CLAXTON SHIELD 2009 RESULTS

GRAND-FINAL SERIES  Game 3 - Baseball Park, Perth  Sun 8 Feb 2009

WA WINS 3-2 THRILLER FOR TITLE REPEAT!

There are times in baseball, perhaps more often than some sports, when it is really unfortunate that there has to be a loser. This also has a painful tendency to happen on the biggest of occasions as the gallant New South Wales Patriots certainly found out in Perth this weekend. They were terribly unfortunate to lose both of the past two games in cliff-hanging conclusions and, thereby, the 2009 Claxton Shield Grand Final series. Meanwhile, there can only be one winner and ‘Flintoff & Dunn’ congratulate the West Australian team on their successive National Championship triumphs!

The other thing that can often bring an even more agonising edge to baseball defeats is the fact that this game of ours so often seems to hinge on one pitch, one play, or one strategy. We never want this to change, but we need to deal with the lingering sting of memories that can be difficult to erase. Does anyone still remember “The Bounce” at Thornlie that tipped South Australia out of a Grand Final berth in the 2007 Claxton Shield Preliminary Final? You could say that the South Aussies have not recovered yet!

At the end of their 2007 Claxton Shield carnival in Perth, the West Aussies were a desolate bunch, having endured a miserable winless competition… two seasons later they are overdosing on champagne after their second successive Claxton Shield Championship. Many of their young players took some lumps in 2007 and they have definitely re-grouped in the style of champions!

With both teams having used a lot of their trump pitching cards in the opening two games of this Grand Final series, it would appear that New South Wales might be better positioned with 26yo journeyman professional Wayne Lundgren to start Game 3. West Australia would have to counter with AMLB rookie and future Philadelphia Phillies professional Daniel Schmidt but, on home soil, he proved more than up to the task of going toe to toe with his more seasoned counterpart.

In fact, both pitchers were looking assured in the early going. Schmidt racked up three 1-2-3 innings during his six-plus, while Lundgren had two three-up-three-down frames among his six innings. Schmidt struck out the side in NSW’s second, while Lundgren responded likewise in WA’s third. It all made for a tension packed final in the finest traditions of high-stakes baseball. In the end the honours would have to go to young Dan Schmidt who allowed only two hits while maintaining a clean slate. Lundgren, for his part, was also very good; even though he might have dodged a killer bullet with a big out at home plate to finish his stint with only two runs posted for the home team.

We did comment about our surprise that impressive young catcher Christopher House had been missing from the WA lineup for the first two games of this series after showing so much potency with the bat throughout the competition. I doubt that this would have helped to earn him the designated hitter role in this game, but I reckon they might have been glad that he was batting in the #5 hole when he came to the plate with one on and two out in the fourth inning of a scoreless tie. His hammered drive over the right field fence gave his team an instantaneous 2-0 lead that would prove decisive in repeating their Championship success… there’s nothing quite like saying “we told you so!”

The very reliable Dean White kept the WA pitching reins in safe hands when he added a tidy one and one-third uneventful innings to Schmidt’s start to carry the 2-0 shutout into the top of the ninth. However, there has been one word to typify the NSW team this season and that is “resilient”. They were able to apply the blowtorch to Heat’s ace closer Brendan Wise with singles to Maat and Graham, later driven in by a clutch two-RBI double from rising Red Sox star Mitch Dening. The pro guys had come through for the Patriots just in the nick of time. Most importantly though, Wise did not surrender the lead when another big out at home plate came to the rescue of those canny West Australians.

Minnesota Twins ‘Advanced-A’ reliever Matt Williams had already posted a couple of scoreless innings in relief of Lungdren when he was asked to lock down the bottom of the ninth… a situation, it has to be said, that always seems to favour the home team in these circumstances. Typically, fate would decree that a nerve-induced error and a later wild pitch would result in the winning run when Dan Floyd gleefully punched the game winning RBI into right field.

Apart from RBI-men House and Floyd, the deciding game also saw consistent WA stars Luke Hughes and Nick Kimpton come to the fore once again with a pair of hits each. Unsurprisingly, Kimpton was to be crowned Claxton 2009 BATTING CHAMPION, while Hughes would be voted CHAMPIONSHIP MVP. Chris House would be a deserving winner of the ROOKIE OF THE YEAR. As mentioned, Mitchell Dening delivered the huge two-RBI double as one of only five Patriots to hit safely in this pressure-cooker contest. Young New South tyro Shannon Pender was finally cooled-off in this finals series, aided by two walks and a hit-by-pitch for three times on base in this last game... he has earned his praise.

Before we praise the winners again, ‘Flintoff & Dunn’ will spare a thought for the New South Wales team who battled against the odds to come from behind in their semi-final against Victoria in Melbourne. As we said, the Patriots were nothing if not “gallant and resilient”. Of course they had some strong pitching with Lundgren, Craig Anderson and GOLDEN ARM repeat winner ‘Terrible Tim’ Cox. They again unearthed and nurtured some fine young talent for the future. Their manager, Shane Barclay, can take a lot of the credit for taking his team a long way once again as he continues a lifetime of terrific contribution to baseball. He has demonstrated his commitment and class as a “true baseball man” again this summer! It is people like Shane Barclay who help to keep the flag flying for baseball in Australia.

Just to complete the award winners, Victoria's superbly consistent catcher Grant Karlsen was a deserving winner of the 2009 GOLDEN GLOVE AWARD. We'll have to await voting on the HELMS AWARD again this year.

In 2008 the West Australian team may have had a touch of ‘Cinderella’ about their “‘worst to first” Claxton Shield Championship, but it is never quite so easy to win titles of this magnitude back-to-back. ‘Flintoff & Dunn’ can only give our utmost credit to all of those involved with the setup of Baseball WA who have pulled together to bring this extraordinary success to the west.

Of course, they have unearthed a richly talented crop of young players, most of them minor league professionals, and they are on a steep upward career curve. Congratulations to Shane Tonkin, Don Kyle and the rest of the WA team for setting a new benchmark for everyone to chase in what looks likely to be another Claxton Shield competition in 2010… we just can’t wait! Full marks to Western Australia again in 2008/09.

Our now standard recognition for umpires Brett ROBSON, Travis HATCH, Jon BYRNE and Kyle BYRNE. 
 

GRAND-FINAL SERIES  Game 2 - Baseball Park, Perth  Sat 7 Feb 2009

HEAT HITS BACK 5-4 TO LEVEL CLAXTON FINAL!

Baseball, as they say, is a game of inches that we might soon translate into millimetres and, to overuse the obvious vernacular, it can be a “funny old game”! These archaic phrases might never have been more appropriate than in this second game of the 2009 Claxton Shield Grand Final series. All of those quirky things that can happen in a game of baseball seemed to unusually accumulate on this quite important occasion. And, if I know my very good friends in Perth, they will be quite delighted that some of those events helped them to square this best-of-three final.

We just about had the whole gambit of least-used scoring idiosyncrasies with players scoring after reaching on dropped third strikes, players “hung up” between third and home and others flying out into double plays because of ill advised base running… as Bill Lawry would say in cricket commentary “it was all happening!”… not all of it admirable in a baseball context. One of the more admirable things was the brilliant 3-4 effort of Boston Red Sox minor leaguer Mitch Dening who was a home run shy of hitting for the most difficult “cycle”.

Now that we have started discussing the offence, lets move straight to WA’s outstanding go-to-guy Luke Hughes who pounded out a match winning 3-5 that included his slashing RBI triple and his run scored following a dropped third strike… when you’re hot you’re hot!

But, even Hughes might have to wait in line for the back slapping behind iconic import Nick Kimpton who drilled the game-winning home run just to the right side of centre field in the top of the ninth. Kimpton’s 2-5 was another sizeable harvest for his “adopted” state. I’m trying to assess the similarities between his alma-mater Canberra and Perth in WA?... it’s certainly not the annual average temperatures! “Flintoff & Dunn’ might have to think about the merits of these “import players”, but our initial reaction is that it is a half-baked excuse for getting rid of the Australian Provincials that we still think was a worthy cause.

The ‘Kennelly Kids’ did their thing for the West again with Matt producing two hits, including a double, and Tim driving in a run via his 1-4 plus a stroll to first base. Underrated Lachlan Dale and Allan de San Miguel were the other vital rib-eye guys for the Heat.

To stay with the offence, Mitch Dening was, as stated, quite outstanding for the Patriots to build upon what has already been an impressive fledgling AMLB career. Obviously recovered from the injury that ruined his 2008 career, Detroit Tigers’ catcher Andrew Graham can claim, maybe not the biggest, but the most significant blow of the night with his trifecta shot that touched down beyond the left field wall at Thornlie.

Natural New York Mets’ hitter Pat Maat latched upon two more hits for his most consistent season, while their feisty finals campaigner Shannon Pender hit once and walked twice to perpetuate his much better than “nuisance value” for the Patriots at the most important time of this competition.

On this rare occasion we have left the pitching discussions until last, possibly because it is difficult to analyse and, to pass the buck, our correspondents in Perth were unable to enlighten us about how to evaluate what they had witnessed. How do you rationalise the fact that both highly-touted starters, Mark Kelly and Tim Cox, struck out nearly two batters per inning, yet both coughed up eight hits from 5.0 and 5.1 innings respectively. And, despite the impressive strike out numbers, both surrendered four earned runs to their opposition. We could not say that either pitched poorly yet, we suppose, the baseball gods dictated that they were not as effective as they would have preferred.

West Australia’s possie of late innings gun-slingers Grice, Saupold, Peacock and Wise each, very importantly, ensured that the visitors were unable to produce the go-ahead run, while Peacock took the win and ace closer Wise snatched yet another save. Newcomer Warwick Saupold upstaged all of them as their only reliever who did not allow a solitary base runner. He has been a revelation in Claxton 2009.

Minnesota ‘Twinkie’ Brad Tippett enhanced his reputation in support of Tim Cox by closing out the last 3.2 innings for the New South Welshmen in pretty good style. Once again, he was in line for celebrity status if his team had of got the points, instead of taking a back seat behind Nick Kimpton’s game winning long ball in the top of the ninth… that good old West Aussie stalwart from Australia's capital territory???

By the way, don’t get me started on their continued ridiculous use of the name “Perth Heat”… that mighty ABL team from Australian baseball’s glory years… just make sure that you let me know when Perth became a state of Australia won’t you. OK, so here we go, just to be totally predictable, we will stick by our traditional convention of selecting the home team WA to grasp the lollies tomorrow night. But then, lest we forget that the New South Wales lads have already won a deciding game on away soil in the semi-final against Victoria. Bottom line… anything can happen!

Our now standard recognition for umpires Travis HATCH, Brett ROBSON, Kyle BYRNE and Jon BYRNE. 
 

PATRIOTS JUMP WEST 5-3 IN 1ST FINAL!

Craig ANDERSON (W) 7.0ip 6h 1er 1bb 4k; Todd GRATTAN 1.0ip 2h 1er 0bb 1k;
Wayne LUNDGREN (S) 1.0ip 0h 0er 0bb 1k.

Liam HENDRIKS (L) 5.0ip 3h 4er 3bb 5k; Todd MURPHY 4.0ip 2h 1er 1bb 1k