but he came through with a drive down the third base line to bring in a run. He scored the tying run himself after Will Belbin continued his excellent form at the plate and got aboard.

And when lead-off man Mike Cresswell stepped in, Belbin was there on third base as the winning run waiting to score. The crack of the bat was a clean sound and the ball sailed decisively out to the outfield. Arms aloft, Will Belbin crossed the plate. He was mobbed by a team which had its first win of the season in the most dramatic fashion”.

The Eagles’ victory ended the Raptors’ unbeaten start to the season.

Elsewhere in the division, the Milton Keynes Coyotes (2-1) faced the Essex Archers in a match-up between two Pool leaders and it was the Archers who came out on top, 38-16, inflicting the first loss of the season on the Coyotes.

Three teams left with unbeaten starts to the season

The AA-North’s Hull Scorpions looked like they had a genuine shot at putting together a perfect winning season with some dominant displays in their first six games. However, the Harrogate Tigers ended those hopes by earning a split against the division leaders last Sunday.

That means only the NBL’s London Mets (6-0) and the AAA-Midlands’ Nottingham Rebels and Milton Keynes Bucks (both 5-0) have yet to experience the bitter taste of defeat so far this year.

The Rebels face the 0-5 Stourbridge Titans this Sunday. If the form book holds true and Nottingham can win both of those games, it will set up an exciting contest in Milton Keynes on 26 May with two unbeaten teams coming together for a double-header.

British Baseball Beat: London Mets move up

Leave a reply

A Bank Holiday can normally be relied upon to offer disappointing weather.

This past weekend was an unusually sunny exception for most, so it was typical that many British baseball teams were not able to take advantage of ‘baseball weather’ in a reduced league schedule.

London leap to top of the NBL

Of the games that were played, the biggest story came on Saturday at Finsbury Park where the London Mets (4-0) swept a double-header against the Herts Falcons (5-3) to climb to the top of the National Baseball League.

The Mets hadn’t played since an Opening Day double-header sweep of the Lakenheath Diamondbacks on 7 April; however there were few signs of rust against the Falcons. London won the games 16-7 and 4-2, the second game including a no-hitter attempt by Pietro Sollecito that was only broken up in the final frame, the seventh inning.

The Mets host NBL newcomers the Essex Redbacks (2-6) this Sunday and they would back themselves to improve their unbeaten start of the season to six games. Their current closest rivals, the Southampton Mustangs (5-1) will travel to Bracknell to face the Blazers (3-3). The Blazers have made a solid start to the season, but if the Mustangs can take two wins it would set up an exciting top-of-the-table double-header between the Mets and Mustangs in Southampton on 19 May.

BBF NBL report

Game-ending triple play

Finsbury Park was certainly the place to be this past Bank Holiday weekend as the NBL Mets’ sweep was accompanied by two wins by the AA-South London Mammoths.

The Mammoths improved their record to 3-2 with the victories over the Sidewinders and staked an early claim for the most dramatic finish to a ballgame of the season in the opener. First baseman Elizer Hernandez and shortstop Pete Weidmann combined to pull off a game-ending triple play to secure a 9-5 win.

BBF AA-South report

Scorpions’ scorching start continues

The Hull Scorpions look like being a real force to be reckoned with this season in the AA-North division. They took two games against the Sheffield Bladerunners on Sunday to improve their record to 6-0.

British Baseball Hall-of-Famer Gavin Marshall continues to inflict damage on opponents and even his own players apparently aren’t safe from his flame-throwing from the mound, according to the BBF AA-North report:

“Marshall had his usual quality start, giving up just one run while striking out 19 to earn his second complete game victory of the year.  Sheffield should be complimented on their resilience for getting five hits and a run off a pitcher who threw so hard he forced his own catcher Miroslav Frank to leave the game after taking a fastball off his knee”.

The Harrogate Tigers (4-1) lead the chasing pack and they will host the Scorpions in a top-of-the-table clash this Sunday.

Trojans trending upwards again

In the AAA-North, the Liverpool Trojans (3-1) dealt the Halton Jaguars (2-2) their first two losses of the season, by scores of 13-6 and 9-4, to retain their lead at the top of the division.

The Trojans are followed in the standings by the Cartmel Valley Lions (3-1) who appear to have been awarded two forfeit victories due to work commitments stopping the Menwith Hill Patriots from fielding a team, something that is always a potential problem for the US Air Force teams in the country.

The road to Farnham

Finally, BSUK’s Liam Carroll recently posted a series of impressive photos on Twitter of the work going on at the new baseball and softball facility at Farnham Park near Slough.

The new site has been funded largely by Sport England and the Baseball Tomorrow Fund, run by Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association, and subject to good weather helping the grass to bed in, it should be a fantastic host venue for the National Baseball Championships later this year.

British Baseball Beat: Lions tame Trojans

Leave a reply

The Cartmel Valley Lions did for the Liverpool Trojans’ unbeaten start to the season for the second straight year last Sunday, whilst the Nottingham Rebels are one of several teams across the leagues to still have a precious ‘0’ in the loss column.

The Liverpool Trojans’ Opening Day 37-3 victory over the Menwith Hill Patriots called to mind the sort of dominance that the team showed during their 2011 campaign when they went through the regular season unbeaten.

Thoughts of a repeat in 2013 were quickly dashed last Sunday and it was a familiar foe that inflicted the damage.

Last season the Cartmel Valley Lions faced a Trojans team at the end of June that were 12-0 and hadn’t lost a regular season game in almost two years. They snapped the streak with a 7-1 win in which the GB Under-23 pitcher Ben Pearson struck out nine and hit a three-run homer.

The Lions clearly haven’t lost their appetite for taking bites out of the reigning AAA champions and Pearson was at the forefront again, striking out 10 Trojans on Sunday as Cartmel took an impressive 20-5 win with 12 of the Lions’ runs coming in a lively seventh inning.

As they did back in 2012, the Trojans regrouped after taking their first loss of the season and earned a split with a 12-6 win in the second game of the double-header, Martin Godsall picking up the pitching ‘W’ in the process. However, the loss did have an impact on the standings as the Halton Jaguars took both games against the Patriots in their season opener and therefore jump ahead of the 2-1 Liverpool with a 2-0 record.

Those results have set up a top-of-the-table clash between the teams in Halton this Sunday.

Rebels remain unbeaten

Whilst the Trojans lost their perfect record, the Nottingham Rebels were able to keep theirs intact thanks to a hard-fought 10-4 win over the Leicester Blue Sox in the AAA-Midlands. The Rebels aren’t scheduled to play again until 19 May, so their unblemished 5-0 record will stand for several weeks longer at least, although they could find themselves in a tie for first place by that point.

The MK Bucks took victories over the Birmingham Maple Leafs on Sunday – both won by two runs but by quite different 2-0 and 16-14 scorelines – and will go into their double-header with Leicester on 12 May looking to keep their unbeaten start to the season going.

Meanwhile in the AAA-South, the London Mets II have marched to the top of the division with two wins at home against 2013 newcomers Leones De Feltham. The Mets II will face club-mates the Metros in a Bank Holiday Monday double-header at Finsbury Park this coming weekend.

Elsewhere in the division, the Oxford Kings’ Miguel Peralta had his no-hit inning streak ended in the fourth inning of their game against the Bristol Badgers. Hans Freidrechsen won the battle to finally get a hit off the Kings’ ace, but Peralta won the war by shutting out the Badgers to help his team to a 3-0 victory, backing up a 7-4 win in the earlier game of the double-header. In Cambridge, the Royals’ ace Brett Curran struck out 10 Richmond Knights batters as his team took two victories to improve to 4-2, whilst the London Metros gained two impressive wins over the Herts Ravens.

Other winning starts

Across the AA and A levels, there are seven teams who are yet to suffer a defeat early in the season.

The Milton Keynes Coyotes, Herts Raptors and Tonbridge are all 2-0 so far in the A-South. Tonbridge has the opportunity to improve to 3-0 this Sunday with a home game against the Haverhill Blackjacks.

Sidewinders and Daws Hill Spitfires are also off to 2-0 starts in the AA-South, whilst the Guildford Mavericks top the division on a 3-0 record and the AA-North is led by the Hull Scorpions on 4-0.

Special credit should go to the Mavericks who had to quickly relocate to ACS Cobham International School to play their recent game against the London Mammoths due to problems at their existing base at Broadwater School in Godalming. The Mavericks are determined to fulfil their fixtures and find a suitable solution to build a home that will support their efforts to offer adults and children the chance to play baseball in the area.

NBL: Falcons v Mets this Sunday

In the National Baseball League, the Southampton Mustangs drew level with the Herts Falcons at the top of the standings with two convincing victories over the Essex Redbacks, prevailing by scores of 11-1 and 12-1.

The Mustangs’ wins came on a weekend when the reigning champions, the Harlow Nationals, surprisingly dropped a game against the South London Pirates. The Pirates are rebuilding after a few fallow years and will take great heart from splitting the double-header in Harlow, particularly after suffering a heavy 14-1 loss in the opener with Matt Gilbert dominating on the mound for the home team. The results leave the Nationals on a somewhat underwhelming 2-4 record to start their bid for a ‘three-peat’, but there is still a long way to go and plenty of time for Harlow to hit their stride.

There is only one NBL double-header scheduled this weekend but it should be a cracker. the Herts Falcons host the London Mets hoping to regain their gap over the Mustangs in the standings. The Mets similarly will be looking to get a win or two on the board as a rain-out and an off-week means the 2007 and 2008 champs haven’t taken to the field since their two victories over the Lakenheath Diamondbacks on 7 April.

British Baseball Beat: Herts take top spot

2 Replies

Last Sunday was the first day of the 2013 British baseball season in which teams from all divisions took to the field.

Herts sweep Harlow to take NBL league lead

The Herts Falcons (5-1) flew to the top of the NBL standings last Sunday with an impressive double-header sweep of the reigning champions, the Harlow Nationals.

The Falcons won by scores of 16-8 and 8-1 and they have averaged just over 10 runs scored per game over their first six contests of the 2013 season. The Nationals’ manager Marty Cullen told the BBF NBL report that he was pleased with the efforts from his pitchers, Ben Powell and Robbie Almanzar, but the ruthless Falcons capitalised on 11 National errors and showed that even when facing effective pitching, they can find a way to put crooked numbers on the scoreboard.

The Falcons aren’t in action this Sunday and that will give the Southampton Mustangs the chance to regain a share of the NBL top spot if they can secure two victories at home against NBL newcomers the Essex Redbacks.

The Redbacks shared a split with the Essex Arrows last Sunday and showed good character in rebounding from an 11-1 loss in the opener to take the second game 8-4. The Redbacks were swept in their season-opening double-header by the Bracknell Blazer, but they have gone 2-2 since then and a trip to Southampton will be a great test to see how they measure up against one of the pre-season favourites.

The Blazers sat out Week 2 and, on the face of it, were brought back down to earth from their opening-day double victory when they lost twice to the Lakenheath Diamondbacks. However, both games were decided by a single run and the Blazers noted on their Twitter account that the oldest player in their squad that day was only 24. The development of Colin Whitton’s young team will be an intriguing story to follow over the course of this season.

Azcuy adds another longball to the list

The Harlow Nationals’ Maikel Azcuy hit his first home run of the season last Sunday in Game One against the Falcons. It was his 27th career round-tripper in the top-tier of British baseball, putting him four home runs behind joint-second placed hitters Alan Bloomfield and Roddi Liebenberg.

Azcuy would need to equal his best home-run season (6 in 2010 with the Croydon Pirates) to take sole possession of second place on the modern top-tier list by the end of 2013. Simon Pole holds the modern-time record of 35 career home runs.

The home run list can be found on Project COBB (2013 stats not included).

More Miguel magic

Here’s a question for veterans of the British baseball scene: has any pitcher started a season with consecutive no-hitters before?

The number of individual pitching seasons over the years, combined with the presence of some pitchers that have overmatched opponents, make it entirely possible that the feat has been achieved before, but even if the AAA-South Bristol Badgers’ Miguel Peralta feat isn’t unique, it’s still hugely impressive.

Peralta followed up his British baseball no-hit debut against the London Metros on 14 April with another no-no in his next game against the Cambridge Royals last Sunday. The Badgers host the Oxford Kings this coming Sunday, with Bristol’s ace aiming to reign supreme against another regal ballclub.

Marshall back on the mound

British Baseball Hall of Famer Gavin Marshall made his return to the BBF leagues last Sunday as the Hull native donned a Hull Scorpions uniform and helped his new team to a double-header sweep over the Manchester A’s in the AA-North.

Marshall was the first born-and-bred British baseball player to earn a professional contract in the United States (chronicled by BaseballGB writer Mark George in the book ‘Nine Aces’) and he represented the Great Britain national team with distinction between 1993 and 1999.

The Scorpions finished third in the AA-North last season with an 11-15 record, but the addition of Marshall and the team’s overall play against Manchester suggests that they will be a contender for the Double-A title this season.

Rebels and Trojans

The Liverpool Trojans got their AAA-North season underway with a 37-3 mauling of the Menwith Hill Patriots before rain led to the postponement of the second game. Meanwhile the Nottingham Rebels improved to 4-0 with two convincing wins over the Birmingham Maple Leafs in the AAA-Midlands.

With the Midlands division being upgraded to the AAA level this season, we could potentially have a battle for Triple-A supremacy on our hands between Liverpool and Nottingham. The two teams will not meet during the regular season and this separation could make for a fascinating storyline if the two can dominate their divisions as they did in 2012, with the two clubs eyeing each other from afar in anticipation of a National Baseball Championship clash.

Full details of this Sunday’s fixtures can be found on the BBF website.

British Baseball Beat: Getting going

1 Reply

There were double-header sweeps, postponements and a no-hitter last Sunday as teams throughout the British baseball community conjured up plenty of news and excitement.

With the AAA-North and A-South divisions set to begin this Sunday, the action is only going to increase.

British Baseball Federation NBL report

AAA-South report

AAA-Midlands report

AA-South report

Stand-out sweeps

The Southampton Mustangs are joint-leaders in the NBL after winning both games of a double-header against the Essex Arrows last Sunday. The victories put the Mustangs on a 3-1 record, level with the Herts Falcons who earned a split against the Lakenheath Diamondbacks.

The Nottingham Rebels started their AAA-Midlands season off with two victories over the Stourbridge Titans. It was quite a day for the reigning AA Champions as Shannon Henry hit two home runs and Luke Stott swiped six bases. The Rebels immediately gained an advantage in the standings with the other two Midlands teams in action – Birmingham Maple Leafs and Leicester Blue Sox – splitting their double-header.

In the AA-South, the Richmond Dragons roared on Opening Day with two impressive victories over the Kent Mariners, by scores of 13-3 and 18-1. Sidewinders and London Mammoths also got themselves in the win column with victories over the Southampton Mustangs II and Herts Hawks respectively.

Stand-out performance

Whilst there were contenders from various games, it’s difficult to look past a no-hitter. The AAA-South Bristol Badgers’ Miguel Peralta had a dream of a debut, despite dishing out four walks in the first inning against the London Metros. He settled down from then on and amassed 18 strikeouts over the course of the game, immediately putting a marker down for the rest of the season.

The Metros didn’t let the no-hitter affect them and bounced back in style with a 10-0 victory in the second game of the double-header. The other AAA-South double-header of the day – London Mets II against Cambridge Royals – also ended in a split making the expectations of a close division battle seem entirely appropriate.

Weather

The weather on Sunday was relatively kind to baseball In most parts of the country. With Cambridge as a guide, temperatures were much more Spring-like than the Spring Leagues had to contend with a few weeks ago, although an intermittent strong wind ensured that there was no such thing as a ‘routine’ fly ball.

The Cambridge Royals host the London Mets II at Coldham’s Common, Cambridge

Unfortunately the bad weather from previous weeks left several fields in an unplayable condition. Games between the Richmond Knights and Herts Ravens, and the Daws Hill Spitfires and Guildford Mavericks, had to be postponed alongside the big NBL clash in Harlow between the Nationals and the London Mets.  The Nationals are due to host the Herts Falcons this Sunday and we’ll have to wait and see whether the field improves in time for that exciting double-header to go ahead as planned.

League developments

Sadly the weather wasn’t the only thing stopping games being played on Sunday. The AA-South has been reduced by two teams as both the Poole Piranhas (an NBC contender last season) and the Essex Redbacks II team withdrew from the competition due to lack of players and resources.

As befits the evolutionary nature of British baseball, as two teams disappear so two new teams enter the fray. The Single-A season begins this coming Sunday with the Haverhill Blackjacks and Milton Keynes Coyotes hoping to make a good first impression on their BBF league debuts.

Meanwhile the playoffs are already on the minds of many in the NBL. A thoughtful article on the Herts Baseball Club website weighs up the pros and cons of the current criteria that means NBL players must have appeared in 45% of the team’s regular season games to be eligible for the postseason. Whilst the intent behind the rule – in place following a majority vote among NBL clubs in December 2011 – is a sound one, the article raises concerns about the collection of stats to support the requirement, as well as the potential benefits that could be gained by allowing higher-profile players to participate in the marquee event of the British baseball season.

As well as postseason eligibility, we may well see a change to the criteria in regard to participation in the NBL next year. New BBF President Earl Dix has put increasing the sport’s youth programmes at the heart of his agenda and in a recent blog he makes clear that it is his intention to “enforce the rule for NBL clubs that they must have a youth programme”. It’s noted that teams will be given time to achieve this and if in the medium term it produces even more top-tier clubs that are built on strong foundations then that’s got to be a good thing for the health of the sport.