Our reporter at Blacktown used the word "unimpressive" to describe the Queensland Rams opening win at the 2004 Claxton Shield, but if he was referring to their offence, we're not too sure how you're supposed to look impressive trying to hit an assortment of wild pitches and a whole heap of stuff outside the strike zone!?

We're not sure either team would be too delighted with the events of opening day at Blacktown, but the Queensland team will be content to have an opening win on the board whether it "looked pretty" or not!

The Provincials were led on the mound by late Victorian team cuts Glen Richards and Shane Lindsay who will each surely have better days than their nervous AMLB debuts!
Starter Richards lasted just 1.1 innings before the Provincials' manager decided to "stop the bleeding" with five runs already on the board from just one safe hit, but if he thought that he was going to stem the flow with Shane Lindsay he would be sadly disappointed.
In 1.2 innings young Shane had a nightmare debut, walking five of the 12 batters he faced and hurling two wild pitches!

Next to face the music was Will McMichael who simply couldn't buy an out while allowing another three earned runs.
Not to be out of step with his beleaguered teammates was Canberra's James Ramshaw who suffered "deja vu" from last year at Blacktown with another tough outing!

By the time these four pitchers had been banished from the mound Queensland had been virtually handed a winning 12-0 lead although they would probably claim that some patient hitting was responsible for some of their success?

In this context, it was quite an impressive effort from Provincial rookie Michael Pollock that he shut down the dangerous Queensland batting with no further damage over the last four innings, although he did add three more walks to the disastrous 16 that were issued by the Provincials' pitchers on this opening day!

For the Rams pitchers it was almost a "reverse" experience with starter John Veitch handing over a 12-0 shutout to the bullpen after four innings, then watching all but four runs of the lead being eroded by the Provincial team!
While 2003 "Pitcher of the Year" Veitch was typically tidy, his bullpen teammates added to the "walkathon" with nine more free passes to make it a tiresome game!
Phil Stockman walked two of the batters he faced and was hit by the other as he failed to make an out, while fellow professional Chris Mowday walked four of the seven he faced and surrendered three earned runs.
In between, little known Rod Wodson pitched a pretty solid two innings of work, while Tristan Crawford was the winning pitcher of record in effective style with three strikeouts and no earned runs against his name.

On the offensive side of the ledger, although a guy with initials 'BB' dominated for both teams, young NSW catcher Trent D'Antonio stood out like a beacon for the Provincials batting 2-4, scoring a run and supplying 3 RBI's while playing as a second baseman.
Short stop Brendan Kleidon was the standout for the Rams batting 2-5 with 3 runs scored and 2 RBI's.

Now, you wouldn't expect us to end this opening game article without a mention of David Nilsson, would you?
Not to disappoint, 'Big Dave' made a liar of our pre-event tip that he would not catch by giving starting catcher Andrew Utting a break behind the plate... he then batted a "perfect" 1-1 with a RBI as a stern warning to opposition teams.

The other "forgotten star" of Australian baseball Brett Roneberg also made an unassuming return to the AMLB stage, playing as DH and batting 1-2 with an RBI... welcome back fellas!

In the final washup Queensland got the "W" that they wanted without over-taxing their key pitchers, while the Provincials somewhat enhanced their reputation for never quitting by out-hitting the Rams with a spirited comeback!

Defending champions, the Queensland Rams, commenced their campaign to retain the Claxton Shield with a 12 runs to 8 win over the Australian Provincial team in the curtain raiser of the 2004 tournament played at Blacktown Olympic Park, Sydney.

Queensland had taken a 12-0 lead, scoring six runs in the bottom of the second, one in the third and five in the fourth, before the Provincials got a run on the board.

Four runs in the fifth and three in the seventh saw the Provincials bridge some of the Queensland lead but the titleholders hung on for a deserved win.

After their win a pleased Queensland head coach Peter Dutton stated - “It was a great win for the first game.
We utilised our pitching roster, and had all of the team on the bench in the game.
I couldn’t have asked for a better result”.

Provincial head coach Trevor Schumm recognised the difficulties in combining a team from various cities across the nation stating - “The guys made a nervous start, we recognised that Queensland are the favourites but I think we learned a fair bit from today.
Bearing in mind we have had little opportunity to train together before the event, today’s game gave us a good chance to evaluate our prospects”.

The 2004 LG Claxton Shield is held at Blacktown Olympic Park from the 18-24 January with games being played at 11am, 3pm and 7.30pm each day.