The second round of the BBF/WB-UK Baseball League comes to Bristol Baseball Club at the weekend.
The club is hosting round two of the national competition at Somerdale Pavilion in Keynsham on Saturday (12th June).
The Bristol Bobcats will be joined by the Cambridge Valkyries, Sheffield Bruins, Telford 26ers, Belles Baseball and London Mayhem for six matches starting at 11.00am.
The Bobcats will be aiming to build on their undefeated start in round one when they defeated the Telford 26ers and drew with tournament favourites Belles Baseball.
Three Bristol teams were in action in the South West & Wales Baseball League (SWWBL) at the weekend with development team, the Brunels, picking up their first ever win and splitting a close double header in Bournemouth against the Bears.
The Brunels went down 5-4 in the first game despite good performances with the bat from Matt Dunkley-Roberts and Tom Maclennan, who hit a triple to score two runs.
The second game saw the Brunels pull away early with hits and RBIs coming from catcher Michael Buser, infielders Becky Cottrell, Jo Sutcliffe and Jon Exon and pitcher Declan Ryan.
Pitcher Charlie Turner got the final three outs to give the Bristol team its first ever win after a good performance from starter Ryan who struck out seven Bears.
“The win was purely down to all the work every player has been putting in at training over the last few weeks,” said player manager Richard Evans. “The defence was very solid with Jon Exon and Matt Barter making great plays. We were also aggressive on the bases stealing 15 bases during the afternoon.”
In Cardiff the Bristol Bats came close to beating the Merlins despite losing 10-11 and 2-4 against a two strong pitchers.
Shortstop Ben Briggs got two hits and drove in three runs in game one while Neptali Ortega and Billy Garrett each scored two runs.
Game two was tighter with pitcher Paul Carter keeping the Merlins bats quiet over six innings but the Bats couldn’t convert the five hits they got off Kano, the Cardiff starter.
“We were very close to pulling off a couple of wins against two very good pitchers,” said Tom Rowe. “We suffered from some errors in the second game and that swung the game to the Merlins.”
The Buccaneers took on the Taunton Muskets, who are the defending south west champions, at Somerdale but lost both games of the double header 19-6 and 22-6.
Despite the result, several Buccaneers put in good performances on a tough afternoon. Four players , Josh William-Trim, Tom Turpin Jelfs, Phil Midgley and Jake Harris had multiple hits in the first game.
Buccaneers shortstop, Henry Mcnamara got three hits in the second game but Muskets batters proved too strong for the Buccaneers’ pitchers on a hot afternoon in Keynsham.
As well as the Women’s League games on Saturday, the club’s other four teams are all in action this coming Sunday.
The Badgers will host SW Rebeldes in the BBF AAA league and whilst the Buccaneers welcome Cardiff Merlins for their SWWBL match up. Both games art at 12 noon at Somerdale Pavilion.
The Bats travel to Newquay to take on the Cornish Claycutters while the Brunels travel to play the Muskets in Taunton.