Redbacks Youth Academy had an international flavour at their home field at Forest Glade football club in Billericay on Saturday. A Dutch club (Hengelo Giants Aspiranten) that the Redbacks have been developing a close relationship with, came to Essex for the weekend with their youth team. Regional champions at home, the Giants were somewhat weakened by the absence of 3 of their players representing Holland at a European championship tournament t in Poland but nevertheless had a well drilled squad on show. The difference in age structure between the leagues in the UK and the Netherlands meant that the Redbacks team was made up of players from the last year of Broncos (ages 10-13) and the younger end of Ponys (13-16 year olds). The match was played on the smaller Bronco sized diamond with an agreed set of rules from both age groups and nations.
The Redbacks gave the pitching role to Seb Andrew (and also the opening slot in the lineup) to mark what would be his last game for the team ahead of a move to live in the States. Seb pitched well with three innings of work in which he only gave up one hit and one run while striking out nine. This was to be the theme of the day for Redbacks with a comprehensive pitching performance from all five pitchers used which was key in securing wins in both games by scores of 8-1 and 9-5.
The first game saw the Redbacks jump into an early lead with three runs in the opening frame. That included Chris Keifer in his first at bat wearing down the Giants pitcher in a personal battle by fouling off 6 times with 2 strikes on him and then having got his timing spot on hit a 2-run homer. The Giants got a run at the top of the second but when Redbacks piled another 3 runs on the 6-1 lead began to look like it might be enough. Chris Keifer took over on the mound in the 4th and threw 2 shutout innings to win the game. Just for good measure the Redbacks put on 2 more in the 4th to finish the 5-inning game 8-1 ahead.
For the second game the Redbacks made some changes to the top of the order adding speed merchants Alex Roofe and Dean Ashley at the 1 and 2 spots. It immediately paid dividend with Alex stealing second after being walked and then scoring on a fielding error. Stewart Meikle was the Redbacks hurler and he threw 3 shutout innings giving up a total of 2 hits. By the time he came out the Redbacks had stretched the lead to 5-0 with the highlight being a deep home run from Rory Flood. Matthew Bailey took over pitching duties for the 4th inning and started well but appeared to lose confidence after walking a couple and ended up walking a total of 5 although most of his pitches weren’t missing by much. It was just a blip, though and a confident Redbacks offence got 4 over the plate in the bottom of the inning which allowed closer Charlie Sedgwick the luxury of having a couple of runs come in on rare Redbacks errors to end the contest 9-5.
Everyone involved thought it was a fantastic success with coaches on both sides eagerly talking about a return fixture in Holland next year. The Dutch players were terrific company at the game and both teams headed off to Southend for fish and chips. Smiles all round.
