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British Baseball Beat: 2017 Season gets underway

by Matt Smith

Last Sunday wasn’t just Opening Day in MLB.

It also marked the start of the British baseball regular season for several of the leagues.

NBL: Mets-Mustangs split as Falcons take two

The National Baseball League began with a pair of double-headers.

The London Mets and Southampton Mustangs, the 2016 NBC finalists, split a double-header at Farnham Park.

The Mustangs raced out to a 6-2 lead after two innings in the opener, only for the Mets to charge back by putting up five-spots in two innings on their way to a 13-9 victory.

Southampton fought back in the second game, edging a close contest 5-4.

In the other double-header, the Herts Falcons got their season off to a perfect start by claiming two victories at home against the Brighton Jets.

Further details can be found in Carli Stehle’s NBL report on the BBF website.

This weekend

The Falcons will put their 2-0 record on the line this Sunday against the Mustangs (1-1) in what will be the latter’s first home games in Southampton since winning their maiden NBL title last season.

In the other double-header, the Essex Arrows host last year’s surprise package, the London Capitals. The Capitals put together an impressive debut season in the NBL in 2016, finishing third in the regular season standings with a 16-11 record. They’ll be hoping to get 2017 off to a positive start against the 2014 national champions.

Smile for the camera!

Cameras were out in force at the NBL openers:

Double-A begins

With Triple-A and Single-A not getting their seasons started until 23 April, the only other BBF league action currently is taking place in Double-A.

Last Sunday, the East London Latin Boys earned a 19-9 win against the Brentwood Stags, whilst the battle of Richmond between the Barons and Dragons went the way of the former by a score of 18-14. The Barons will look to go 2-0 to start the season this Sunday as they take on the always-competitive Sidewinders, with the Latin Boys taking on Southampton Mustangs II.

The reigning Double-A champions, the Daws Hill Spitfires, start the defence of their title at Farnham Park this Sunday as they take on the Herts Hawks. First pitch is scheduled for midday.

Northern openers

The new British Baseball league competition began in the North on Sunday.

Although the games between the 2016 Northern champion Liverpool Trojans and the Cartmel Valley club unfortunately got postponed due to rain, other games were able to go ahead and splits were the order of the day.

The results included Hull and Halton splitting a double-header (13-8 to Hull in the opener, 8-4 Halton in the second), the Manchester A’s and Sheffield Bladerunners shared a win apiece (14-4 to A’s, 10-1 to Bladerunners) as did the Liverpool Twojans and Manchester Torrent

Manchester and Sheffield joined other teams in the country in paying their respects to British Baseball Hall of Famers Norman Wells and Ted Gerard-Thesingh who both sadly passed away over the off-season.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSbq5LkA4uM/

Fixtures this Sunday include the Trojans hopefully getting their season underway at Bootle Stadium against the Halton Jaguars, the Twojans taking on the Harrogate Tigers (who defeated the Durham Spartans last week) and Sheffield travelling to Hull to take on the Scorpions.  Further details can be found on the BBL Facebook site.

And finally …

Herts Falcons’ newcomer Hector Miguel learned an important lesson in his debut: where not to park his car at Grovehill Ballpark.

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