When the rain went away, the baseballers came out to play

Following a miserable fortnight of British baseball, with only a handful of pitches thrown in anger, ironically it was a scheduled rain date for most teams that got the season back on track.

Starting with the NBL, the top tier of baseball here in Britain, the 2011 National Champion Harlow Nationals succumbed to their second defeat this season at the hands of the London Mets in Finsbury Park. The two teams had split a pair of games on opening day, but the 9-1 thumping that the Mets handed out was one of the more resounding results heard around the leagues. Although the Nationals have a better post-season record against the Mets, during the regular season it’s the team from north London that dominate proceedings (6-1 over the past two years).

The Southampton Mustangs couldn’t go top of the league, but they could keep pressure on the Herts Falcons (5-1) by winning both games against the Croydon Pirates. They duly obliged with a big start (15-3 in six innings) and a closer 6-2 win at their home on the south coast. With the wins, the Mets (4-1) and Mustangs (5-2) own second and third place, with the Nationals (5-2) having scored considerably fewer runs than Southampton, although have conceded fewer as well.

The other action in the NBL saw the Essex Arrows win both games of a double-header against last year’s runners-up, the Lakenheath Diamondbacks. The 9-7 and 7-2 wins at Waltham Abbey saw the Arrows even their record out at 4-4, while the Diamondbacks are now in a spot of bother to reclaim a shot at the crown having dropped to 1-4 after the first month of the NBL season. However, the Pirates (0-6) remain winless alongside the Bracknell Blazers (0-4), and all is still to play for with big games in the next few weeks.

In AAA North, the Liverpool Trojans maintained their awesome form over the past season and a half, winning two important games against the impressive Cartmel Valley Lions. Liverpool won both by five runs (6-1 and 16-11) to go to a 6-0 record, while the Lions dropped to 3-3 after their tough start to the season. The Menwith Hill Patriots have regrouped in 2012, going to a 4-2 record with two unbelievably tight wins (a walk-off 6-5 and 4-3) over the Halton Jaguars (0-4), and it is looking like an enticing proposition for second place if the Trojans can keep up their outrageous run.

The break in weather wasn’t enough to prevent another postponement as both the Bolton Robots of Doom and Manchester As couldn’t find a way to play on their flooded pitches.

AAA South saw a little action in the capital. The Essex Redbacks looked dominant against the Latin Boys, with Richard Chesterton pitching a one-hit shutout over five innings – his second shutout in three starts – en route to an 18-0 win in Croydon. After being 9-2 up as well in Game 2, things seemed to be cruising, but a change of umpires seemed to alter proceedings as the Latin Boys came back to win 12-11 over seven innings in a hotly contested and controversial match. The Boys move to 4-2 while the Redbacks remain on top (5-1) this season, and will eagerly await hosting the Latin Boys in Chelmsford this weekend.

The London Metros (2-3) got their kick-started their season by beating last year’s AAA South Champions the Bristol Badgers twice in close 11-8 and 11-9 wins at Finsbury Park, meaning they jumped ahead of the Cambridge Royals (1-3) in Pool B, with the Badgers (1-3) dropping to the foot of Pool A after the first few weeks of the season.

Elsewhere in the south, single-A saw a few games with the Essex Archers easily coming through against the Tonbridge Bobcats (25-3 final score), seeing the Archers go to 3-0 on the season, Tonbridge dropping to 0-2, and the Guildford Mavericks II found the going similarly easy as they also earned their third win against the Richmond Dukes, 21-7 the score.

The Poole Piranhas and London Mammoths moved to 3-0 records to top Pools A and B outright in AA South, with the Piranhas winning against the Herts Hawks in Grovehill (9-4 final score) while the Mammoths picked up two wins against the Daws Hill Spitfires (1-3), with 10-5 and 5-4 scores. These are all tight games at this level.

The AA Midlands league saw only one competitive game in the form of the Leicester Blue Sox (3-0) beating the 2011 AA Midlands Champions Milton Keynes Bucks (1-1) 8-3 over a good nine innings of ‘ball. The Blue Sox had a tough outing last season, but developments across the board at the Leicester club have been great and after being awarded Clubmark status and grants from BSUK for their continued commitment, success on the pitch is just deserts for their fantastic efforts.

Rounding off proceedings, the Hull Scorpions twice beat the Newton Aycliffe Spartans (17-1 and 15-4) to jump to the top of the leaderboard (4-0), while the Spartans sink to the bottom (0-4). The Sheffield Bladerunners (4-0) joined Hull at the top with two wins against the Manchester Torrent (2-2), the 4-2 defeat that looked to be going the other way in Game 1 taking its toll on the travelling Torrent as they fell down 10-4 in Game 2. In the battle between the two previously winless teams, the Harrogate Tigers came out on top against the Oldham North Stars (with 17-2 and 13-6 wins), evening up their record while consigning the North Stars to the bottom of the pile alongside the Spartans after a couple of weekends of action.