Imperial Falcons finish third in Loughborough

The Imperial Falcons baseball team recorded a third place position in the first ever M1 Series Tournament at Loughborough on the 21st/22nd February, after some strong performances throughout the weekend and a dramatic walk-off hit secured a win in the final game.

On a brisk February morning, the Imperial Falcons made the long journey up to Loughborough University to compete in the inaugural M1 Series Tournament. The Falcons began their campaign batting first against the inexperienced Sheffield Hornets. Imperial made a bright start, going 2-0 up with no outs, after a hit from captain Ashley (the fastest man in Singapore), and a number of walks. Sheffield recovered to strike out the side, but were then held in the bottom of the innings thanks to some strong pitching from Zack.

The Falcons continued to pile on the pressure in the second innings, as left fielder and punmaster general Stephane led off the inning with a hit. Our top two batters eventually came round to score, and despite two quick outs, Sheffield were unable to shut down the Imperial offense, as they tacked on another run in the inning. The Hornets fought back in the bottom of the inning, but could not sustain the pressure after some tight fielding and a bad call by their base coach.

After two of the first three Falcons batters were struck out, the Imperial offense came back strongly. Some wayward Sheffield pitching and some good hitting (particularly a double by second baseman Rhys) scored five runs for the Falcons, with the innings ending after the mercy rule kicked in. Once again, the Sheffield offense could not find its groove in the bottom of the inning, as Zack added two more strikeouts to his tally for the game.

After rookie right-fielder Hridayarth drew a walk and Stephane got on base with a hit, it looked like a final flourish was on the cards. Unfortunately, Imperial couldn’t continue their good run of batting, although it wasn’t necessary as the Falcons started the bottom of the last inning already up by nine runs. Some good pitching and a fantastic sliding catch by replacement catcher Marcel (either that or he’d had enough of standing up) meant that Sheffield couldn’t even get on base, as Zack struck out the last batter to end the game 10-1 to Imperial.

After a long break in the warm, dry students’ union, Imperial returned to face the UEA Blue Sox, expecting a much tougher test than what we’d faced earlier. This proved to be the case as Imperial failed to score in the first inning, as our offense didn’t fire, and our aggressive base-running didn’t pay off. The Falcons kept UEA to only three runs in the bottom of the inning, however, as pitcher Edoardo struck out two Blue Sox batters.

The UEA defence was just as miserly in the first inning, as they brought on the same pitcher that had frustrated the Falcons so much during the Fall Cup. The next two batters struck out, followed by a fly-put to end the inning after Stephane was hit in the hand by a fastball (and now has one hand twice as big as the other). The Blue Sox then batted round in the bottom off the innings to go 7-0 up, after some strong hitting, despite some accurate pitching by Edoardo.

As in the Fall Cup, Imperial started to fight back in the third inning, as a hit from first-baseman Ben set up right-fielder Chris for an RBI single to bring home the Falcons’ first run. The Imperial defence tightened up in the bottom of the innings, holding the Blue Sox to a single run as Zayd made a fantastic catch in right field. The Falcons were tentatively hopeful going into the final inning, as the star pitcher from UEA was replaced. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be, as the Imperial rally didn’t quite come after two fly-outs ended the inning. The Falcons’ fielding was tight in the bottom of the inning, although by this time we had turned to damage limitation as the game was over, with the Blue Sox running out 8-1 winners.

In the second day of the M1ST, the weather looked ominous as dark clouds rolled in following the Falcons’ arrival in Loughborough. Thankfully, the weather held for their first game against the Loughborough Thunder and the Falcons got off to a decent start, opening the scoring with a run coming in off a passed ball as lead-off hitter Ashley came round to score after drawing a walk and stealing two bases. Centre fielder Chris and shortstop Edoardo also managed to get on base but were unlucky to get tagged out at home in two consecutive plays before the inning ended with left fielder Stephane grounding out to shortstop. The lead was short-lived however as the Thunder’s return salvo at the bottom of the inning yielded 4 runs and gave them a commanding three run lead.

The Falcons failed to score in the second despite right fielder Min and Chris both drawing walks as rookie debutants Hriday and Zayd grounded out before Edoardo popped out to the Thunder’s catcher. The Falcons made up for the abysmal hitting however with a strong defensive inning to hold the Thunder to single run in the bottom of the second. The third inning started off slowly with pitcher Ben Hollis grounding out to short. Rhys and Stephane however, managed to draw walks to get on base before stealing to third and second respectively. With runners in scoring position, the Falcons’ rookies came out in a big way with two consecutive RBI hits to bring in 2 runs for the Falcons and make it a two-run ball game.

Despite the mounting pressure as the Falcons closed the lead, the Thunder came out strongly in the bottom of the inning to score two runs of their own and re-establish the 4 run lead. As the clock ran down, the umpire announced that no more new innings would be played. This left the Falcons needing to score 4 runs to stay in the game and Loughborough finally brought on one of their more experienced pitchers to close out the game. Despite the stronger pitching, the Falcons came out strongly as catcher Ashley got on base off a walk and eventually came round to score on a passed ball after having stolen to third. Chris then gave up the first out as he struck out swinging on a 1-2 count. Edoardo then drew a walk and stole second before taking third as Ben got on base off a K-E2 (dropped strike out ball). With one down, the tying run, Rhys “The Beast” Jones stepped up to the plate and hit a line-drive between first and second to score Edoardo. Ben however was tagged out at home trying to close the lead as Rhys made an ill-advised attempt to lengthen his single into a double that resulted in an easy double play for the Thunder to close out the game and shutdown the Falcons’ hopes of turning the game around.

With the score now at 7-5 to the Thunder, the bottom of the inning was played out due to the tiebreak rule, with Loughborough hoping to lengthen their lead and increase their run differential. This was not to be however, as the Falcons finally found their groove and shut down the Thunder offense, holding them to zero runs with two strike outs delivered by reliever Vincent “Demon Pitcher” Li.

As the Falcons took a 20 minute breather before their next game against Nottingham, the first drops of the previously forecasted rain started to fall. As the game started, the weather grew more menacing with ever darker clouds closing in on the skies above the field. Despite the weather, the Falcons started strongly off some strong pitching from their ace, Edoardo Lisi. They held Nottingham to only 1 run before hitting a mercy rule inning to take a commanding 5-1 lead off consecutive over-the-fence ground rule doubles from first baseman Ben and second baseman Rhys.

As the second inning came round, the weather grew progressively worse and the Falcons slowly started to freeze. This was reflected in their fielding as the Falcons gave up 3 runs to allow the Thieves back into the game at a score of 5-4. Fortunately, the lead wasn’t the only thing to disappear in the inclement weather as the score sheet dissolved in the rain, taking away all record of the abysmal inning. The Falcons offense then failed to replicate their first inning success, scoring only 1 run while giving up three easy outs to the Thieves. With the rain now in full force, the Falcons offered to end the match then. However, the northern-bred Thieves would not give up, and banking on their cold-resistant northern blood, they proceeded to hit in a mercy rule inning of their own to take a commanding 3 run lead.

Things were now looking dismal for the Falcons as they needed to score 3 runs in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game. The inning started off with Rhys getting on base off a walk before Vincent popped out to second. He subsequently stole to third as Stephane drew a walk to get on first. Rhys then came home on a passed ball to bring the Falcons within 2 runs as Stephane stole to third. The Falcons hope were dealt a huge blow however as rookie third baseman Zayd was put out to bring the Thieves within one out of sealing the game. With two outs, debutant right fielder Hriday stepped up to the plate and drew the walk to load the tying run on first and bring the Falcons back to the top of the line-up. With the tying run at the plate, the tension was palpable as Hriday stole second to put the tying run in scoring position. The Falcons’ shortstop then hit a blistering line-drive that careened off the left field fence and scored Stephane to bring the Falcons within one run of tying the game.

With Hriday on third, centre fielder Chris took the strike to let Ashley steal second and get the winning run in scoring position. A missed swing later, the Thieves were now one strike away from ending the game and the intensity could be felt throughout the pitch. As the fateful pitch left the pitcher’s fingers all eyes were on Chris as he turned and brought the bat to bear. The next few moments would come to highlight the Falcons’ M1ST experience as the hard-hit line-drive sailed over the Thieves short stop and dropped for a single. With Hriday safely home and the game tied, Ashley rounded third without breaking pace and went full speed into home plate to score the fourth run and take the game for the Falcons. With the game, and third place safely in the bag, the Falcons then rushed to pack their equipment before making a beeline for the warmth and dryness of the Loughborough University Fitness Centre to celebrate their emphatic victory in what was effectively a third place playoff.

Despite losing out on a spot in the final by only 2 runs, the Falcons will take a lot of positives from this competition with the strong performances of debutants Hriday and Zayd as well as greatly improved hitting from the team in general. With these encouraging signs, the Falcons will train even harder over the next month and return to the Spring Cup with the aim of finally bringing home that coveted championship trophy.