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| Bracknell and London take top honours at BBF Youth Championships |
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The British National Baseball Championships (NBC) entered their final weekend with the Youth competition at Finsbury Park, home of the London Mets. The Bronco (ages 10-13) and Pony (ages 13-16) leagues each welcomed four contending squads, making up the top eight youth teams in the BBF. In addition to the host Mets, the Halton Polecats, Cartmel Valley, Herts Baseball Club, the Bracknell Tornadoes and the Horsham Hornets survived the gruelling stretch of playoff games to reach the NBC.
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BRONCO FINALS...
On Saturday the tournament hosts, the London Mets, advanced to Sunday's BBF Bronco Final. By overturning a courageous Cartmel Valley comeback, the Mets batted their way to a six-inning win.
Later that afternoon, Herts won in extra innings against Halton after the Polecats tied the game but then stranded the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth inning. (A regulation Bronco game is six-innings long, while a Pony game is seven.)
3rd/4th Bronco Game: Halton Polecats 8, Cartmel Valley 4
These games set up a 3rd-4th place showdown between Halton and Cartmel Valley. These two regional rivals have played many times before and the players were eager to take the diamond. In a very rapid six-inning game, Halton quickly found their bats and slugged out a significant lead. Cartmel's pitching struggled to contain the aggressive Polecats lineup. Leadoff batter Harry Pickup was 2-4 with one RBI and Spencer Roberts was 1-3 with two RBI. Halton's starting pitcher - Jonas Grader - pitched five innings of quality ball, allowing only three earned runs and a .286 opponent batting average.
Cartmel Valley was not without some offence of their own. Jonny Hill went 2-3, and Tyler Prescott and Ross Duclos were each 1-2 with one RBI. Catcher Tom Woodburn hit a monster solo home run late in the game; some fans reckon the baseball travelled roughly 300 feet and landed near third base on the adjacent Pony diamond.
Nevertheless, Halton's offence was too much and they won the game 8-4 securing their third-place berth in the BBF Bronco Championships.
Bronco Final: London Mets 1, Herts Baseball Club 0
Herts and London, also regional rivals, played the tightest, most competitive match of the entire Championships weekend. The stakes were high: bragging rights as the top Bronco team in the country. But the 10-13 year olds kept their wits about them and simply focused on playing solid baseball.
It wasn't until the fourth inning that the game's only run scored. After throwing three shutout innings, Herts starter Nick Martinez allowed a deep double to London's Jack Peters. It was only one of three hits allowed by Martinez in four innings of work, but it was enough despite his seven strikeouts. The run came in to score on some aggressive Mets baserunning and it was the difference in the game. London's starter, Ryan Headlam, allowed just one hit in his three innings of work. It was the only hit for Herts on the day (from Lewis Patterson).
Jack Peters pitched three innings of hitless relief for London, earning four strikeouts and throwing 27 strikes versus only nine balls. Leadoff Met Jamie Dix had two stolen bases.
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PONY FINALS...
In Saturday's Pony semi finals, the Bracknell Tornadoes made quick work of the Halton Polecats, winning 14-4 via the 10-run mercy rule and advancing to Sunday's championship game. Leo Nogami and Amy Trask combined in a stellar pitching performance, with a three-hitter and nine strikeouts. In the afternoon matchup, Cartmel Valley worked into an early hole against the Horsham Hornets who pounded out a 12-3 lead after three-innings. But Cartmel scored 5 runs in the fourth, 3 more in the fifth, and finished a run ahead of Horsham at a final score of 13-12, rallying to earn their trip to the Final.
3rd/4th Pony Game: Horsham Hornets 19, Halton Polecats 17
The Horsham Hornets had a similar start on Sunday to their fierce few innings in the semi final the day before. They jumped out to an early lead, were winning by ten runs in the middle innings and, entering the final inning of play were up by eight runs. The Polecats kept chipping away at that lead, however, determined to finish their season on a high note. But Horsham were not going to let their second ten-run lead slip away in as many days, and stifled the Halton rally in the final inning, the Hornets hanging on to win by only two runs.
Pony Final: Bracknell Tornadoes 12, Cartmel Valley 2
The dominant Bracknell Tornadoes squad won the Pony National Baseball Championships in six innings via the 10-run mercy rule... the same way they advanced in the semi finals. The Tornadoes offensive assault was relentless, and their pitching was strong enough to ward off any legitimate threat to their lead.
Connor Vernon pitched for Bracknell, completing the game in 84 pitches and allowing just two unearned runs and one hit. Offensively, Sam Jones had two doubles on the day, Damian Van Niekerk was 3-4 with three RBI, and Leo Nogami was 2-2 with three RBI. Cailean Madden had a 3-4 performance. Bracknell outscored their opponents 26-6 on the weekend with 21 hits versus just four allowed.
The games could not have gone any better for the team and Head Coach Paul Vernon said, “Coaching is easy on weekends like this when your players do everything you ask them to do. Our pitching was superb, we hit the ball consistently hard and, although we made a couple of mistakes they were aggressive mistakes; trying to make things happen defensively and trying to take charge of the ball. We weren’t shy of trying to get outs.”
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FINAL STANDINGS...
BBF PONY LEAGUE (ages 13-16)
1st - Bracknell Tornadoes
2nd - Cartmel Valley
3rd - Horsham Hornets
4th - Halton Polecats
BBF BRONCO LEAGUE (ages 10-13)
1st - London Mets
2nd - Herts Baseball Club
3rd - Halton Polecats
4th - Cartmel Valley
THANKS TO THE LONDON METS...
The 2009 Youth National Baseball Championships was an exciting and well-organised event. Much credit should go to the host club, the London Mets, under General Manager Neil Warne and his coaching staff... as well as the umpire team led by crew chief Geoff Hare of the ABUA-GB. The fields of play were impeccably groomed and the glorious weather and fan turnout gave a fitting atmosphere for a national title bout.
Special thanks to the North and South Youth Commissioners for the British Baseball Federation, Jonathan Pearson and Keith Sherman, and the Technical Commissioner for the weekend, Rob Hodgson.
[View the OFFICIAL PROGRAMME from the 2009 Youth National Baseball Championships]
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