TAUNTON Muskets Baseball Club have had a busy few weeks in the South West and Wales Baseball League and they find themselves in second place in the Wessex division with a chance of making the playoffs.

Over the last month the Taunton side has felt the highs and lows of a summer baseball season. They began July with two wins against the Bristol Brunels, before the British summer rain forced the postponement of their visit to Bristol to take on the Buccaneers a week later. The Muskets then ended July by splitting a double header with the Cornish Claycutters at Taunton Green and then opened August with two defeats to Cardiff Merlins I which crowned the Welsh side Severn division champions.

Their recent results leave the Taunton Muskets with a record of 12 wins and 6 loses, 2 games behind Wessex division leaders the Weston Jets, who are 15 & 5. The Muskets travel to Weston to take on the Jets on Sunday knowing that splitting the double header would secure them a playoff spot and if they sweep the two games they'd be leaving division champions.

While the results on the diamond may not have been stellar for the Taunton side there have been a lot of positives. They've given debuts to four new players, a couple of whom, Lawrence Curtis and James Wheatley, bagged themselves the Tricky Cider MVP awards over the last few weeks for how well they performed. Off the diamond the club continued to grow its youth offers, providing a one day youth camp, before starting a weekly Friday evening youth session between 5-7pm for children aged 7-14 years old, which will run until the end of September, with places still available.

Across the South West and Wales Baseball League there has also been a lot of activity. In the Severn division there is a battle between the Bournemouth Bears and the New Forest Thunder Knights for a place in the playoffs against the Cardiff Merlins I. While a representative team of the league also traveled to Farnham Park, the home of British Baseball, for the Summer Cup. After a strong weekend they narrowly lost 8-7 to the London Mets in the Single A final.