|
The
2003 season in Review
The Competition and the Season
The Competition
With a 12 team division, there was always going to be a wide range of
playing abilities. It should also be noted that it is not always fair,
making comparisons between teams, as you can never be sure how strong a
side they were able to field on any particular Sunday. We, for instance,
never once, had our strongest 9 available, and for the most part
attempted to share the playing time equally across the squad. Of course,
the other teams in the division, will have faced similar problems, but
on any given Sunday, may have had their best player(s) missing.
That said, having played all the top teams twice, the Milton Keynes
Rebels, were the strongest team that we faced this season. They were
solid on both sides of the ball, and were probably the best defensive
side we saw. On the offensive front, Windsor were some way ahead of the
rest, particularly in the second game we played with them. On that
occasion, they hit Pete hard, even though he was on his game.
Defensively they were solid, but if anything, Windsor lacked a bit on
the pitching side in comparison to the other teams in the top half.
Richmond, who eventually won the league, were also strong all round, as
to a lesser degree, where Bournemouth, who for once, were stronger
defensively than offensively – probably a result of their youth
programme. The Herts Falcons who had a lot of narrow defeats early in
the season, could have finished higher if these had gone the other way,
although from what we saw, they struggled more than most, with their
pitching.
Although it was probably not fair that the results from the first half
of the season weren’t counted in the second half, particularly as the
Rebels had a two game lead, but ended up losing out on a tie breaker, it
has to be said the Richmond were the best organised club in the
division.
In the lower half of the table, Bournville were always going to
struggle, being new to the league, and sadly this proved the case, as
they folded once we reached the round robin stage. Southampton did very
well to complete the season, bearing in mind that being a predominantly
university side, they were always going to have problems out of term
time. In fact they gave us a very competitive match down at their place,
early in the season. Both Essex and the Milton Keynes Bucks struggled a
bit, as being second teams to clubs higher up the ladder, they obviously
lost players to these, and also were used to give new players game
experience. However, this is the way it has to be, and credit should be
given to both clubs for strengthening the game at the grass roots level.
It’s not all about picking your best nine, and sticking with it until
someone leaves. That left the Richmond Dragons and the Croydon Pirates,
as the other teams in the lower half of the table, and from what we saw,
were the pick of the lot. Croydon in particular were quite strong, and
could have held their own in the top half. I think with both teams
represented the third string of that particular club, and they benefited
from practicing with players playing at a higher level. In fact it was
only our win over the Sharks, that allowed us to finish ahead of Croydon,
and both times we saw them (the first time was rained out), we didn’t
really compete well with them.
The Season
After a 2002 season, in which our only victory came our way when we
didn’t take the field, as we split a doubleheader with Bournemouth, when
neither side could agree on a date to play the fixture, it was a great
morale booster, when we won our opening game of the season against the
Milton Keynes Bucks. Several Mavericks made their debut in this game,
with Castor Maduro, making everyone sit up and notice, with a 3 run home
run that broke the game open. There was some slight anxiety, when Pete
Hammer, who obviously still thinking it was football season, tried to
control a line drive with his knee. Although he came out of the game, it
was no more than a bit of bruising, and he was soon back on his Zimmer
frame. Another notable difference from the previous season, was the
weather. In 2002, Baseball meant Sunday afternoons, which in turn meant
cold and wet Sunday afternoons – not good for a side, where the damp
weather can affect the arthritic joints!! However, this year, almost
without exception, there was great weather for every game. The only time
this wasn’t the case, was our second game of the season, against Croydon,
which was rained out after just a couple of innings – probably
fortunately for us, as we were losing, and not playing well at the time;
and also the firs game with the Knights…where despite my best efforts as
the man in blue, to keep the game balls dry, I could swear we chose that
day to get our most ground ball base hits!
The first Maverick road win of the season, came at Southampton in week
3. This was also probably the best game of the season, as it went the
full 9 innings (something we were not used to last season!) and was the
closest score (again something we were not used to!). There was some
controversy on what appeared to be a Tomas Diaz home run, which we
thought carried, but the umpire thought otherwise. However, with Steve
Sawyer pitching some good relief for Pete, we were able to hold on, and
take our record to 2-0. This was improved to 3-0, as we went top of the
league, in a high scoring game at the Richmond Dragons. However, this
was marred with the loss of Steve Sawyer for the season, when he tore is
ACL, as he twisted off the mound, in an attempt to field a ground ball
hit back to him. Any other pitcher would simply have watched the ball go
past, and let the second baseman field it, but obviously aware of our
fallibilities in the field, Steve decided that his leaping salmon act,
was a better choice. With no other pitcher available that day, Castor
bravely took the mound, and we were able to give him enough run support
to hold off the Dragons. Fortunately, Ross Pennington chose this game to
have a Maverick season high of 6 hits, and was backed up by Castor, Ben
Martin-Dye and the coach with 5 a piece.
The first defeat of the season came at the hands of the eventual
champions – the Richmond Knights. However it was a game we really should
have won. Having lead for most of the game, and taking a 10-7 lead into
the ninth, we were unable to hold on to it, and eventually succumbed
15-11. Admittedly, the consistent drizzle, made conditions difficult,
and didn’t help either side, prolonging the match into almost a 4 hour
affair. The best win of the season, came the following week, when
Bournemouth were the visitors. Unlike the previous game with the
Knights, this time we were able to hold onto the lead, in a come from
behind 19-15 victory. The highlights were another Maverick home run,
this time from Koichiro, and some strong relief pitching from Tomas
Diaz….and still the opposition haven’t noticed that we move the fences
in when we are batting!
The Mavericks then faced a run of 3 games against 3 of the top 4 teams,
including the unbeaten joint leaders Milton Keynes and Windsor. The trip
to Windsor turned out to be one of the more disappointing games of the
season, from a Guildford point of view. The game was played at
Bracknell’s home ground, due to the Windsor half marathon taking place
that day, and it seemed as though some our payers had participated in
the former event, before the game. Although lacking some of the more
experienced players, the Mavericks just made too many errors, and didn’t
hit well, against a Windsor side who weren’t at their best, and
certainly not as strong as the side we were to face later in the season.
So despite some good pitching from both Pete and Tomas, the Mavericks
were never in the game, and ended up losing comfortably for the first
time this season, in 7 innings.
A much better game ensued the following week, when we travelled to Hemel
Hempstead to take on the Falcons. After a scenic drive through Hemel and
the surrounding area, we eventually found the ground. There was really
nothing between the two sides, and the lead changed hands several times
throughout the game. The difference, in the end, was in the pitching.
The Herts starter, although lacking the repertoire that Pete had, did
have the stamina to carry on throughout, whilst once Pete had been
relieved, we had nothing in reserve, as the Falcons scored 10 times in
the 7th and 8th innings to win somewhat surprisingly, by the slaughter
rule. Perhaps this is an example as to why the slaughter rule should be
greater than 10 runs. Although that said, by that point, we were
probably worn down to the point, where although possible, it was
unlikely that we would claw our way back. This really was one occasion,
where we felt the loss of Steve Sawyer. That however, was not the case
the following week, when a strong MK Rebels side, just completely
outplayed us. Despite fielding one of our strongest sides, we just
didn’t come close to matching them, in either hitting or defence. In
fact, in the end, the score could have been much worse, except for the
fact that the Rebels eased up somewhat, once the game was won. This was
without doubt the best all round performance we saw this season.
The regular season was rounded out by a forfeit victory over Bournville,
who unfortunately had to call the game off on the day of the game, as
they had been let down by a few of their players, and were unable to
raise a team. This was followed up by a comfortable victory over the
Essex Arrows second team, where for once the Guildford bats were
working, and then ending with a defeat to the Croydon Pirates in the
re-arranged game from earlier in the season. This last game, was a
chance for us to get some of the newer players to the club, a start,
although in the end, it was the lack of experienced pitching, that
really cost us, as the Pirates exploded for runs late on, to end the
game under the slaughter rule. With Croydon coming into the game, 2
games back, there was no chance of them catching us for the final
Play-Off position, thus allowing us to experiment with players.
So the Play-offs began, with us seeded 6th, behind MK Rebels, Windsor,
Richmond, Herts and Bournemouth. It was always going to be tough, since
we had only beaten one of those teams in the regular season, although we
could (should?) have won the games with Richmond and the Falcons. That
said, it was the time of the year, when holidays kick in, so you were
never quite sure how strong a team was going to be fielded.
It was always going to be difficult to get off to a good start, as we
faced the top two teams in the Rebels and Windsor to start the
play-offs. Unfortunately, for the Rebels game, we came the closest we
had all season to forfeiting. In the end we were able to field 12
players, but it was a very inexperienced team that we took to Milton
Keynes. It was therefore no surprise that we were easily shutout by the
Rebels. Admittedly their umpire showed how not man manage players, so it
was probably just as well that this was never going to be a close game.
If the Rebels game was always going to be one sided, we were somewhat
surprised at how one sided the game with Windsor would be the following
week. With Pete Hammer back in the starting line up, we expected to play
them tighter than we had earlier in the season. However, the game just
turned into a run fest for the Royals, as they unloaded on Pete, despite
him pitching a good game. Without doubt, this was the best hitting
display we saw all season, and just goes to show that bringing players
up through from the junior level, and being able to practice with the
National League squad, makes a hell of a difference. It was not as if
many of these hits were bloop hits or squeezed down the line – they were
just off the meat of the bat.
So somewhat shell shocked after the Windsor defeat, we travelled to
Bournemouth, to ply the Sharks. This was obviously one of the
opportunities for us to post a win in the post season, as we had taken
the game from them, earlier in the season. It did prove to be the
closest of all the post season games. Unfortunately, we didn’t count on
the pitcher, Bournemouth had that day. He struck out 15 Mavericks, and
it was only when he began to tire, that we were actually able to score
off of him. At least it allowed Heather Armstead, playing against her
old club, to get her first Mavericks base hit.
So with us well out of contention with 3 straight losses, now was the
time to make sure the rest of the squad got some playing time. Of
course, this lead to a couple of heavy defeats to the Knights and the
Falcons, but by that time, it was more important to get some game
experience for these players, and also to try out some different
starting positions. We were never really in either game, and certainly
by the time the Herts game came around, there was no doubt the many were
looking towards the off season, more perhaps, than the game itself.
Next:
The Club and the Ground |
