Hanging to the Left

Key lesson learned from attempting to write a post during an ABL game? Make sure your laptop battery is fully charged. Despite this slight technical glitch the whole experiment seemed to work quite well and the Defensive Specialist was able to concurrently watch the game, report on proceedings, check his stocks and monitor Facebook status updates. God bless modern technology! After the Heat entered Blacktown Olympic Facility and took game 1, it was always going to be interesting to see how the Blue Sox responded. The goal for every team is to win the series at home and at least split on the road, so with a Heat W it meant the Blue Sox needed to win the next 3 to consider the home stand a success.

The advantage the Sydneysiders have in achieving their goal of winning 3 games in a series is the strength of their starting pitching. Chris Oxspring is a certifiable ace and David Welch could easily headline a rotation. Both Wayne Lundgren and Craig Anderson are proven “guys” at this level meaning that Sydney roles out 4 quality arms every series. Welch entered the second game of the series as the league leader in ERA with a 0.97 mark and a 4-0 record. While the Heat’s starting pitching has been depleted with the loss of Liam Hendriks who has been shut down by his pro team (Minnesota Twins), they were able to send Daniel Schmidt to the hill who has been impressive this season with a 4-3 record and a 2.84. ERA. A lefty lefty match up for control of the series!

Usually the Defensive Specialist would spend time waffling on about his favourite part of the game, the catchers pop-up during innie outtie but both coaches suffered severe performance anxiety issues tonight upon seeing the Defensive Specialist with his laptop poised. Crusty war horse Graham Cassel and Heat manager Brooke Knight each endured a lack of firmness and control that proved to be truly unsatisfying to all involved. In fact both performances were so bad that it wouldn’t be right to declare anyone a winner.

The Heat obviously decided the best way to beat a guy like Welch is to get right after him as they dented the scoreboard almost immediately. Tim Kennelly led off with a single to left and then stole on the second pitch of the game. Allan De San Miguel lofted a fly ball to rightfield that allowed Kennelly to tag and advance to third. Luke Hughes then hit a sac fly to centre to score him. As they say: “Get him on, get him over and get him in”. Simple. Robbie Widlansky had an infield single before Welch escaped the inning by getting Evan MacArthur to ground out.

After Welch K’d Ronnie Welty to lead off the second, Matthew Kennelly singled to leftfield. In what must be concerning for Blue Sox Manager Glenn Williams, Kennelly (never noted as being fleet footed) stole second base somewhat easily. After a Brandon Dale strikeout, Mitch Graham singled to rightfield to score Kennelly. Graham then swiped second base uncontested but was stranded after Welch punched out Tim Kennelly to end the inning.

Not to be worn by non P.I.M.P's

Alex Johnson led off the second inning and it would be remiss of the Defensive Specialist to not mention the heinous spikes that Johnson has been sporting over the last two games. Vulgar grey Reebok hightops are only ever made to look good when worn by 290 pound Dominican’s like David “Big Papi” Ortiz who add an element of P.I.M.P to the look. Johnson doesn’t necessary have that in his repertoire just yet, although if he continues to blast “no doubter” opposite field bombs it wont take long. His solo shot over the right field was impressive and whittled the Heats lead to 1.

Aside from the homerun, Daniel Schmidt had looked impressive with serious run on his fastball and an impressive array of off-speed stuff.  The Blue Sox decided to rough him up a little in the 3^rd inning. After a quick first out to Mark Holland, Michael Lysaught singled to right and Trent D’Antonio followed with a single to centre. Trent Schmutter then sent a ground ball to short that Graham clanked to load the bases. Trent Oeltjen grounded out to first to score Lysaught and Johnson and his Big Papi shoes walked to once again load the bases. Mitch Denning then singled to centre to plate D’Antonio and Schmutter before the Bossman walked. Schmidt managed to strikeout Graham for the final out but not before surrendering 3 runs.

The bottom of the 5^th saw the Heat at it again as Graham knocked a 1 out single into left. Continuing the trend of running on the Blue Sox catcher, Mitch Graham broke early for second but Welch picked over to first. An errant throw from the Bossman enabled him to scramble into second. De San Miguel (who the inning prior gunned down Lysaught attempting to steal second from his knees in a truly impressive display of catching) launched his bat into the Blue Sox dugout on a 3-1 count but after applying some sex wax, managed to punch a run scoring single into centre. Luke Hughes then cranked a line drive double down the left field line that saw manager Knight wave De San Miguel for home. A nifty piece of relay work by Schmutter to Lysaught to Graham saw De San Miguel cut down at the plate in a bang bang play that had the fans on their feet at Blacktown.

Not prepared to give it up easily, the Blue Sox struck back in the bottom of the frame with a Schmutter ground rule double to left and a sac bunt to Oeltjen to move him to third. Johnson and his hightops then popped up on the infield that Hughes inexplicably dropped to score Schmutter.

Welch gave way to Matt Williams in the 6^th with one of his less impressive lines of the year (5 innings, 8 hits, 4 earned runs, 1 BB, 7K’s – although there are a number of pitchers in the league who would take that line any day of the week and twice on Sundays!) after starting the inning with a walk to Robbie Widlansky and then a right centre double to MacArthur. Denning actually made a pretty nice play on the ball that would usually go unnoticed unless you had a trained professional like the Defensive Specialist pointing it out. The ball definitely had the grunt to get to the wall in which case Widlansky would have scored so Denning hustled to cut it off and then performed what looked like an infielders jump throw to quickly get the ball to the cut off man. This hustle and throw was enough for Knight to hold Widlansky at third. Williams immediately gave up a scorched line drive to Welty that D’Antonio snagged at third for an out. D’Antonio had a blood rush and attempted to nail MacArthur at second but one-hopped Holland and threw it away to right, allowing Widlansky to score. Matthew Kennelly then hit a sac fly to rightfield to score MacArthur to tie the game up.

The Blue Sox were still up for a fight. After Evan MacArthur made the Defensive Specialist “Play of the Game” on a drag bunt attempt by Graham (charging, bare handing and then gunning Graham down at first), Holland hit a sinking liner to right that a diving Matt Kennelly couldn’t snare allowing Holland to scoot for a triple. Knight brought the infield in which worked to perfection as Lysaught grounded to third and Holland was gunned down at the plate.

Williams looked to be settled in the 7^th as he quickly dispatched the first 2 hitters. De San Miguel then unleashed a legit blast to left for his 4^th homerun of the year. Hughes walloped a line drive to left which was enough for manager Williams to yank his reliever in favour of Todd Gratton. Widlansky pulled a ball down the rightfield line that bounced over the Bossman’s head and just stayed fair for a double. With runners on second and third, Gratton walked MacArthur and then gave up a 2 run single to centre by Ronnie Welty.

Gratton got roughed up again in the 8^th as he issued a lead off walk to Ryne Price and then a smoked triple to the right centre gap by Graham. After a strikeout, De San Miguel dropped his second bomb of the game – this time a line drive over the left field wall. Hughes hit a rocket straight at the left fielder for an out and Widlansky tee’d off on another fastball for a double to right. Batting practice ended when MacArthur smoked a ball to the left centre gap that Oeltjen tracked down and made a great catch on.

Schmidt was sent back out to start the 8^th as the Blue Sox had lefties at the plate. Widlansky booted a ground ball by Denning to put a runner on first. After Schmidt retired the Bossman, Ben Grice was called from the Heat pen. He promptly loaded the bases by walking Graham and Holland (Sydney’s 2 least potent hitters) before capturing Lysaught and D’Antonio on soft liners to short. Schmidt’s night: 7.1 innings, 7 hits, 2 earned runs, 3 BB, 5k’s. While that line doesn’t explode off the page, it should be noted Schmidt battled through some early speed bumps to keep his team in the contest and save the bullpen.

Dean White was given the ball in the bottom of the 9^th to put the game away. A lead off walk to Schmutter wasn’t the start he was after but a K to Josh Dean steadied the ship.  Johnson and his moon boots then stroked a ball to left. New left fielder, Aaron Bonomi cut the ball off and threw into 3^rd base allowing Johnson to rumble into second. The fundamental extremist in the Defensive Specialist was outraged at the boneheaded throw by Bonomi as there was no play on Schmutter at third, and by allowing Johnson to move to second he killed any chance at the double play. Denning grounded out to third, (inning ending double play if Johnson had been at first) which allowed Schmutter to score. The Bossman hit the season’s longest single by ricocheting a ball off the rightfield wall that scored Johnson but was retrieved so quickly that he was unable to get a double. White put the game to bed by getting Graham to ground out 5-3 with a final score of 11-7.

The Heat achieved their goal of splitting on the road and will now be desperate to scratch out one more win in order to take the series victory. Schmidt, while not at his best, did enough to keep his team in it and allowed his potent offense to take care of business. The Blue Sox may have shrugged off a game 1 loss but have to be taking a long hard at themselves in the mirror after dropping a series at home. Its now a mad scramble for them to pull out 2 wins and salvage some pride.

Deep in the Hole Player of the Game you ask? It has to be Allan De San Miguel who went 3-5 with 2 runs, 4 RBI’s including 2 homeruns.

Allan De San Miguel claiming player of the game honours

Enjoy your breakfast / brunch!