The season of freakish injuries continued for the Herts Falcons.

Their injury-hit squad was in the driving seat leading 7-4 going into the sixth inning of their game against Essex Arrows and about to cause a major upset, but then the curse struck again.

Tom Armstrong collided with the outfield wall while attempting a spectacular outfield catch. After a 45-minute delay to enable the ambulance to take him to the hospital, the Arrows turned the game on its head to win 16-7. Essex also won the other game of the doubleheader to go top of the NBL standings.

Herts Falcons manager Lee Manning felt that his team is showing character under difficult circumstances.

“Injures are killing us at the moment but the lads are battling hard. We wish Tom and the other injured players a speedy recovery. We should have a few of them back before we play again.”

The ball was carrying well on the hottest day of the year so far. Essex hit five home runs, three of which came on three consecutive pitches. The Falcons had four home runs of their own, coming from John Blose, Jamie Gregory and Jose Sosa, who had two.”

There was a similar home-run-fest over in Richmond where the Herts Hawks battled hard but lost 3-11 and 9-12 against the Richmond Dragons. They are now 3 games back on the leaders London Mammoths in the Double-A League.

In the Triple-A League the Eagles lost the first game of the doubleheader against Hove Tuesday 11-24 but came back in dramatic fashion to win the second 8-7.

In the Single-A League Herts Raptors lost 16-3 to the Kent Mariners in a time-restricted 6-inning game. The game was delayed by two hours as the earlier Eagles-vs-Tuesday doubleheader didn’t finish until 16:45. Raptors are now 0-3 and still looking for their first win to kick-start their season.

Results:

National Baseball League

Essex Arrows 18 Herts Falcons 7

Essex Arrows 16 Herts Falcons 7

Triple-A League

Hove Tuesday 24 Herts Eagles 11

Hove Tuesday 7 Herts Eagles 8

Double-A League

Herts Hawks 3 Richmond Dragons 11

Herts Hawks 9 Richmond Dragons 12

Single-A League

Kent Mariners 16 Herts Raptors 3