Disappointing start for the Falcons
They don't get their talons into the opposition
Imperial’s baseball team, the Falcons, began their season yesterday with a double header of friendly games against the University of London Japanese Society.
The first game of the day began amidst some animosity as the opposition catcher was an Imperial College student, and last year’s hapless vice-president of the baseball club, who this summer ditched us for ULJS, despite not actually being Japanese. This animosity was apparent as Imperial’s starting pitcher, Hajime Urata, hit him with his second pitch, allegedly by accident.
In the first few innings, ULJS’s score crept up, but Imperial’s hitters struggled against a ridiculously good ULJS pitcher, who, incidentally, had been shipped in from Manchester for the match. Imperial thus failed to score in the first four innings, and ULJS finished with a four-run fifth inning, leaving us 8-0 down with our final inning left to play.
After a flurry of new ULJS pitchers (one of which thought he could throw knuckleballs), Imperial showed faint hints of a comeback, loading the bases with only one out. Unfortunately, ULJS threw on their last good pitcher (this one imported from Edinburgh) who struck out our last two batters. Three of our players scored hits in the final inning, although I don’t know who they were as the score-sheet dissolved in the horizontal rain that followed the conclusion of the match.
After much huddling under a tree, the rain eased off enough for the second game to start. Both teams were fielding less experienced teams in order to give the fresher’s some experience, including ULJS’s token European guy who’d joinedthem to watch anime.
Imperial started brightly against a much less experienced pitcher, going 7-3 up after two innings, thanks to a lot of walks and a sacrifice fly by Matt Bidwell, while the ULJS offence struggled against the pace and power of Falcons pitcher Julian Chiu. Imperial’s scoring dried up, however, as ULJS brought on another, better pitcher. The opposition then chipped away at our lead, going into the final inning only one run behind.
Unfortunately, ULJS achieved the two runs needed to secure the walk-off win, ending a fairly disappointing day for the Falcons. The games were, however, a good experience for our new players, and a crash course in British weather for the benefit of the Americans who joined us. Hopefully, the Falcons will learn from this game and improve as we move into the season proper.
