Bracknell Baseball Club
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Bracknell Baseball Club |
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Blazers II (3-3) v Thames Valley Bisons
British A League
Played at Westmorland Park, Sunday 15th June - Game notes by Mark Salter
Bracknell Blazers II contained a middle inning fight-back by local rivals Thames Valley Bisons to earn a 22-12 win. Bracknell bats were alive early on opening with twelve runs in two innings and, behind Bart Schouwenaars strong early pitching, opened up a ten run lead. TV had other ideas and almost put Bracknell completely on the back foot with seven runs of their own in the 4th. A pitching change brought Player-of-the-Game Cameron Gittoes from catcher to the mound and he calmed TV bats right down for five innings, with an impressive array of pitches, allowing only three further runs with Bracknell providing a comfortable finale with nine runs in the last two innings.
Blazers II (2-3) v Southampton Mustangs
British A League
Played at Westmorland Park, Sunday 8th June - Game notes by Mark Salter
Blazers II faced Southampton Mustangs in a rapid return game after the close 9-10 reversal the weekend before. Unfortunately Southampton’s bats were more lively and Bracknell’s defence was not up to the task of playing catch to get the required outs. Several errors and some walks helped Southampton into a handy lead and Bracknell’s bats, fairly lively themselves it has to be said, kept finding the opposition’s fielders who obliged by making routine plays effectively. Bracknell staged a late comeback attempt, scoring one in the fifth and three in the sixth off of back-to-back-to-back doubles, but were soundly beaten 19-4.
Croydon III v Blazers II (2-1)
British A League
Played at Roundshaw, Sunday May 18th - Game notes by Mark Salter
Bracknell’s 2nd adult team suffered its first defeat of the season at the hands of Croydon’s 3rd team. After two wins from two Blazers II were optimistic but wary of a Croydon III team that had scored plenty of runs in previous weeks. Pre-game infield / outfield probably forecast how things would be and the team continued to stutter early on against a biting Croydon offence. After 2 innings, during which Blazers II didn’t appear to be at the game at all, and facing a 13-0 deficit, Coach Mark Salter held a brief team huddle at the bench. He asked his players to forget all that had gone before and to concentrate on the things they knew how to do – namely to play the basics well, to be patient and aggressive at the plate, and to communicate.
It seemed to work as although no runs were scored, Blazers II started to play better and they limited Croydon to only four more runs during the remainder of the game. Bart Schouwenaars pitching, on his return to the team, became solid and accurate. With only 9 players on the day, changes were limited and when they were made – Adam Huxley taking over on the mound and Carlos Munoz behind the dish – the level was maintained. Kant Nogami once again belied his youthful years with a mature all round performance.
The inexperienced outfield of Katja Brügmann, Tracey James and Chris Hartley improved as the game wore on. With more games and with more chances to play and develop their communications, confidence will follow.
Guildford v Bracknell II (2-0)
British A League
Played at Christs College, Guildford on Sunday 20th April - Game notes by Mark Salter
Box score taken from Guildford's web-site
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Bracknell |
0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 16 | 11 | 2 |
|
Guildford |
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 14 | 4 |
A good first league win of the season against Guildford as all our players got good game time. Adam Huxley threw 5, Joe Jones 2, and Leo Nogami 2 to finish off. Huxley gave up an early 3 run shot, but hung in there and got better as he settled and found the strike zone more regularly.
Fielding in the main was very good. All fly ball out opportunities were held. One slight bobble prior to the HR meant we missed a potential double-play which would have ended the inning and we suffered a 4-run rally with 2 outs. Pitchers kept their poise and Chris Hartley had an adventure with but held the last out.
Huxley, Kiddie, Jones J, Nogami K, Nogami L, Yamanouchi, Brügmann, Salter, James, Haywood, Hartley
Click here to read the Guildford report and box-scores on their web-site.
Bracknell 10 Herts Hawks 1
Herts Spring League
Played at Herts, on Sunday 13th April - Game Report by Mark Salter
Once again a Bracknell win in the HSL, so remaining unbeaten in pre-season.
Bracknell dominated on the back of some good hitting by their NL players in the line-up, but that is not to say the 2nd team players on show didn’t do their bit. Far from it on a bleak day in Hemel Hempstead. Bracknell's arrival at the diamond was welcomed by rain, and it was the damp, dark conditions that would bring the game to a premature conclusion.
Bracknell jumped out early, the highlight Michael Clarke’s 3 run homer. The pitching of Matt Maitland and Henry Collins, with a middle inning spell from Jordan Spicer, kept Herts very quiet. For these guys next week will be a tad different, however they may well be slightly more prepared perhaps than in previous years thanks to the inaugural HSL.
Leo Nogami has for the 2nd game in a row shown he will be challenging for a place in the NL starting line-up before long with some good hits and solid plays in defence at SS. His ‘little’ brother Kant shows great promise too, and is certainly not intimidated by guys who tower over him for the opposition.
Katja Brügmann and Marcus Cooper made their first appearances and despite getting to 3rd base, Katja only failed to score due to a force out. With a good mix of 2nd team and Pony players filling out both the starting line-up and the bench, plus some NL players making their 1st starts, things look ok for Bracknell for the start of the regular season.
Bracknells 2nds look to have a nice mix of youth and experience and no little desire, so once their (delayed) start to the regular season arrives, expectations are strong.
Final score 10-1
Squad: Matt Maitland (P), Michael Clarke (C) , Phil Matthews, Ryan Trask, Leo Nogami, Neville Wallace, Marcus Simpson, Henry Collins, Adam Huxley, Jordan Spicer (P), Marcus Cooper, Katja Brügmann, Kant Nogami, Mike Cattermole, Mark Salter, Rob Rance
Bracknell 8 Herts Hawks 5
Herts Spring League
Played at Ham Field, Richmond, on Sunday 30th March - Game Report by Mark Salter
Box score - info from Herts web-site
| Inning | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| Herts | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 1 |
| Bracknell | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 9 | 1 |
Squad: Matt Maitland*, Adam Huxley*, Phil Matthews, Katsunori Yamanouchi, Leo Nogami, Damian Van Niekerk*, Mark Salter, Henry Collins*, Ryan Trask, Kant Nogami, Tracey James, Neville Wallace, Theo*
* Pitchers
Coach - Roddi Liebenbe
As a Spring Training ‘friendly’ in the HSL, Bracknell were simply looking to put pitchers on the mound for a short time, as well as getting the cobwebs out in terms of batting and fielding. As far as objectives were concerned, it was felt that all were met and, on top of that, Bracknell beat Herts 8-5.
Bracknell jumped out early behind some good pitching from Matt Maitland. Adam Huxley showed his versatility behind the dish although, even with Matt throwing around 60-65 %, proved to be quite a challenge.
The line-up showed a good spread of players from our NL side, the Pony team, and the 2nd team. A few new faces were making their debuts, Leo & Kant Nogami, Neville Wallace, and Theo xxxxxxxx. Plays in the field were in the main routine, however 2 plays stood out; an inning completing double play, Batter out at 1st on a dribbler to the infield, and a throw to snag the runner from 2nd who was attempting a delayed steal to 3rd, then the strangest mix-up on a routine ground-ball that had pitcher and 1st base each watch each other wait for the other, before 2nd base did the job at 1st. Phew!
Herts best moment appeared to be when their experienced pitcher, Darrin Ward, ex-player with top division teams including Croydon and London, who's outing lasted the entire game bar some of the 1st inning – when the original pitcher got injured – hit a towering fly-ball off Henry into RF which would normally would have been a regular 2 bagger, but with no fence, bases cleared and for a moment Bracknell took a sharp breath.
Order was restored however and decent pitching coupled with both routine plays in the field and the occasional base hit meant Bracknell were able to start pre-season with a ‘W’.
Special mention then to our youngest participant, Kant Nogami, who despite his obvious difference in height to the rest played like he should be there; also Damian Van Niekerk who showed maturity on the mound; Leo Nogami who made middle infield plays look simple despite pre-match nerves; Adam Huxley whose range knows no bounds – is there a position he won’t play?
Huge thanks go to Jon Haywood who donned the Umpires togs behind the plate, and despite a few ‘challenges of authority’ and the odd bit of Baseball player humour, played fair both ways to leave no-one comparing him to Steve Bennett or Mike Riley. Good job Jon.
Next week we have two games at home, starting with a 10.30 game vs Richmond , and a 3 pm slot vs Sidewinders. In between our two opponents will play each other.
Click here to read the Herts report on their web-site.
