Stuart Capel

12 November 2014

This week in the Australian Baseball League offers us a full book of games starting on Thursday evening, with Adelaide at home to Perth, Sydney playing host to Canberra and Melbourne making the trek to Brisbane.

Both on five and three, the Bandits and Blue Sox head the ABL table while the Bite (two and two), Heat (two and two), Cavalry and Aces (one win apiece) have played just four games and will be keen to build some momentum.

ROUND TWO:   Canberra Cavalry vs Sydney Blue Sox

Game One:   Sydney defeated Canberra 9-0 (Box Scores)

Game Two:   Canberra defeated Sydney 4-2 (Box Scores)

Game Three:   Sydney defeated Canberra 3-1 (Box Scores)

Game Four:   Sydney defeated Canberra 7-5 (Box Scores)

Sydney wins the series 3-1.

It was a Blue Sox outfit, having been somewhat battle-hardened through pre-season matches and a tough series in Perth, that took three games from the Canberra Cavalry, who throughout the series looked a team short of a quality pre-season and having had a bye in week one of the new ABL season.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Cavalry’s best players through their opening series were those who had enjoyed previous ABL experience. With the bat, Jack Murphy hit .400 (and had an OBP of .500) and Jason Sloan chimed in with a .286 series, although the import hitters, aside from L.B. Dantzler (.357 four doubles, three RBI, three runs) all struggled. The quintet Alford, Hudak, Lemon, Lopes and Walding could only combine for a .141 average with two RBIs and four runs scored. 

On the hill, Tim Atherton picked up the Cavalry’s only win, while converted closer Tristan Crawford was excellent for five innings before struggling in the sixth.  Veteran reliever Wayne Ough also enjoyed a solid first series with a 2.70 ERA. 

The performance of the new arms was mixed, with Jake Brown excellent in relief and Dustin Crenshaw proving a capable replacement for Sean Toler, however Brian Grening - coming off a poor season in the Atlantic League – struggled along with Gaby Hernandez and A.J. Holland.

Sydney, however, had no passengers on their pitching staff. The starting quartet of Solbach, Anderson, Wilkins and Cox all produced quality outings, while the bullpen had a series ERA of 2.07 with a 1.03 WHIP.  Only 45 year-old Dea-Sung Koo, who was pitching on consecutive days, gave up a run from the bullpen.

Tyler Bortnick enjoyed three multi-hit games and Will Swanner hit the only home run of the series to lead the Sydney offence, which also stretched the Canberra catchers by stealing seven bases. Only Trent D’Antonio had a totally forgettable series, going 0-12, grounding into a double play and making four errors in one game.

ROUND TWO:    Melbourne Aces vs Brisbane Bandits

Game One:   Brisbane defeated Melbourne 10-3 (Box Scores)

Game Two:    Melbourne defeated Brisbane 2-1 (11 innings) (Box Scores)

Game Three:   Brisbane defeated Melbourne 5-4 (11 innings) (Box Scores)

Game Four:   Brisbane defeated Melbourne 2-1 (Box Scores)

Brisbane wins the series 3-1.

It was Hall of Fame Manager Casey Stengel who used to teach his outstanding New York Yankees teams that “Most ball games are lost, not won”, and it came to pass that the seven-time World Series winning manager’s words came true at Melbourne BallPark over the most recent weekend.

Following an opening game in which the ball jumped off the bat, leading to eight home runs - six by six different Brisbane Bandits players, a club record in a 10-3 victory in which the Bandits homered off more Aces pitchers (four) than the Aces scored runs (three) - the rest of the series featured three one-run games, two of which went to extra innings.

After the Aces squared the ledger on Saturday night when Brad Harman capitalised on a 2-0 mistake pitch by Justin Erasmus to sneak a ball just inside the foul pole and over the left field fence for a home run, the Bandits came from behind to win the Sunday game 5-4. After jumping to a 3-0 lead early, the Aces managed precious little after that with the bats, stranding eleven runners on base from the fifth innings onwards, and they failed to score having bases loaded with one out in the eleventh innings despite having left-handed hitting imports Kellin Deglan and Dylan Cozens at the plate against right hander Jason Kilby.

Brisbane, on the other hand, tied the game in the eighth on the back of two walks, a double steal, an infield single and a passed ball. In extra innings, the eventual winning run scored on a walk, two wild pitches and a single.

Monday’s series finale saw the Aces well undermanned. However, a solid outing from Matt Wilson only ended when the young southpaw was taken off with what appeared to be a side strain. Leading 1-0 in to the eighth innings, the Aces threw the game away when - with runners on first and second - Tom Dicker covered the trailing runner on a double steal, with Andrew Campbell’s weak RBI groundball rolling through where Dicker had been fielding. Then, with two out, a routine fly ball to Komei Fujisawa in left field was inexplicably dropped, allowing the winning run to score. Earlier, the Aces had a chance to add to their 1-0 lead with runners on second and third with one out before the pairing of Deglan and Cozens again came up empty.

The 3-1 series victory marked the first Bandits series win in Melbourne, with the Aces (13-3 at home against Brisbane before the series) dropping as many games to the Bandits at home in one series as they had in the previous four seasons. Melbourne’s series tally of ten runs was their second lowest in a home series of four or more games, with only the Vasquez and Claggett-led Heat keeping Melbourne to a total of eight runs on a four-game set back in 2012-13.