Photos: Jody Demay-Davies
Twenty-three teams, one more than last year, came to Farnham Park the weekend of 31 Aug-1 Sep for the NSL Nationals competition. With a full schedule both days, the teams worked their way through ninety-two games in the journey to be crowned National Champions.
It was a perfect weekend for softball - day one was overcast but stayed dry, with day two upping the temperature with sunny skies. When everything drew to a close, H2O had won the NSL1 Championship for the third time in a row. The other two championships saw first-time winners both from 3rd seeds, with the Meerkats taking NSL2 and NSL3 being won by MK Diamonds.
Coming into the weekend, last year’s NSL1 winners H2O were leading in their league, with a 18-4-0 record. The 2023 NSL2 champions The Mob had been promoted a league so there always going to be a new champion - the league results were close with the Tempest with a slight advantage over the Honey Badgers. In NSL3, last year’s champions Storm had a winning percentage of 1.000 and were looking to repeat their winning ways.
Round Robin Play
Saturday was grey and overcast, with a wind impacting the play across all games. In NSL1, 3rd seed Legends ended up leading the group, pulling ahead with an 18-6 win over 1st seed H2O in their last game of the day. In NSL2, Tempest lived up to their 1st seeding, with 3 wins and 2 draws to be top of the table at the end of the day. MK Diamonds achieved a 100% win record in NSL3 with 4 wins.
On Sunday, the breeze was still there but the day warmed up quickly under blue skies. With 5 sets of games to get through, action kicked off at 9am, with the teams eager to make their mark and get to the top 4 in each division.
In NSL1, last year’s winners H2O topped the table, being joined by the Travelling Dodgers, Legends and Pioneers. The Mob, last year’s NSL2 winners, deserve a special mention, only missing out on a top 4 spot by head to head result with Pioneers.
NSL2 had Meerkats, Tempest and Honey Badgers all having a 4-1-2 record, with the order being defined by games between themselves. They were joined by Blitz Havoc in the playoffs.
In NSL3, MK Diamonds and Southern Stormers took the top 2 spots with the same 5-1-0 record, with the Diamonds taking the no. 1 spot due to head to head result between the two teams. Sharks and Storm took the next 2 spots.
NSL1 Page Playoff
In NSL1, H2O and the Travelling Dodgers played the 1v2 Page Playoff game, with H2O winning 14-4 to progress straight through to the final game. In the 2v4 Page Playoff game, Legends repeated their 2023 playoff victory over Pioneers, with a 10-4 score.
The last place was decided in favour of Legends, who got through to the final with a victory over the Dodgers. Legends 11 Travelling Dodgers 7
NSL2 Page Playoff
In NSL2, the 1v2 Page playoff game was between Meerkats and Tempest, with Tempest taking it 11-5. In the 3v4 game, Blitz Havoc lived up to their name and blitzed the Honey Badgers 17-6, taking them through to the face-off against Meerkats. This game was won by the Meerkats, 10 Blitz Havoc 9, meaning the final would be a rematch of the 1v2 game.
NSL3 Page Playoff
In NSL3, MK Diamonds continued their almost perfect winning streak by beating the Southern Stormers 12-5 in the 1v2 Page Playoff. The 3v4 game ended with the Sharks beating Storm 13-9. In the face-off for the last final place, Southern Stormers won against the Sharks, Southern Stormers 20 to 9 Sharks following the same pattern as NSL2 and setting up a rematch, with Diamonds facing Southern Stormers for the 3rd time over the weekend.
NSL1 Final: Hat-trick for H2O
NSL1 Champions H2O won their 3rd championship in a row this weekend in a with a win of 17-1 over the Legends, a second year of these teams in the final. This was H2Os 2nd double of league and championship, having achieved this previously in 2022. Going into the game, it was not certain they would take the win, Legends having beaten them in the round robin 18-6 but after a steady start, H2O racked up the runs to take an emphatic victory. You can watch the game playback on https://www.baseballsoftballuk.com/watch
Legends were first on the scoreboard at the top of the 1st, with an RBI single from Jeff Swindell with Nathalie Hosten getting the run. H2O took quickly took the lead with an RBI by Danielle Atkinson and a 2-run home run from Kuba Prozchaka.
Both teams had a quiet 2nd inning with rapid outs but it was not to continue with H20 ending the 3rd with a 7-run lead, including a 3-run home run from Joe Grantham.
The 4th inning was even more successful for H2O – Legends managed a runner on 1st before an infield fly for the final out of their inning. In the bottom of the 4th, H2O scored 7 further runs, including another 2-run home run from Grantham and Helena Prochaska picking her 3rd run of the game. Both teams then brought in relief pitchers, with the replacements holding the teams to zero runs in the 5th.
There was no miracle comeback for the Legends, H2O continued to dominate through the 6th and final inning. Legends managed 1 more hit but no runs before H2O’s Grantham ending the game with a GRD and a 2RBI, including Danielle Atkinson’s 3rd run. The final score of 17-1 did not truly reflect the overall quality of the game, but with 3 successive games successive in the hot weather may have been 1 too many for Legends.
So H2O continue their successful run and should be back next year to try and make it 4, to match Chromies (2012-15) and Baker Tomkins (1998-2001).
The team announced they were “over the moon”, with this year’s success, with 4 out of 6 tournaments won.
NSL2 Final: Pushing through for the win
Having won 3 out of the last NSL2 finals, Tempest were back in the mix in 2024, having dropped back down from NSL1 and wining the league again for promotion. In their 2 previous games, Tempest had taken 1 win and 1 draw and were probably favourites going into the game. But it was not to be, the Meerkats had the win, Meerkats 15 Tempest 10
NSL3 Final: Drama in extra innings.
The final between MK Diamonds and Southern Stormers was the closest final of the day. Both teams had won 5 games in the round robin, but Diamonds had won 15-9 and 12-5 in the previous 2 meetings. With both teams battling hard, there was a draw at the end of regulation time, so they continued into extra innings.
Summing Up
This was another successful Nationals with 92 games played across the weekend, with the weather holding fair allowing all games to be played.
A huge thank you goes to the BASU umpires, especially Crew Chief and BSF President Lesley Morisetti; to Liz Knight for running Tournament Control (and being the first aid guru); to the Home Plate team for keeping a constant flow of food and drink and to Farnham Park for keeping the fields in great condition across the weekend.
- Tempest and Honey Badgers promoted to NSL 1
- Blitz Bombers & Blue Steel demoted to NSL2
- Storm and Shafting promoted to NSL2
- Fuzzy Ducks & Bracknell demoted to NSL3
- Breaking Bats, Dublin, Cardiff and Camels 2 join NSL 3
- Maidenhead, Bobcats, Reading, Ninos relegated out of NSL