{"id":549,"date":"2008-08-14T00:18:45","date_gmt":"2008-08-13T23:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=549"},"modified":"2008-08-14T07:04:40","modified_gmt":"2008-08-14T06:04:40","slug":"national-baseball-league-bracknell-croydon-season-series-ends-4-4-london-now-just-4-games-off-perfection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=549","title":{"rendered":"National Baseball League: Bracknell-Croydon season series ends 4-4; London now just 4 games off perfection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of the six games played between\u00c2\u00a0the Croydon Pirates and the Bracknell Blazers before last Sunday’s double-header at Westmorland Park (the Blazers’\u00c2\u00a0ground), each team had won three, and each team had enjoyed a walk-off victory, by respective scores of\u00c2\u00a05-4<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0and 2-1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first game of the most recent double-header\u00c2\u00a0was again won in the bottom of the 7th inning, with the 6-5<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0contest\u00c2\u00a0being settled\u00c2\u00a0by\u00c2\u00a0a “walk-off strike out” (Bracknell’s winning run resulted from a wild pitch that was swung on for strike three with the bases loaded and one out).\u00c2\u00a0Croydon had tied the game in the 6th inning thanks to a solo home run from shortstop Kevin Brush – this was one of four extra-base hits in consecutive at-bats\u00c2\u00a0stroked by\u00c2\u00a0Brush.<\/p>\n

Game two remained close through\u00c2\u00a0to the 4th inning, but the departure in that frame of Bracknell starter Matt Maitland,\u00c2\u00a0after being\u00c2\u00a0hit on the elbow by a pitch, was followed by a 10-run 5th inning for Croydon.\u00c2\u00a0The game was truncated on\u00c2\u00a0the mercy rule at the end of that inning with the score standing at\u00c2\u00a016-6.<\/p>\n

The fielding highlights of the\u00c2\u00a0day belonged to Bracknell. The first was a superb catch in right field\u00c2\u00a0by Jamie Ford and the second was an unassisted\u00c2\u00a0and very athletic double-play from shortstop Ryan Trask. With\u00c2\u00a0a runner on second, Ty Touchstone hit a pop-fly that drew both the third baseman and Trask out of the infield. After Trask\u00c2\u00a0took the catch, the runner on second\u00c2\u00a0tagged up and set off for third (now unattended), but\u00c2\u00a0Trask was able to sprint in and apply the tag just in time.\u00c2\u00a0Trask\u00c2\u00a0was involved in two other double-plays, although these both took\u00c2\u00a0a more conventional route (6-4-3, with Max Flajsner being the\u00c2\u00a04 and Gordan Sheppard the 3).<\/p>\n

Inside the M25, the Richmond Flames took on the London Mets\u00c2\u00a0at Finsbury Park but managed just three hits across the two games, which London won 5-1 and 10-0. Brian Essery picked up his ninth win of the season in the first game, while Ernesto Bolufer\u00c2\u00a0pitched\u00c2\u00a0all\u00c2\u00a05 innings of\u00c2\u00a0the shutout in game two.<\/p>\n

To complete an unbeaten regular season, the Mets need to sweep\u00c2\u00a0two double-headers on the road, the first against\u00c2\u00a0Croydon\u00c2\u00a0this Sunday and\u00c2\u00a0the second\u00c2\u00a0at Richmond the Sunday after.<\/p>\n

No games were played in the NBL North, so while the Liverpool Trojans technically remain in contention for a second-place finish and the last remaining berth in the National Finals (alongside London, Richmond, and Manchester), it is difficult to see how they would fit in the necessary games to erase the 6.5-game gap between them and the Menwith Hill Patriots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of the six games played between\u00c2\u00a0the Croydon Pirates and the Bracknell Blazers before last Sunday’s double-header at Westmorland Park (the Blazers’\u00c2\u00a0ground), each team had won three, and each team had enjoyed a walk-off victory, by respective scores of\u00c2\u00a05-4\u00c2\u00a0and 2-1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-british-baseball-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}