The Defensive Specialist had just finished off his game 2 review and was back beside the camp fire roasting freshly slaughtered possum in order to maintain the levels of nourishment required to bring comprehensive game breakdowns to the masses. While deboning a paw, the Defensive Specialist looked up to see a semi trailer rolling onto the field. With the yard already playing like it had just hosted a tractor pulling competition the Defensive Specialist was a little surprised to see a heavy articulated vehicle out there between games of the doubleheader. The Defensive Specialist shrugged his shoulders, “What’s a few extra ruts and grooves?”
All fears were allayed however, when the canvas was pulled back on the trailer to reveal a good old-fashioned pub rock and roll band (complete with a base player sporting a legit silver handlebar moustache). The 4 piece then launched into a classic mix of 60’s and 70’s rock that had the Defensive Specialist tapping his toes as he stoked the fire. The Defensive Specialist has to admit that it was one of the cooler mid game entertainment stunts that he’d ever seen and can now go to the ‘Things Never Before Seen on a Baseball Field’ list and cross “Seeing a semi trailer on a baseball field with a band on the back of it” off.
Game 2 finished a little later than anticipated and with the band whipping the crowd into a frenzy, the organizers decided to push the start of game 3 back. Just as the hard rocking quartet finished their set, the heavens opened and tarps were put on the field. The Defensive Specialist pulled out his Drizabone and hunkered down for the rain to pass.
Seeing the crowd start to dissipate, the organizers of the series decided to let off the fireworks they had planned for the end of the game. With a loud pop the first shell went up and what proceeded was quite the spectacular. Safe to say the entire entertainment budget may have been blown on the fireworks alone!
The rain finally passed and at 9.15pm, game 3 was ready to commence. Veteran southpaw Craig Anderson took the mound for the Patriots and the Defensive Specialist was keen to see how the soft tosser was going to handle the Heat lineup that exploded in game 2. Working in the 69 – 75mph range as Anderson does requires finesse and guile, which he demonstrated by striking out Mitch Graham to start the ball game. A walk to Kimpton was nullified by Trent D’Antonio who gunned him down on a steal attempt. Luke Hughes managed a single to left but Anderson ended the inning by having Tim Kennelly pop out to first base.
The Heat handed the ball to Scott Mitchinson making his first start in the Claxton shield this year. Mitchinson is on the comeback trail from injury and resorted to some radical treatment to cure his ails. The procedure involved teenage girls sucking blood from a pale skinned, emo looking, teenage outcast from their high school and injecting it into his elbow, hang on, that’s the plot to Twilight. Actually Mitchinson had his own blood plasma injected back into his elbow to aid the healing process. Mitchinson was quickly up to 88mph as he worked through the first, surrendering only a double to D’Antonio.
The Heat couldn’t muster anything against Anderson in the second but the Patriots had other plans. PAT MAT led off with a single to right and Techno Tim Auty singled to left. Mitchinson punched out Tim Atherton and then was squeezed badly by the home plate umpire, which led to a walk to David Kandilas. Jason Pospishil popped up to left bringing Michael Lysaught to the dish. Mitchinson was relying heavily on his slider (always a good recipe for a guy coming back from elbow problems) and had thrown 5 in a row by the time Lysaught drilled the 6th into left field for a double scoring two. Mark Holland then singled into left scoring Kandilas but the throw from leftfielder Dean White nailed Lysaught at the dish much to the dismay of Patriot first base coach Gary White who said something nasty and got dumped by the home plate umpire.
NSW 3-0
Anderson cruised through the 3rd inning on 5 pitches bringing Mitchinson back out to the mound. He walked D’Antonio but induced a 5-4-3 double play from Andy Graham. Mitchinson by now had reached his 40-pitch limit and was replaced by Mark Kelly. Kelly induced a fly out from PAT MAT to end the inning.
Jarrett Commane relieved Anderson to start the 4th and worked an uneventful inning. In the bottom of the 4th, Techno Tim Auty led off with a hot smash to right that Tim Kennelly took a ball tearing catch on, stretching high to snare the drive. Numerous readers have requested some evidence of Techno Tim’s day glo gloves and as per usual, the Defensive Specialist delivers. Check out the photo on the left. Atherton then drove a ball deep to centre that Kimpton appeared to get a bad read on, allowing it to drop for a double. Kandilas grounded to second and Mitch Graham kicked it allowing Atherton to move to third and Kandilas to first. Posposhil then grounded a ball to Andy Kyle at short who joined the party by booting it as well, pushing Atherton across for a run. Kelly K’d Lysaught and got Holland 5-3 to end the threat.
NSW 4-0
Commane ran into trouble in the top of the 5th by walking Chris House and Matt Kennelly. A Dean White pop up made it one out and an error by Holland on a ground ball by Andy Kyle loaded the bases. Mitch Graham hit a Chinese line drive to right that plated House and Kimpton popped a ball up down the left field line that Atherton completely screwed the pooch on allowing Matt Kennelly to score. Luke Hughes then grounded into what looked like a sure fire double play to second but Posposhil bobbled the ball and Kimpton hustled into second base like a runaway freight train preventing Lysaught from turning the pair (and in the process perhaps rupturing his testicle) and allowing Kyle to score. Tim Kennelly grounded out 5-3 to end the inning.
NSW 4-3
Both pitchers rolled through the 6th inning with little to no trouble. The bottom of the 7th is when it got eventful.
Kelly was still working for the Heat. He punched out Holland to start the inning but allowed a double down the leftfield line to D’Antonio. Graham then singled to deep shortstop, moving D’Antonio to third. Manager Don Kyle had seen enough and went to Ben Grice to face PAT MAT. Grice induced a groundball from PAT MAT as planned, unfortunately the plan did not include the ball going under Andy Kyle’s glove for an error, scoring D’Antonio. Techno Tim Auty then singled to leftfielder Dean White who bobbled the ball allowing Ben Graham to chug home and Techno Tim to move into second. Atherton then smoked a ball to left centre for a 2 run double. After an error from Lachlan Dale at third, manager Kyle couldn’t get to the mound fast enough to get Grice out. Brendan Wise relieved for the Heat and promptly gave up a ground rule double to Jason Posposhil that scored Atherton. Wise dosed Lysaught before mercifully ending the beat down by getting Holland on a fielder’s choice 5-2 and D’Antonio to ground out to second for the third out.
NSW 9-3
Wise got touched up again in the bottom of the eighth, giving up a rocket line drive to left by Andy Graham and with 2 out serving up a gigantic bomb to Tim Atherton that may have cleared the railway tracks in deep left field.
NSW 11-3
By the top of the 9th the Defensive Specialist had begun packing up the Deep in the Hole bus in readiness for the trek back to the big smoke. Jarryd Sullivan was brought on to pitch the top of the ninth for the Patriots and started in style by punching out Andy Kyle. Mitch Graham singled to centre and Nick Kimpton walked. With a little activity stirring, the Defensive Specialist stopped rolling the swag and focused in. Luke Hughes picked up a cheap single to centre loading the bases for Tim Kennelly. TK then turned a Sullivan fastball around quick sticks on the double for momentous grand slam to left that caught everyone’s attention. Things were now getting a little frisky! Dale singled down the right field line and showed that he could be a mobile big man by hustling into second on a Kandilas bobble in right. The Patriots had the bullpen scrambling as Sullivan managed to punch out House for the second out. Matt Kennelly walked and Patriots manager had seen enough, summoning Lee Ingram from the bullpen. Ingram took Dean White to a full count before striking him out to end the ball game.
NSW Win 11-7
The Deep in the Hole Player of the Game goes to Tim Atherton who went 4-5 (HR, 2 Doubles), 3 runs & 4 RBI’s. Jarret Commane did a serviceable job in relief surrendering 3 hits and 1 earned run over 5 innings.
For the Patriots this was a huge series win, allowing them to roll into next week’s contest against cellar dweller’s Queensland with a real shot at a sweep. For the Heat, the flame is well and truly on them now, going head to head with league leaders Victoria with a playoff berth at stake. Neither team will be overly happy about how game 3 played out with a combined 18 runs scored and 7 errors committed and will need to oil the hinges if they hope to compete for a championship in 2010.
The Defensive Specialist will be back later in the week with his super informative “What the Defensive Specialist has learned” post which is guaranteed to increase your intelligence by at least 23 IQ points.
Many thanks to the Macarthur Baseball Club for putting on the series, the entertainment, the brown snakes, the fireworks and of course a true to life pub band in the back of a semi trailer truck. Now if you’ll excuse the Defensive Specialist, it’s time to saddle up and mosey on out of this one horse town.
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