Let the Defensive Specialist make you 3% smarter

Before closing the chapter on the Perth Heat V Victoria Aces series, the Defensive Specialist would like to introduce a regular feature to run at the conclusion of each series that he lays eyeballs upon.

“What has the Defensive Specialist learned?’

The Defensive Specialist is sure that the baseball loving public enjoys the game recaps, but if you cant walk away from the experience at least 3% smarter, then the Defensive Specialist is simply not performing his role. Lets dissect the series a little further and come up with some key learnings:

Key Learning 1

Perth Heat debutant, Liam Hopkinson is actually called Liam Hopkins. The Defensive Specialist humbly apologises for ruining your entire series Liam.

Key Learning 2

Both pitching staffs are a little short, especially at the back end. The Aces have the well-known names of Donovan Hendriks and Greg Wiltshire but the talent drop-off was noticeable. Obviously the return of Adam Blackley will bolster the staff but after those three guys and the smoke and mirror routine of Casey Jones, there wasn’t much left in the pen.

The Heat had a viable closer in years past – Brendan Wise who was capable of locking down a narrow lead. With Wise “listening to his heart- Roxette” in the US this season, the Heat have had to turn to Dean White who has significantly less experience on the bump and doesn’t quite have the stuff that Wise has. Liam Hendriks being shut down robs the Heat of a legitimate ace and although Scott Mitchinson will eventually be added to the staff once he recovers from the myriad ailments that have beset him recently, it’s tough to judge what he will be able to contribute.

Key Learning 3

Not only were the pitching staffs short, velocity was at an alarmingly low level. Wiltshire was the Aces firmest arm at 86mph although he had no clear idea where it was going. For the Heat, White nudged 86 in his one inning of work. As the summer heats up and more pro bats are added to the line-ups, the Defensive Specialist is predicting fireworks if the velo doesn’t go up soon. The opening weekend saw both teams post significant run tallies which is somewhat uncommon for early season clashes where pitching typically trumps offense.

Key Learning 4

Missing hitters

Yes, the Defensive Specialist saw a bushel of runs scored over the 3 games, but when you consider some of the names that were missing offensively, the Defensive Specialist starts to fear for the life of pitchers. If the Aces had the likes of Daniel Berg, James Beresford and even Justin Huber, they may have scored 35 runs at some stage this past weekend.

Perth Heat were missing their most dangerous hitter in Luke Hughes who ably fills the 3 hole and lets the rest of the line up settle into place. The absence of Hughes also forces a cavalcade of poor defenders out to third base that weakens the Heat defensively. Unfortunately for the Heat, Lachlan Dale is unable to travel to games outside of Western Australia (can he not get a pass out from his girlfriend?), which denies them another potent bat.

Key Learning 5

Travelling with only 19 players on the roster means that both managers have to carefully construct their roster so as to mitigate disaster. The Heat’s bench was short, as they carried 9 pitchers and 10 offensive guys. When Chris House went down with a sore coccyx, the Heat were left with noone on the pine. With Dean White now in the closers role, Heat Manager Don Kyle is robbed of another valuable utility player.

The Aces faced a manpower issue in game 3 by countering the beat down they were receiving by saving an arm and rolling rightfielder Andrew Russell out to the mound. Not the optimal solution to the issue.

Key Learning 6

In-game MC’s are unnecessary for baseball and actually detract from the experience. Baseball fans don’t need Frisbees, quizzes, or crowd members trying to put on frozen t-shirts. The Defensive Specialist is keen for readers to leave their worst in-game entertainment experience in the comments below. The challenge is to top the players introducing themselves.

Key Learning 7

We live in a weird world.

The Defensive Specialist happened to be in the press box extolling the virtues of playing as much Guns ‘N’ Roses as possible to the sound guy when a beleaguered volunteer straggled into the room. The volunteer mentioned to the announcer that she’d been besieged by complaints that the music was too loud (The Defensive Specialist used that opportunity to chime in and say “and shit”). But the next complaint rocked the Defensive Specialist to the core of his very existence.

You see, Baseball Victoria had a very bright idea. Instead of losing foul balls and having to spend $2000 per weekend on baseballs, they encourage kids to chase the balls (a baseball rite of passage) and by returning them to the canteen, they receive vouchers to KFC.  So regularly throughout the game, the announcer would make sure that every kid knew they could get some greasy food in exchange for handing a ball in – easy money right?

Wrong!

Someone had decided the announcer needed to stop the kids racing off into the dark alone and instead should change his instructions to:

“Kids make sure that you chase after any foul balls – UNDER FULL ADULT SUPERVISION and return to receive your free voucher”.

None of the research the Defensive Specialist did on Geelong before his trip indicated that the Geelong Baseball Facility was a Mecca for pedophilia.

Now if the complaint was that Baseball Victoria was encouraging obesity, a finely tuned athlete like the Defensive Specialist would strongly concur!

Monster in the closet (Game 3)

The hour break in between games gave the Defensive Specialist an opportunity to take a closer look at the Geelong Baseball Facility (seriously can we run a competition to come up with a snazzy name for the place?). And what a facility it is with two full sized fields (with a natural grass playing surface) as well as one full sized synthetic turfed field. The set up also includes a fully enclosed hitting facility as well as ample space to add more bullpens or practice diamonds. About the only gripe the Defensive Specialist has about the entire place is that the backstop makes it a little difficult to watch the action with thick netting and crossbars that impair the sight lines. The Defensive Specialist was informed however that the backstop had once completely fallen over so, as is the Australian way, it was rebuilt to withstand a category 9 hurricane.

As the clock slowly ticked towards 7pm, The Defensive Specialist began bracing himself for temperatures to drop. Fortunately game time conditions were a balmy 26 degrees and all was set for a delightful evening and clash.  Being the second game of the double header, game 3 was scheduled as a 7 inning contest.

The Aces were desperately looking to put the Heat to the sword and sweep the series against the champs.  As for the Heat, a realistic expectation for any travelling squad, is to take 2 out of 3 on the road. Down 2 games in the series, it was critical for the Heat to salvage a W.

The Aces handed the pill to Greg Wiltshire with the plan to close out the series. Unfortunately, it appeared that Wiltshire had been handed the same plan used by the Heat’s Mark Kelly in game one which stated, “allow the opposition to MONSTER you”. Wiltshire was all over the show from the first pitch as he walked Mitch Graham to lead off the game and then surrendered a seeing eye single to rightfield by Nick Kimpton that gave new definition to the word cheap. Allan De San Miguel singled to rightfield plating Graham and moving Kimpton to third. Kimpton scored off a wild pitch and De San Miguel moved up. Tim Kennelly hit a ball up the middle and De San Miguel chugged home. Wiltshire then dosed Jason Smit and his missing H and punched out Matt Kennelly. After burning his glove between games and refusing to play third anymore, designated hitter Aaron Ottoway hit a double down the left field line to score Tim Kennelly, which brought Claxton Shield debutant Liam Hopkinson to the plate. Hopkinson was obviously shitting fishing line as he stepped up but his nerves were shortlived as Wiltshire nailed him directly in the spinal chord with a fastball. The Defensive Specialist instinctively reached for the Deep in the Hole first aid kit as it looked like the blow could snap the Olsen-twin skinny Hopkinson in two. Fortunately his adrenaline was pumping and he shook it off.

At this, Aces manager Phil Day stepped on Wilshire’s neck and put him out of his misery, calling upon Blake Cunningham to stem the bleeding. Cunningham gave up an RBI ground out to score Smit and his missing H and then managed to ground Graham out to end the inning. Heat 5-0.

Dylan Peacock took the ball for the Heat and quickly retired the red hot Scott Wearne. Paul Weichard singled to right, bringing rightfielder Andrew Russell to the dish. Russell grounded to third baseman Hopkinson whose dented spinal chord may have been sending scrambled electrical impulses because it caused him to completely butcher the groundball. Hopkinson was able to redeem himself on the next hitter as he took a fantastic catch on a pop up by the ice cold Brad Harman. A Josh Davies ground out ended the frame.

The Heat was at it again in the top of the second with Kimpton hammering a stand up triple to right centre. He was driven in by a De San Miguel sacrifice fly to leftfield. Tim Kennelly then singled through the 5.5 hole and advanced on a passed ball. Cunningham was able to close the inning down by getting Smit and his missing H on a pop out and Matt Kennelly on a K.

The Aces threatened in the third as Lawman singled down the leftfield line to lead off. Wearne, who appeared to be swinging a light saber this series doubled down the rightfield line, putting runners on second and third. Weichard singled to left scoring Lawman and moving Wearne to third. Russell then lofted a ball to medium right field where Tim Kennelly camped under it. Wearne tagged and broke for home on Kennelly’s catch. TK then unleashed a one-hop strike to his brother Matt that hosed a sliding Wearne at the plate. With continued excellence like this from Melville players, the Defensive Specialist will need to find a new target for his ire.

The 4^th, 5^th and 6^th innings were relatively uneventful, however in a series starved for high quality defence, it was pleasing for the Defensive Specialist to finally hand out a ‘Deep in the Hole - Play of the Game’ to Matt Lawman who in the 6^th dived full stretch to his right to snare a Mitch Graham smash and then flip to second to start a 6-4-3 double play. Unfortunately, Lawman’s defensive brilliance was tarnished by what was to come in the 7^th.

In the 5^th inning, Victoria unveiled a young lefty (Matthew Prior) whose fastball topped out 79 mph. The Defensive Specialist thought he was going to see a fireworks display with the southpaw serving up his sloppy sauce but the young tacker was not harmed by the potent Heat lineup that had tasted blood….until the 7^th.  T Kennelly got the onslaught started with a duck fart single to right. Smit and his missing H flied out to left. Prior then served up a fastball in Matt Kennelly’s nitro zone that the catcher hit with sound and fury off the centrefield wall, narrowly missing a bomb by about 2 feet and scoring TK. A passed ball advanced MK to third and then Ottoway doubled down the left line to score Matt Kennelly. Liam Hopkinson then picked up his first career Claxton Shield hit with a single to right. The game was halted so the ball could be retrieved for Hopkinson’s mantelpiece (or so that he could exchange at the canteen for a KFC voucher).

The Victorian team was now rattled as AK47 popped up to first base. Dingle dropped the ball, picked it up and fired to second to try to force Hopkinson. Lawman promptly dropped it, loading the bases. Mitch Graham then destroyed a line drive over shortstop to drive in 2 and put AK47 on third. Andrew Russell was summoned from right field to relieve the shellshocked Prior and gave up a groundball to second. Wearne flipped to Lawman to start the double play and Lawman clanked the catch leaving Graham safe at second. After a De San Miguel punch out and a wild pitch, Russell was able to complete the inning by inducing a fly out to Tim Kennelly.

Heat closer, Dean White and his lawn bowls shoes were summoned to shut down the 7^th inning. After allowing a lead off line drive to Dingle to start the inning, White settled and finished the game off. Perth Heat the victor 11-1.

Dylan Peacock was solid through 5 innings, allowing 1 earned run while striking out 3, but The Deep in the Hole player of the game award goes to Nick Kimpton who had 3 hits (double & triple), 2 runs and an RBI.

The Aces would be content with 2 wins against the league champions, while the Heat will rue the opportunity lost in game 2 to take the series on the road. The Defensive Specialist will be back later in the week to discuss “what we’ve learned” from this series as well as offering up a few other baseball related nuggets. The Defensive Specialist enjoyed the Geelong experience and would encourage all Victorian baseball fans to make the trek to this beautiful little park at the next available opportunity.