British Baseball Beat: Rain again

Heavy rain washed away the vast majority of the British league schedule last weekend.

The league tables therefore didn’t change much, but we do have some additional complications to factor in when predicting potential playoff teams, namely the growing number of postponed games that some teams have to make up and the short amount of time left in the schedule to do so.

It now seems likely that a number of games over the leagues will end up not being played and we’ll have to wait and see how they are accounted for the in the standings in each case.

Fingers are firmly crossed that we get some good weather over the coming weeks, although the recent heavy rain in some areas could lead to one or two fields being declared as unplayable this weekend even if the rain largely stays away.

Let’s be optimistic and look ahead to the feast of baseball that we should have this Sunday.

National Baseball League

Despite some sterling efforts to get the games on, all of the NBL action had to be postponed last Sunday. There is only one double-header on the schedule for this Sunday and it should be an absolute belter between the Herts Falcons and London Mets, at the latter’s Finsbury Park diamond.

Herts had been due to face the Harlow Nationals in a top of the table clash last Sunday, but with those games postponed it denied the Falcons the chance to overhaul their rivals or for the Nationals to put some distance between themselves and their competitors.  The London Mets are hot on the heels of the top two and will hope to improve their 10-5 record with a double-header sweep at home this weekend.

Depending on field and player availability, it’s possible that last Sunday’s double-headers between the Southampton Mustangs and Essex Arrows, and Croydon Pirates and Lakenheath Diamondbacks, could be made up this weekend, although there is no word on that at time of writing.

Triple-A

The BBF website lists the AAA-North leaders the Liverpool Trojans as being on the road against the Halton Jaguars, with the Manchester A’s facing the Menwith Hill Patriots and the Cartmel Valley Lions taking on the Bolton Robots of Doom.

In the South, the Cambridge Royals are scheduled to host the Oxford Kings for a double-header at the former’s field on Coldham’s Common. Both teams are currently second in their respective Pool in what’s proving to be a very competitive division this year. The Kings trail the Bristol Badgers by one game in Pool A, while the Royals are also one game back of the Essex Redbacks in Pool B.

Double-A

In the South, the Southampton Mustangs II are at 5-7 so far in their debut season at the Double-A level and they will hope to get back up to .500 by taking both games of their home double-header against the Richmond Dragons this Sunday. Meanwhile the London Mammoths, also newcomers in 2012, would jump ahead of the Sidewinders to take the lead in Pool B if they can win both games against the Kent Mariners.

In the North, the division-leading Sheffield Bladerunners are scheduled to travel to the North East to face the Newton Aycliffe Spartans. The second-placed Harrogate Tigers are away to the third-placed Manchester Torrent, while the Hull Scorpions travel to Oldham to face the North Stars.

Single-A

We did get a couple of results in Single-A last Sunday. The London Maruaders defeated Tonbridge 32-12 to improve their winning start to the season to 6-0. Richmond Dukes got credited with their first win of 2012 with a 9-0 victory over the Braintree Rays.

This Sunday, the London Marauders are scheduled to host Hove Tuesday, while Herts Raptors host the Old Timers.

Keep a check on the BBF website, and the respective team’s Twitter feeds, for updates on which games will actually go ahead this Sunday.