OVERVIEW:  Not for the first time during this highly successful season the Perth Heat proved their scoring efficiency by dominating the runs column 28-18, even though they only held a smallish margin of 45 hits versus 41 by the Melbourne Aces. The Heat did cough up six errors to three yet, obviously, the Aces were unable to make enough use of them against Perth’s pitching prowess. The Perth Heat have earned a real chance to defend their 2011 Championship with another home Grand Final series after sending the Aces packing 3-1. Melbourne will be looking for a return battle in a fortnight if they can get past Sydney in a home Preliminary Final series.

MAJOR Semi-Final - Game 1 - 26 JAN 2012 - Baseball Park, Thornlie   Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R H E MELBOURNE 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 8 11 1 PERTH 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 4 0 7 16 3

REPORT:  The Melbourne Aces may not be blessed with the depth of import talent that some other teams have, yet they are certainly not lacking in team spirit or resilience. And, they needed all of that to get a positive result out of this opening playoff game in Perth after what was a good, old fashioned, barn burner! The game started in much the same manner as it finished with both teams trading blows in the first inning. Melbourne’s leadoff batter Dominic Ramos fired the first shot with his game opening home run over right field, only to be out-done by Perth star Tim Kennelly who replied with a two-run blast over left field. The Aces wrested back the advantage with three more runs over the next couple of frames, but when Perth scored one in the bottom of the fifth the game hung tenuously at 4-3 in favour of the guests. Melbourne could thank their ace starter Travis Blackley for their early advantage as he demonstrated his major league pedigree by striking out eight over his five-plus innings. Meanwhile, the Aces had knocked Heat starter Daniel Schmidt out of the game after three innings and they were now battling solid import Jack Frawley who navigated his way through six turbulent innings. After three scoreless late innings, the contest reached a crescendo in the ninth when Melbourne appeared to take a decisive hold with three runs in the top of the ninth for a 7-3 lead, but this game had another twist left in its tale. Hard-throwing Melbourne reliever Andrew Russell had done well to clean up the previous two innings; however, a leadoff error, a couple of hits and an unfortunate infield single saw him replaced by veteran Cameron Forbes with one out and two runs scored. Forbes could not prevent another two runs crossing the plate as the Perth Heat had rallied to dramatically tie the game with a “four spot”. Far from being shell-shocked, the Aces responded with a one out walk for their game MVP Dominic Ramos who later scored what was to be the winning run in the top of the tenth. Forbes kept the pulse rate high in the Melbourne dugout during the bottom of the tenth before ending the game with a bases loaded double play. Forbes collected the win to hand Perth’s star reliever Benn Grice the loss. As mentioned, Ramos was the key man for the Aces with two hits, two walks and two RBIs, followed by Justin Huber, Josh Davies and Kevin David who also had two-hit games. The Heat had even more hits with Mitch Graham recording three, ahead of Tim Kennelly, Aaron Bonomi, James McOwen, Luke Hughes and Corey Adamson each with two. Yep, this one was a barn burner right down to the very exciting end. It's 1-0... no more and no less than that!

PERTH HEAT MELBOURNE ACES PITCHING: Daniel SCHMIDT  3.0ip 6h 3er 2bb 0k; Jack FRAWLEY  6.0ip 4h 3er 5bb 3k; Benn GRICE (L,0-1)  1.0ip 1h 0er 2bb 1k OFFENCE: Mitch GRAHAM 3-6 (D); Tim KENNELLY 2-5 (HR-3RBI); Aaron BONOMI 2-3; James McOWEN 2-5 (RBI); Luke HUGHES 2-4 (RBI); Corey ADAMSON 2-5; Matt KENNELLY 1-5 (RBI); Adam COURCHA 1-2 (RBI); Mychal GIVENS 1-5 PITCHING: Travis BLACKLEY  5.2ip 7h 3er 0bb 8k; Bubbie BUZACHERO  1.0ip 1h 0er 0bb 0k; Andrew RUSSELL (H,1)  1.2ip 6h 2er 0bb 0k; Cameron FORBES (BS,1)(W,1-0)  1.2ip 2h 0er 1bb 0k OFFENCE: Dominic RAMOS 2-4 (HR-2RBI); Justin HUBER 2-4 (D); Josh DAVIES 2-4 (RBI); Kevin DAVID 2-5 (RBI); Mitch AYRES 1-1 (RBI); Brad HARMAN 1-4 (D); Elliot BIDDLE 1-5; Scott WEARNE 0-3 (RBI)

OVERVIEW:  It won’t give the Adelaide Bite much pleasure to realise that they out-hit Sydney 27 to 22 over this home series while they were on the receiving end of a 1-3 playoffs elimination. At the end of a refreshingly low scoring series, the Blue Sox used ten runs in Game 3 to boast a narrow 19-15 edge in runs scored. Adelaide might well bemoan the five errors that shattered their hopes in Game 3 to leave them with seven fumbles compared with Sydney’s five. While Adelaide might have expected to advance after this home semi-final, it is the Sydney Blue Sox who will be heading to Melbourne for a Preliminary Final showdown next weekend. 

ELIMINATION Semi-Final - Game 1 - 26 JAN 2012 - Norwood Oval   Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E SYDNEY 0 0 3 1 0 0 1 0 0 5 7 2 ADELAIDE 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 3 5 1

REPORT:  The Sydney Blue Sox had two players to thank most for this victory from their opening playoff game in Adelaide tonight... one was a canny former professional and one was a young emerging professional. The “old stager” was starting pitcher Craig Anderson who often rises to the big occasion and he did so here with 6.2 innings that earned him the win with seven strike outs along the way. All three of Adelaide’s runs scored against him were unearned as he combined with Matt Williams and Dae-Sung Koo, who got the save, to keep the Bite under wraps. The young tyro that supplied most of the run support was Colorado outfielder David Kandilas who cracked an ice-breaking two run homer in the top of the third, then he walked, stole a base and scored to add a vital run in the seventh. He caused most of the headaches for Adelaide starter Dushan Ruzic, who took the loss, before Derek Miramontes was impressive at the end to give the Bite some hope of a comeback. The story of this game was the efficiency of the Blue Sox pitching that allowed just five hits and none of those went for extra bases, plus zero walks... not forgetting three-RBI man Mr. Kandilas of course! Only Sydney’s Michael Lysaught had two hits during a game that featured some very tough pitching. Sydney leads 1-0 away from home.

ADELAIDE BITE SYDNEY BLUE SOX PITCHING: Dushan RUZIC (L,0-1)  6.2ip 7h 5er 3bb 5k; Derek MIRAMONTES  2.1ip 0h 0er 0bb 3k OFFENCE: Tom BRICE 1-2 (RBI); Carlton TANABE 1-3 (RBI); Calvin ANDERSON 1-4; Mathew SMITH 1-4; James JONES 1-4 PITCHING: Craig ANDERSON (W,1-0)  6.2ip 4h 0er 0bb 7k; Matt WILLIAMS (H,1)  1.1op 0h 0er 0bb 1k; Dae-Sung KOO  1.0ip 1h 0er 0bb 2k OFFENCE: Michael LYSAUGHT 2-4; Boss MOANAROA 1-3 (RBI); Pat MAAT 1-3 (RBI); David KANDILAS 1-4 (HR-3RBI); Jacob YOUNIS 1-4; Tyler COLLINS 1-5 (D)