Stags Blunt those Hunting Arrows

Stags 17-Essex Arrows2 0

Brentwood stags won the first of their 6 Essex derbies to be played this season, against local rivals Essex Arrows and Braintree .

The Waltham Abbey based  Essex Arrows team travelled to Clements Park, Warley yesterday, (Sunday) to take on the newly emerging team that Brentwood have put together over the last 2 seasons.    Essex arrows as usual were expected to play good honest entertaining baseball and they did not disappoint.  Early  Essex batting showed indications were, that this would be a tightly fought game, and it was from the pitch-off..

The Brentwood Stags played matching baseball to everything that the Essex Arrows hit, and the Stags slowly but surely put daylight between the two teams by the 3rd inning.   Jeff Allender led the defensive line shut-out by the Stags. The softly spoken, modest American from Florida State, produce an inspiring defensive display, which was punctuated by much vocal appreciation from both sets of players and  spectators alike.

Allender looked at one stage as though he was on a personal crusade to win this one. His performance included put-outs, assists, a dozen strike-outs, and catches, one of which brought every one to their feet as the American took a bullet hit off the bat straight into the glove whilst barely straightening up from the pitch he'd just delivered, much to the delight of the onlookers and the umpire standing directly in line of the  head height hit.    Other plays saw him calling off basemen to make catches, as he came closer and closer to the prestigious statistic of a near errorless shut-out,  which later did achieve, a prized goal of any pitcher.

Essex  could not cope with such a focused individual, and their game was slowly further eclipsed by the incessant hitting from the Stags batting line up which complemented the pitchers good work to seal a convincing  team like win.

Punishing hitting and base running from the Stags' eager to get back in the swing after the recent 'rain-outs', notably Messer's Bricomb,  C.J.Evans,  Andy Seabrooke,  Irvin Saranillo  &  Sean Murphy who effectively had the action packed game won by the 5th inning.  Fine rookie contributions from Mike Cobb (base-running) and Chris Allen (outfield catch) . The days proposed closing  Pitcher, John Read said that he realized in the later stages of the game that starting pitcher,  Jeff Allender was headed for a memorable performance, so letting him see out the entire game was on the agenda as he played a near perfect game. He added, "when a team-mate is playing that well you don't want them to do anything but carry on with the fine work, so myself & Irvin Saranillo elected to stay put in centerfield and short stop respectively, and enjoy Jeff Allenders day."  

Head Coach Tom Keegan said of his pitchers performance; "At times Jeff's a perfectionist, and he will be disappointed with   the 3 "walks" that he gave up towards the end of the game, and he called himself 'careless' as he was ahead in each count in each instant. I told him he did great,  but that's just Jeff, he is a modest man  that  just wants the team to do so well". Essex Arrows management paid the highest compliment to the Stags, saying how well Brentwood played, and added "That one thing to take from the game was, that all the other teams had to play against the Brentwood pitching staff of Allender, Read, Saranillo and Briscomb.

Stags would like to dedicate the win to their colleague Ian Aubury and his family, Ian is still recovering from a  career threatening serious knee injury from last season. Get well soon Ian and good luck with the operation latner this month.

Brentwood Stags American pitcher Jeff Allender,
achieved a "shut-out" against Essex Arrows (a 7 innings no-hitter).