Leaders emerge from divisions as midseason approaches
The senior British Baseball leagues have started to open up a little in most divisions as the leaders continued to win while those at the bottom of the pile still struggled, but there were a number of surprises along the way. Let’s take a walk through the divisions.
The NBL is as good a place to start as any, especially with the outcomes of a few great games that clears up the water in the Road to the NBCs. The Harlow Nationals, defending National Champions, came up against a resurgent Bracknell Blazers side, but were able to power home to stay at the top of the rankings, a close 2-1 win followed by a more resounding 11-4 victory. This, matched to the split series between Herts and Essex, saw the Nationals move to 10-3 on the season, while the Blazers are some way out of being their competitive best this year.
The Herts Falcons, who had led proceedings during the first four weeks of the season, have fallen a little by their own great form, but credit is due to the Essex Arrows who earned a fantastic split against the team from Hemel Hempstead. Lee Manning’s men recorded a strong 12-7 win in the first game after falling into a five-run hole, but the Arrows came back and secured a 13-9 success at Grovehill Ballpark, with three home runs hit through the afternoon. The Arrows stay at .500, a record they’ve had for three weeks after consecutive split series, while the Falcons lost a little ground in the title hunt, now at 9-3, with the Southampton Mustangs and London Mets close behind with games in hand.
This weekend, the Mustangs take on the winless Croydon Pirates at Roundshaw playing fields, the Mets travel to Lakenheath to take on the 3-6 Diamondbacks and the Herts Falcons will be at Westmorland to take on the Bracknell Blazers and GB Juniors. The top five qualify for the playoffs, but only the top three automatically, so the race really is on for the best spots in the NBC draw.
In AAA North, it was no surprise to see the Liverpool Trojans remain unbeaten, although the Halton Jaguars will be disappointed that both defeats were by more than ten runs. The Manchester As and Menwith Hill Patriots split, and the Cartmel Valley Lions took advantage with two wins over the Bolton Robots of Doom. With the results, the Lions are just a game out of the second playoff spot, with two games in hand over the Patriots, while the Trojans (10-0) remain perfect. The Manchester As and Halton Jaguars appear already to be fighting for fourth place, while the Robots of Doom will be hoping to pick up pace and wins in a double-header at home to the Jaguars this weekend. The marquee match-up, though, will see the Patriots host the Trojans, with either a five-game lead or a one-game advantage the extremes of a sweep for either side (the Trojans will stay top regardless).
AAA South saw a couple of big double headers. The Richmond Knights, who were leading Pool A, travelled to Chelmsford to take on the Pool B leaders the Essex Redbacks. But behind strong hitting – ‘Chicki’ Martinez hit his sixth and seventh home runs of 2012, Richard Chesterton hit his second – and great pitching – Chesterton earning his fifth win of the campaign, and Vince Warner threw a brilliant no-hitter – the Redbacks won both by a combined 32-6 scoreline. Matched to the Bristol Badgers’ sweep of the Cambridge Royals (5-2 and 5-4 in some excellent conditions, ironically, at Richmond to reduce travel commitments for both teams), the Badgers moved top of Pool A (now 9-4), while Richmond dropped to 6-4 and second place. The Redbacks are the only team above .500 in Pool B, with an 11-3 record. Everyone in the south will have the Jubilee weekend off but be raring to get back to action on June 10.
AA South saw a lot of action go the wrong way if the formbook was to be believed, with the Latin Tigers, bottom of Pool A, upsetting the Pool B leading Herts Hawks, while the Poole Piranhas’ unbeaten record was taken by the Sidewinders. In so doing, the Piranhas lost their Pool A top spot and the Sidewinders took pole in Pool B. The Guildford Mavericks stayed unbeaten – the only unblemished record in the division, with a win over the London Mammoths, while the Thames Valley Bisons regrouped after a couple of forfeits to squeak two close ones against the Southampton Mustangs II, leapfrogging them in Pool A in the process. The Richmond Dragons took the biggest win of the weekend, beating the Kent Mariners, but again the division is showing the British baseball world that it’s full of surprises, twists and turns this season. Anything can happen.
The Northern side of the draw saw one big and one small win for the Harrogate Tigers against the Manchester Torrent, moving the Tigers to third place, while the Oldham North Stars did the improbable in splitting their series against the Hull Scorpions. The North Stars hadn’t won in 2012, but blasted a 19-16 victory after agonisingly losing the first one 9-8. Once again, then, there’s proof that on their days, anyone can beat anyone across the British baseball divisions.
In the Midlands, the Leicester Blue Sox made their move back towards the top half of the table by sweeping the Birmingham Maple Leafs, while the Nottingham Rebels remained perfect this season with another win over the Stourbridge Titans. The winless Titans exacted some revenge in the Midlands Minor League contest, though, and the debut season is proving to be exciting and worthwhile for the newcomers.
Single-A South saw a big clash between two playoff-fancied sides, with the London Marauders picking up their third win of the season against Herts Raptors. With their 3-0 record, they move above the Guildford Mavericks II, who lost out to the Essex Archers (5-0), but the Mavericks II did score as many runs in seven innings as the Archers had conceded all year, and ‘restricted’ them to 23 offensively! The defeat, however, means that in a fortnight the Guildford side have slipped from first to third while Hove Tuesday, who’ve not played for a month, stay second.
The Tonbridge Bobcats couldn’t complete their fixture against the Herts Eagles (the Eagles move to 3-2 with the win), but the Essex Redbacks III got off the ground with a comprehensive result against the Richmond Dukes. Both sides were winless coming in, but it was the Redbacks III who emerged victorious in seven innings.
Most teams will enjoy a weekend off for the Jubilee, but rained out fixtures earlier in the season are being squeezed in. The Essex Redbacks II travel to Herts Hawks in AA South, while the London Mammoths host the Kent Mariners and Croydon Pirates III travel to Guildford Mavericks in other games in the division. Outside of the NBL and AAA North, those are the only fixtures, but that means however that more people are able to attend the London Cup Fastpitch Tournament in Richings Park.
On Monday, the GB baseball programme is hosting a fundraiser at Finsbury Park, where players, coaches and members of the set-up will be walking over hot coals for your quids to help offset the travel costs to the tournaments this summer. There’ll also be a number of exciting baseball games, with the GB Juniors taking on the AA All-Stars and GB 23U taking on the NBL All-Stars, with a GB Cadet vs Pony All-Stars game in the middle to boot. There’ll also be an exciting home run derby and sponsored 5k run, so rather than party in the street or stand by the banks of the river, more fun will be had drinking some beers and watching some excellent baseball action at the central London home of the sport.