Imperial Falcons claw onto third place

After a hard fought weekend of matches, the Imperial Falcons rounded off their season with an emphatic victory over the UEA Blue Sox, giving us a third-place finish in the BUBA Spring Cup. The Falcons’ cup campaign got off to a shaky start on the Saturday as club president Dan “Wrong Gear!” Harris stalled the minibus a grand total of four times on the way to the ground. Despite some equally dodgy navigating from general manager Vincent Li, the team got to Croydon in time for the first match, with high hopes of a successful tournament.

Imperial opened their campaign against UCL, in a game that was expected to be a relatively easy victory. The game was tight during the first two innings, as pitcher Hajime Urata and the Imperial defence kept UCL from scoring. The deadlock was broken, however, in the top of the fourth inning as a number of Imperial errors allowed UCL four runs. Fortunately, Imperial managed to claw a couple back in the bottom of that inning against the pitching of UCL’s 50-Year-Old Man.

Thanks to some excellent pitching by Hajime, UCL failed to score in their final inning, leaving us needing three runs to win the game. A few batters later, the game was tied at 4-4, with two runners on and one out, with rookie Simon Andersson stepping up to the plate. On the third pitch, Simon sent the ball flying towards right field; the Imperial bench held its breath as the ball hung in the air, only for it to come down inches away from the fielder’s outstretched arm. Sam O’Mullane ran home, giving Simon a walk-off hit, and giving Imperial a tense 5-4 victory.

Our next game, against the Southampton Mustangs, started in similar fashion, with neither team scoring in the first two innings, thanks to some tight pitching, this time by Vincent. Once again, however, Imperial’s defence cracked in the third inning, leaving Southampton four runs up. The Falcons only scored two in the top of the fourth inning, but since it was a timed game, another inning would be played if we could end Southampton’s inning in eight minutes. Fortunately, Hajime returned to pitch a breathless fourth inning, retiring Southampton in six minutes to give Imperial a shot at an unlikely victory. It wasn’t to be, however, as the Falcons managed only one run in their fifth inning, giving Southampton a 5-3 victory.

The Sunday began with our final group game against the (slightly hungover) Nottingham Thieves; the Imperial bench swiftly exhausted the supply of jokes about stealing bases. Our defence made an excellent start, which continued as starting pitcher Sidney Louzon didn’t give up a single run over the first three innings. Meanwhile, Imperial’s offense racked up the runs, going into Nottingham’s final innings 11-0 up. As Sidney tired, Nottingham began a late rally, but it wasn’t enough as Julian Chiu struck out the last of Nottingham’s offense. The 11-6 win put Imperial through to the semi-finals, and another match against Nottingham.

The semi-final was much closer than the group game, as Nottingham had mostly recovered from their hangovers and brought on their better pitcher. The score crept up, however, and Imperial’s third inning began with the Falcons 4-2 down. Despite the “at-bat from hell” (during which Simon popped his shoulder and Julian pulled his hamstring), we tacked on another run, as Dan Harris came home in comedic fashion – Dan tried to slide into the plate, tripped over, and then (literally) crawled home as the opposition catcher let the throw from 2nd base through his legs.

Pitcher Hajime Urata shut Nottingham out in the top of the fourth inning, leaving Imperial needing two runs to win. Despite what he claimed was a “potentially career ending, crippling hamstring injury”, Kevin McDonald brought Yutaro Jimbo home for the first run, leaving Imperial with one out and two men on base, looking sure of victory. The Falcons could not drive their advantage home, however, meaning a fifth inning would be required. Unfortunately, during the top of the fifth, Nottingham hit their stride and hit four runs, leaving the Falcons with a mountain to climb in the bottom of the innings. Imperial failed to score as Nottingham ran out 9-5 winners, putting them through to the final against ULJS.

Imperial went into the final game of the tournament against the UEA Blue Sox, competing for third place with a depleted line-up, as the injuries had stacked up over the course of the weekend. This was compounded when our first baseman left half way through the first inning to umpire the tournament final. Fortunately, however, the lack of fully-functional fielders proved not to be a problem, as Imperial pitcher Yutaro struck out seven of the opposition batters in the first three innings, while not giving up a single hit. Meanwhile, Imperial’s offense slowly built up the score, going up 4-0 after three innings.

As the sun came out during the top of the fourth inning, Yutaro continued his attempt to pitch a perfect game, and may have succeeded if not for emergency catcher Vincent, who obstructed a batter, causing a balk and costing Yutaro his perfect game. Imperial added more runs during the bottom of the inning, leaving UEA needing 6 runs to make Imperial bat again. Despite, some gallant offense, including a two-run home-run, Imperial finished the game as 6-2 winners, sealing a third-place finish in the tournament; congratulations go to ULJS for a well-deserved victory in the final. The game against UEA was a great end to a long season, in which we won some, lost some and learnt the true meaning of the word “cold”. It’s been great to see the freshers improving throughout the season (special mention to Simon, Jacques Smith and Lewis Weinberger), and all the best for the fourth years and Masters students who leave at the end of the year.