[Archelirion]

13th - 16th April: Games 13-16 @ Sheffield Jets (6-6 @ 8-3)

RHP William Harris (0-0, 9.00, 0 GS) v LHP Andre Lake (2-0, 1.29, 2 GS)
RHP Isaac Rowland (1-1, 2.25, 2 GS) v RHP Dylan Wakelin (1-1, 5.73, 2 GS)
RHP Bruce MacKenzie (2-0, 2.66, 3 GS) v LHP Thomas O’Connor (1-0, 4.00, 2 GS)
RHP Finley Gibbs (0-2, 8.31, 3 GS) v RHP Uinsin Snell (0-2, 8.44, 2 GS)

CL Graeme Bryan (1-0, 1 SV, 1.69 ERA, 0.56 WHIP, 5.1 IP)
SP Andre Lake (2-0, 1.29 ERA, 0.79 WHIP, 14.0 IP)
RF Ultan Baker (.289, 5 HR, 12 RBI, 45 AB)
SP Dylan Wakelin (1-1, 5.73 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 11.0 IP)
RP Joel Murdoch (0-0, 1.35 ERA, 0.60 WHIP, 6.2 IP)

Trip down the road to South Yorkshire now, for a four-game series against the Sheffield Jets who are doing really rather well at the start of this season – much to our chagrin, as they’re divisional rivals. Topping the league in home runs and stolen bases seems to suggest that they’re successful no matter what style of play they attempt. Their 4.65 starters ERA is good for 5th in the league and a perfect 2.00 is 2nd for the bullpen, while their defensive efficiency is also top draw. Only places they’re lacking so far are in a .233 batting average (12th in the NL) and a .317 OBP (11th), and indeed, there are only two clear high-performers in their lineup in these early stages – Ultan Baker (see above), and shortstop Lance Brady, hitting .286 with 5 dingers and 9 ribbies.

William Harris will take his first start this year, after my manager played him in the bullpen. Was my manager right? His first game up against the fantastic Andre Lake is not going to be an easy start to life in the rotation, but I’ll take a good performance over the win… although the win would be nice.

GAME 13 – 4-2 WIN

LEE: C Devlin – 3B Phillips (hot) – 1B Goulden – CF Taylor – 2B Manifold – SS Lewandowski (inj.) - LF Cousins – RF Thorne – P Harris
SHF: LF Hawkins – CF – Milne – RF Baker – 1B Rees – SS Brady – 3B Neale – 2B Lewis – C Murphy – P Lake

As expected, Lake made life very, very hard for our boys, and until he came off after 7-and-a-third innings, we’d only grabbed 2 hits and gone down in order 5 times. Devlin had a hideous 0-3 outing but arguably had the most important AB of the game for us in the 8th, luring Lake for 13 pitches and taking him over the 100 pitch mark comfortably – this meant he was subbed for Rubin, after which Thorne(!) and Henneberry (pinch-hitting for Goulden) went deep for 2 men each. Harris played okay but only featured in 4 innings – his pitch economy was poor with a 52-33 strike-ball count, and the bases were loaded on his at-bat so it made sense to sub him for a batter at that moment.

• Henneberry 1-1, R, 2 RBI [7], HR [3] // Cousins 2-3, R, BB // Thorne 1-4, R, 2 RBI [9], HR [2]
• Harris 4.0 IP, 5 H, ER, 2 BB, 4 K // David W (1-0), 1.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K // Malley SV (4), 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K

Elsewhere: the Glasgow Stags went to Sunderland and made themselves very unwelcome guests, making it 13-0 within the first three innings and ending the game 17-5 to the good. Liverpool got their second win of the year but at a hefty cost, with their 2-1 win ending after 15 innings with Lewis Watts’ solo homer and 7 pitchers used. Meanwhile, Avengers shortstop Dane Gray went 5-5 during London and Waltham Forest’s epic 34-hit shootout, but it was the Beavers that won 16-12 after a 7-run 2nd and an 8-run 5th! Plymouth put 3 past Bournemouth in the bottom of the 9th to tie their game up 7-7 but ultimately had no response to Bart Davis’ solo bomber at the start of the 10th. Finally, Tim Ward’s 2-run single in the top of the 9th tied the Wolverhampton-Coventry game up 4-4, which was great for the Cougars as they ultimately won 5-4, albeit also only after 15 innings of play.

GAME 14: 3-1 LOSS

LEE: 3B Phillips – LF Henderson – 1B Goulden – RF Henneberry – 2B Brown (cold) – SS Lewandowski (inj.) - CF Cousins – C Kettell – P Rowland
SHE: LF Lindsay (cold) – CF Milne – RF Baker – 1B Rees – SS Brady – C Shepley – 2B Lewis – 3B Neale – P Wakelin

(exhales) That was grim. Rowland had a spectacularly naff start and used up nearly 70 pitches in his first two innings, although somehow only gave up 3 runs (all from a 3rd-inning Rees smash) and was able to play until the end of the 5th, with a 104-pitch effort. Theo Mitchell came on and played through the final 3 innings with no runs, only one hit, 3 strikeouts, and a mere 34 pitches, so a fantastic effort from him. The bats just… weren’t there. Kettell reached on a second to drive in a bases loaded run in the second, but that was all that prevented us from getting shut out. Phillips and Henderson were ghastly at the top of the rotation. Goulden ground out all the time. Henneberry got bloody unlucky twice, requiring superb dives from Baker to deny what would undeniably have been two-baggers. In fact, the only man to record a hit was Lewa, who clocked two singles up the centre – but even he didn’t escape my bad books, with two consecutive errors he was VERY lucky to get away with.

• Lewandowski 2-4 // Henderson 0-3, 3 K
• Rowland L (1-2), 5.0 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, HR

Elsewhere: Fairly quiet day all round. Jamie Kerr hit two HR’s for the Edinburgh Volcanoes, beating Newcastle 7-4, while a walkoff single for Chris Baxter handing the 3-11 Glasgow Centurions a shock victory over the 11-3 Ealing Wolves. Lions 1B Josh Thomas also crushed two in Belfast’s 11-5 win over the Civics – their 3rd win of the year and the first not only with more than 10 runs but also their first by more than one run. The Birmingham Aces soundly thumped the Swansea Devils 9-1 in Wales, and for the second consecutive day, the Green Sox equalised in the bottom of the 9th against the Bournemouth Poppies – but THIS time won 4-3.

GAME 15: 3-2 LOSS

LEE: C Devlin – 3B Phillips – 1B Goulden – CF Taylor – 2B Manifold (hot) – SS Lewandowski (inj.) - LF Cousins – RF Thorne – P MacKenzie
SHE: LF Lindsay – CF Milne – RF Baker – 1B Rees – SS Brady – C Shepley – 2B Lewis – 3B Neale – P O’Connor

Devlin took O’Connor’s very first pitch for a 374ft ride, which was a particularly lovely start after yesterday’s traumatising experience. Sadly, it very quickly became even more frustrating than yesterday, as while we were hitting, it was only one or two an inning and the production was just not happening. MacKenzie was pitching brilliantly until the 4th at which point the wheels fell off and the full-counts came rolling in and while he only walked one, it brought his count up far too quickly. Berkley pitched superbly and was possibly going to see the game out, until he came off clutching his elbow and… it looks bad. We’ll find out soon, but I’m not optimistic. Goulden, Taylor and the before-brilliant Manifold looked awful.

• Devlin 1-4, R, RBI [8], HR [3] // Goulden 0-3, BB, 3 K // Lewandowski 2-4, R // Thorne 2-3, RBI [10], BB, 2 2B
• MacKenzie L (2-1), 5.0 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, BB, 5 K, HR

Somehow, Thorne becomes the second Ram to reach 10 RBIs, and is steadily improving his BA too - currently .189. When did that happen?! Bone chips for Berkley. That’s his year as good as done. Problem is, our bullpen is heroically awful in the minors. We haven’t played enough of the AAA season yet for me to get a good read on players, so I’m really playing a straws game here. Not Reece Vince though. He’s crap. (Pulls name out hat) Gayan Namdev. Born in Jabalpur, India, with a 0.00 ERA from 2.1 IP of work. See what I have to work with here?

Elsewhere: The Newcastle Shorebirds’ catcher Angel Rosiles did the damage in the bottom of the 12th with an RBI-triple, meaning the Shorebirds beat Edinburgh after equalising at the bottom of the 9th, 4-3. The Glasgow Stags were sitting to hand the Sunderland Panthers a 3-0 shutout after Lewis Crawford’s amazing 8 innings of work, but Nathan Pearce undid it all and, inexplicably, the Panthers won 4-3 after 3 walks and 4 singles. Ealing’s Pakistani contingent won their game against the Glasgow Centurions 13-8, with Merdasan Bhatti batting in 7 with two homers and Alam Zardari clocking his 6th of the year – meanwhile, Wolves RF Jake Chan is suspended for 4 games and Centurions reliever Oliver Stoyle for 9 after a nasty fight during the game. Manchester Browns outfielder Floripes Lenzi went 5-5 with two walks but the Browns were still comfortably whacked 12-5 by Liverpool, while in Nottingham, Kevin Evans’ second homer of the day was also the walkoff as the Marksmen beat the Stoke Flames 7-6. Finally, the Birmingham Aces were held at a 7-hit shutout by the Swansea Devils who strode to a 7-0 victory, despite Devils starter Oscar Bassett only pitching 58.

Finley Gibbs to pitch now – the possible difference between remaining .500 and going .438. Oh boy. Our only chance is that their starter, Uisin Snell, is almost doing as badly as Gibbs is.

GAME 16 – 5-0 WIN

LEE: C Devlin – CF Taylor – RF Henneberry – 3B Phillips – 2B Brown (cold) – LF Thorne – SS Lewandowski (inj) – 1B Kettell – P Gibbs (cold)
SHE: 2B McMahon – CF Milne – RF Baker – 1B Rees – SS Brady – C Shepley – 3B Neale – LF Hatch – P Snell

THAT was the performance I knew Gibbs was capable of when evaluating him at the start of this year. 9.0 IP, 6 H, 9 K’s, 122 pitches – THAT. IS. A. SHUTOUT! We deserved to win that as well – Devlin’s opening triple set things off right, and then Kettell bashed a homer into the stands on the 3rd to make it 2-0. The defining inning was the 6th, when we actually got a hit out of Slevin Brown for the first time in what feels like forever (it was 14 at-bats, which might as well be forever) - an RBI-double no less – and then a 2-run single from Thorne more or less finished off the job. We weren’t perfect – 10 strikeouts in the first 5 innings is not a perfect day by anyone’s standards, and Lewa had an uncharacteristically bad day – but we were close. He’s a genuinely nice guy is Gibbs, and it’s good I can actually say something nice about him.

• Taylor 2-3, RBI, BB // Thorne 1-4, 2 RBI [12] // Lewandowski 0-4, 3 K // Kettell 2-4, R, RBI [5], HR [3]
• Gibbs W (1-2), 9.0 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 9 K – SHUTOUT

Elsewhere: Stoke 1B Joe Phillips hit his 4th and 5th dingers of the year en route to the Flames beating the Nottingham Marksmen 6-3 – they are now 6-9 and 7-8 respectively. The Belfast Lions scored in all but two innings (including all of the final 5) and 7 in the 9th during their 19-3 annihilation of the Manchester Civics – catcher Reece Catling, 1B Josh Thomas and LF Euan Hay all had duo-HR days, batting in 12 between them. Meanwhile, the Portsmouth Destroyers continue on their 6-game run – their second consecutive sweep – with a 6-3 victory over the Bristol Buccaneers, meaning they’re now 12-3 and owners of the highest win percentage in the Britannia League. Lastly, the Birmingham Aces hit 6 past Swansea in the final inning to cement an 8-1 victory, going 6-9 – they are now 3.5 games behind SL Midwest leaders Cardiff.

Our first taste of interleague play starts tomorrow, with the 8-7 Bournemouth Poppies making the long journey up north to play here in Leeds. I'm still bouncing off the ceiling after Gibbs came good. After Brown finally broke his bad streak as well, I'm hoping I'll have more reasons to celebrate soon.