Home and Away Series

Game #09 v Western Australia

Saturday 20th December 2008

GAME REPORTS

The Barbagallo Perth Heat continued its winning ways against the Queensland Rams, with a 4-2 victory at Baseball Park last night

The win was the Heat's second straight win over the Rams extending their lead in the standings over third place New South Wales Patriots, and just one game behind the front-running Victoria Aces

Barbagallo Perth Heat Manager Don Kyle was pleased with his troops, making special mention of last season's Claxton Shield Rookie of the Year, Liam Hendriks
"We're really happy with Hendriks ...we've been slowing building him up like his professional club asked us to and he'll be someone we look to for the upcoming South Australian series" Kyle said

Queensland broke through early, taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the second frame when they seized on a wild throw from Heat catcher, Chris House

The Heat squared it up in the third innings when the Kennelly brothers, Tim and Matt, combined for consecutive hits and scored on a Lachlan Dale ground ball then went on to build on their lead, adding one run in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings respectively

Queensland only managed one more run, this time in the top of the sixth, and capitalising off another Perth error that followed back-to-back base hits from the Rams' Brett Roneberg and Matt Studeman

The run was the only one surrendered by Liam Hendriks who came onto pitch for Dylan Peacock who was just as efficient allowing just one run and five hits in his five innings of work

Batting was strong by both teams, with most of the Heat and Queensland starters reaching safely

Perth draft pick, Nick Kimpton ended up with three hits and an RBI, while Andrew Kyle and Mitch Graham contributed two hits each

Speaking after the game Don Kyle was full of praise for his offence
"We hit the ball consistently and hard all night, but we did leave a lot of runners on base" he said
"We made a few mistakes in the field tonight, but that didn't hurt us too much and our offence came through at clutch times
Two wins is a really good start, but we are going to come out strong tomorrow ... we want to sweep the series so that's what we intend to do" Kyle said

In Claxton Shield 2008 teenager Liam Hendriks was the brilliant No.1 starter for Western Australia and Dylan Peacock was one of their star relievers on their Championship team
As we have mentioned, Hendriks is coming off an injury ruined professional season as a rising star with the Minnesota Twins, while Peacock has pitched relief professionally as a Rookie Leaguer with the LA Angels
On this occasion the roles were reversed when Peacock produced a quality winning start and Hendriks backed him up strongly with a neat long relief save

Once again the Heat were victorious mainly because of their pitching strength and, to emphasise this, both of the Queensland runs were scored on errors … Peacock’s was unearned, while Hendriks’ was unfortunate

The dynamic Western Australian duo combined for thirteen ground outs and while they did serve up a few hits to a solid hitting team, their damage limitation abilities were terrific
Importantly, they issued only two free passes for the game
This is called winning pitching!

Our source in Perth felt quite confident that Liam Hendriks is looking more like the 2008 Claxton Shield star with each outing and, after allowing a couple of early hits in this game, his concluding three innings produced no less than eight ground ball outs
This is the kind of stuff that gave opposing batters nightmares last summer!

Nick Kimpton, YAWN!, was swinging the lumber to mighty effect for Western Australia again with his 3-5 plus a RBI
Young Toronto tyro Chris House and reliable Mitch Graham both added to their two hits with a walk each
Andrew Kyle continues to enjoy perhaps his best offensive campaign with 2-5 in this game, while dangerous Dan Floyd and Lachlan Dale were the other “ribbie raiders”

Soon-to-be Boston Red Sox pro Justin Erasmus took the hill first again for the Queenslanders but, to be quite fair, this level of baseball might be a step beyond his experience at this stage of his career
To validate this he mixes some pretty impressive stuff with some not so impressive patches … this is only to be expected
Middle reliever Simon Morriss was not at his best on this occasion, while Chicago Cubs signee Ryan Searle suffered a similar fate as Erasmus to take the loss … he too will learn from the experience
Former Minnesota Twins’ rookie Nathan Crawford finished the game for the Rams with a double-play expunging a couple of hits

I yawned at Nick Kimpton adding to his bulging offensive numbers in Claxton Shield 2009, but we have yawned even more often over the years reporting upon Brett Roneberg who, oh yes, was the only plural hitter for the ‘Banana Benders’ and, of course, he drove in their only run
NOTE - this last bit was changed to "he scored both runs for his team" ...... refer to the notes below

Independent League star Brad Dutton added a walk to his double as the next best on base man for his team on a day when Western Australia’s pitching made life very difficult

Dylan Peacock and LJ Hendriks … nice job guys!

Hi ya

The Queensland Rams ??
What is happening to them ??
Hopefully they can go "6 from 6" over their remaining games !!

Have been enjoying your writeups

I know that you are not at the games (though I bet you wish you were!) and rely upon your fully equipped and highly paid and very reliable team of State Baseball Reporters !!

But there was 'just a little blunder' in this report ...... "West doubles Queensland again 4-2"
Brett did not get an RBI in this game
He went the 2 from 4 as written, plus he scored both of Queensland's runs on the Western Australian errors you also mention

But maybe what you wrote is fair ...... because in the final game, he drove in a run that wasn't credited to him !!
Have a look at the top of the first innings HERE
Brett drove in the guy from third base, but no ribee !!
My scoring may not be a 100% accurate, but I think he should have got it

All the best to you and yours for the Holiday Period ...... and we'll see you in 2009

Regards ...... Geoff and Sharon

G'day Geoff ... and Merry Christmas to all the Roneberg family

Hmmm, don't ask where that mystery RBI came from in Game Two, but it was mentioned (somehow) in one of the reports I got via e-mail and, given the work overload, I somehow didn't correct it?
As well as getting at least two reports and other phone contacts from spectators players and/or coaches at the games, I also sift through the Play-By-Plays to re-create the games in my head before I write
Just stuffed it up mate!

As for Game Three, Inning One ... YEP, I'm inclined to agree
It sounds like a hard-hit ball (deliberately?) driven to the right side in order to score the runner from third ... equals RBI

Problem is, mate, that some scorers get carried away with their (lack of) expertise and try to judge things that they should automatically score by convention
It can be a bit of a "win some lose some" situation, I'm afraid

PS: I wouldn't worry too much about Queensland as it is not easy to win against Western Australia in Perth with their strong pitching these days ... and they were by no means disgraced
As I mentioned, the HOME series will be a good tonic for them and you only need to make the finals before the lottery starts all over again!

Cheers, Geoff