Cheddar Rockies19
 Guildford Mavericks 2

Guildford, May 16th, 2004.

The Mavericks hosted the Cheddar Rockies in what proved to be a more closely fought game than the final score showed. The unusually (for May) hot, sunny weather made for ideal baseball-play. Assistant Coach Brian Kendal was in charge for the Mavericks for the day, with Tomás Díaz also helping out in the coaching. Missing a couple of starters, they took the chance to give as many as they could on the Maverick’s bench playing time, important this early in the season, especially with one game already rained out. It was a well-tempered game and Roger Marsden behind the plate did a fine job despite having to make some difficult calls.

Cheddar had opened up with a 4 run first, as Ross Pennington starting his first game as a Mavericks, struggled to find his rhythm. 2 more runs in the second, found Rockies up by 6 before Ross helped himself out with an RBI single to tack on some more runs to Rob Shaw's RBI double.

The teams traded runs through the next 4 innings, with Cheddar slightly edging it to take a 11-6 lead going into the 8th. A Peter Badenhuizen double had given Rob Shaw another chance to add to his RBI total, but it wasn't until the bottom of the 8th, that the Mavericks really got the bats swinging.

The Mavericks having trailed the Rockies throughout the game rallied with a 5 run 8^th inning to a near comeback, bringing the score to 13–11. Again it was the middle of the order that did the damage, as Peter, Rob and Ross all doubled, as the Rockies starter appeared to tire. Unfortunately the Rockies got on base again in the top of the ninth inning, scoring 6 times themselves to put the game out of the MAvericks reach. They then held the Mavericks to three up, three down in the bottom of the 9^th to secure the victory at 19 –11.

A few errors were made on both sides: the usual missed grounders and overthrown balls, a few dropped fly-balls, and on two occasions over-running bases and being tagged out. The Mavericks made the only double play of the game with a fly caught in CF by Koichiro and a throw to Rob Shaw for the tag at third to catch the baserunner Hodgson, who had forgotten to tag up.

The Rockies fielded just nine players. Strong pitching from Cherson lasted throughout the game, but improved batting from the Mavericks line-up made the Rockies outfield work for their victory. Both teams played a good game, with considerable improvement showing among the Maverick roockies and second-year players.

This game also marked the occasion of Koitchiro Furukawa’s last game with the Mavericks, as his job was taking him back to Japan. We wish him well, and will miss him and his dedication to the game — and hope that he can rejoin us before too long. He has sent us the following message:

 Hi all,

The last Sunday was my last game for Mavs in this season.
I've had fun to play baseball with you all. I hope I can come back to England and Mavs in the near future.
I wish you all the best for the rest of the season. That's really a shame I couldn't contribute to the victory this year, but enjoyed the games at least.
As I haven't moved to Japan yet, I can only leave my web email address. If you had a chance to visit Tokyo sometime, drop me a line.
We can do serious Karaoke. Let's keep in touch.

Thanks for everything to everyone.

Koichiro

Maverick MVP: Rob Shaw

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