It’s a two-part British Baseball Beat this week. 

We start with a report on the National Baseball League games between the Bracknell Blazers and Southern Nationals. 

On Thursday there will be a brief round-up of the rest of the action in the British leagues and a preview of the top games scheduled for the weekend ahead.

The Southern Nationals may be new to the British leagues in 2011, but they are far from being a rookie outfit.  The club was formed over the 2010/11 offseason by Brendan Cunliffe, Jason Greenberg, Will Lintern and Marty Cullen: all experienced members of the British baseball community. 

When the new club was launched earlier this year, Club President Brendan Cunliffe said it was the Nationals’ goal “to fashion a new team that brings out the best” in the game.  Players and coaching are a big part of this, but so are the facilities where the game can be enjoyed and the Nationals’ home was on show in the rain on Sunday.

Northbrooks Playing Field in Harlow is one of a number of examples in British baseball of what can be achieved with the support of the local community. 

The Harlow Neighbourhood Watch committee saw the introduction of baseball as being a way to get more youngsters involved in sport back in 2005.  A successful application to the Barclays Bank Spaces for Sports initiative in 2008 produced the funding required to build a baseball facility with a clay diamond, backstop and dugouts.  The field was in place for the 2009 season and a youth team, Harlow Green Sox, was formed. 

Earlier this year, an agreement was reached to lease the field to Harlow Neighbourhood Watch and the Southern Nationals took up the opportunity to use the field as its base, bringing top-tier British baseball and quality coaching to the area.

The Nationals swept a double-header over the Lakenheath Diamondbacks in their home debut on 8 May and had a win-loss record of 5-3 at home on the season prior to this past Sunday’s double-header against the Bracknell Blazers. 

With the day marked as the official re-launch of the Harlow Baseball Project, the Nationals were keen to impress those in attendance, a group that included British Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Margaret Borley MBE.

The opening game started brightly for the home team as they took a 3-1 lead in the first inning.  The Blazers hit back with three runs in the top of the third to make it 4-3 to Bracknell but that lead was erased with one swing of the bat by former Croydon Pirate Maikel Azcuy.  He hit a solo home run over the right-field fence and onto the roof of the changing rooms to tie the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the third inning. The Nationals added on two runs in the next inning to give the home side a 6-4 lead. 

Azcuy’s bat aside, there was no thunder in Harlow but the dark clouds did turn into rain and after zeroes were traded in the fifth inning, both teams headed for cover when the rain turned into a downpour. 

The Blazers emerged from the shelter of the bushes rejuvenated after a fifteen-minute rain delay and plated five runs in the top of the sixth to take a 9-6 lead.  That remained the score as the Nationals went into the bottom of the seventh and final frame with their minds set on a game-winning rally. It proved to be an eventful end to the contest.

The Blazers had Edwin Alcantara caught in a run-down between second and third base but their throw sailed into centre field and Alcantara steamed around third base and headed for home.  Unfortunately for the Nationals, he was narrowly beaten by the throw and called out at the plate. Although the home team did score two runs in the inning, that still left them one short when the third and final out was recorded to give the Blazers a 9-8 victory.

After the customary 20 minute gap between games, Bracknell proved once again that a break in the proceedings wouldn’t knock them off course.  They carried the momentum of the first game into the second by scoring four runs in the top of the first inning. 

However, after letting one game get away from them, the Nationals were determined not to let it happen twice in one day.

They hit four runs of their own in the bottom of the first inning and even when the Blazers regained the lead in the top of second with a single run, the Nationals came straight back at them. 

Azcuy provided the power once again, hitting his second longball of the day with a two-run shot to centre field, as the Nationals scored three runs before following it up with three more in the bottom of the third.  The Blazers didn’t seriously challenge the Nationals the rest of the way and the home team rescued a split from the day’s play with a 12-6 victory.

The final out of the second game saw many bidding a hasty retreat back to their cars to start their journey home as the rain lashed down once again.  There was reason to bemoan Harlow’s weather, but certainly not the day of baseball that the town had hosted.