Here we go again Subscribers… regular readers would have already consumed my report on the last game of this series where we emphasised the unpredictability associated with this marvellous baseball game of ours. Well, it took less than 24 hours for this to become more evident than ever when the visiting Queensland Rams highjacked a series sweep from right under the noses of the Victorian Aces. There the Aces were within one out, with one on, in the top of the ninth inning and still protecting a 2-0 shutout but, hold the phone, the final twist in this drama was yet to be written.

Suffice to say that the Queenslanders, who might have returned home badly bruised with their tails between their legs, will now be feeling a whole lot better about their visit to the sumptuous south. Meanwhile, the Victorians, who might have been strutting around like prize-winning roosters, will now leave Mildura feeling more like they have lost the series, rather than the more pleasant reality of a 2-1 victory. That is the way sport works folks, sometimes you are only as good as your last game and, in this case, the last game of this series would taste horribly bitter and the huge chunk of humble pie will stick for a while in the throats of the Aces.

The Dutton brothers must have looked like quadruplets to the Victorian hierarchy who, every time they looked up, were menacingly on base for the Rams in this game. Wade Dutton has been setting a cracking pace offensively in Claxton 2009 so far, but his Independent League pro brother Brad is obviously unprepared to let him grab all of the Queensland headlines for himself. Cop this… B. Dutton contributed 4-4 including a RBI triple, while W. Dutton could only manage a miserable 3-4 with a two RBI single. Yeh, and both brothers were also hit by pitches as what sounds like a very good (unintentional) tactic under the circumstances. Most significantly, the Dutton brothers were at the forefront of the two-out rally that snatched the game for the Rams like thieves in the night… happy families fellas!

In case you are wondering, these blokes were the only ones to register more than one hit in this game, but then what game report on ‘Flintoff & Dunn’ would fail to include Ben Wigmore for SA or Brett Roneberg for Queensland. The Victorian Aces have done pretty well to keep Roneberg relatively under wraps in Claxton 2009 so far; that is if you exclude his “Grand Salami” last night. There he was, like clockwork, chiming in with his game-deciding RBI in that eventful ninth inning to force his name into our worst-selling book for yet another time!

‘Drew-K’ (a nickname patented by F&D) Drew Naylor has not yet been able to translate his electric stuff from professional baseball with the Philadelphia Phillies onto the AMLB stage just yet, but he was very good after allowing two runs in the opening frame against the Aces, who have been very fast starters in most games of this competition. Simon Morriss continues his solid form from the 2008 event to make sure that the Aces could not add-on over those vitally important middle innings.

Matt Timms, a current Atlanta Braves pro, managed to work out of a minor jam in the eighth, but he may have got the jitters when Victoria threatened to hit back in the bottom of the ninth. Doing the job of a highly credentialed and highly experienced “safety valve” was nine-year pro Tristan Crawford who reached ‘AAA’ with Minnesota, before pitching ‘AA’ ball with Washington in 2008. He walked in a run, but he then extinguished Victoria’s last hope of reclaiming a game that had slithered away from them right at the end.

For the disconsolate Aces, lefty Geelong starter Dean Barker was not far short of brilliant in this game to back up his previous very good start in Claxton 2009. The simple fact that he struck out one per inning and allowed only six base runners through five scoreless innings says plenty about how effective he was… it’s good to see Dean’s ‘big league’ career well and truly back on the rails. Glen Richards, a former Atlanta Braves pro pitcher, finished the sixth inning in style then he was lifted after allowing duplicate walks to start the seventh.

It was a similar story for Matt Blackmore who rescued the seventh, but then two leadoff hits by the Dutton duo chased him from the mound too. Same again for Elliot Biddle, a recent Minnesota pro, who cleaned up the eighth, then found himself in strife after issuing a one out walk and this was soon followed by a Trent Baker double that concluded his day. It was a lot to ask of youngster Blake Cunningham, a premature talent, to save the day for the Aces at this stage of his fledgling career. I suppose that it will be regarded as a stern “test of character” for him to suffer such an agonising loss at this too early stage.

Many of our Subscribers were left to ponder why Lee Hogan, still a pitching ace in Victorian baseball and the Aces' current pitching coach, wasn’t used in this situation. There is no way on this planet that ‘Hoges’ would have surrendered a two run lead in the last inning of this game… forget it!

Offensively for the Vics, Australia's 26th major leaguer Brad Harman was the No.1 gun once again with his 2-4, while Biddle Dingle and Berg were the RBI guys. Danny Berg may have, for once, failed to produce an extra base hit in this game but, then again, he had the rare honour of being walked intentionally to proclaim what kind of threat he has become.

To repeat what we have already said often enough, there is no game on earth as exciting and unpredictable as our great game of baseball… this was just another invigorating chapter!

It kind of reminds us of one of those pathetic British pantomimes when everyone is sure who the villain is, but no matter how hard you yell, the victim just can’t heed the warning, or doesn’t see it coming? Baseball, like the very best mystery novel, is not something that you should ever try to predict before it is concluded and, the more certain that you might be about the outcome, be careful, it doesn’t always turn out that way. So it was in this Game 2 of the Victoria versus Queensland double-header in Mildura.

The Aces had already applied a world of hurt on the Rams in the first game of the double-bill with an almost soul-destroying 15-0 victory in the opener and, not long after, they would find themselves cruising once again 9-1 after five innings in the second game. The home standing Victorian Aces could hardly have been more comfortable with Donnie Hendricks dominating on the mound and their hitters bashing a massive 24-1 advantage for the day so far.

If you happened to be a “conspiracy theorist”, or just a normal baseball follower, it would be about this time that you would start to smell a rat… surely it would not be possible for this level of almost embarrassing domination to continue against such a fine opponent?... Rest assured baseball fans, the answer is NO! Just when you might think that you have this game figured out, guess again, you haven’t!

Former Atlanta and Independent League pro Donavon Hendricks seemed to be rolling to another brilliant win when, in the sixth inning, he allowed a couple of hits and a walk; which is very rare for him this year. Before any of the miniscule contingent at Mildura had blinked, Hendricks found himself in a degree of trouble and, according to our most reliable sources, a repetition of horrible umpiring calls at first base would see an otherwise scoreless inning compound into a big one for the Rams.

Word has it, from more than one source, that the Victorian “blue” in question, somewhat typically, decided to exaggerate his own errors by extrapolating successive incorrect SAFE calls at first base. It was an unusual and slightly embarrassing sight to see all the infielders start to sprint from the field after securing the third out, only to be told to return with heads shaking... TWICE!

Waiting gleefully and over-qualified to cash in this opportunity would be our magnificent Hall-Of-Famer Brett Roneberg who needed only a modicum of think music to go KABOOM… for a GRAND SLAM home run over right field. Victoria’s low-profile relief ace Matthew Blackmore was the unfortunate man to cash in these runs for Hendricks and himself via Roneberg’s long ball. But, let’s not pass around the hat for him because, at the end of the contest, he would find himself the WINNING pitcher of record.

Umm, YES, a possible umpiring controversy was avoided, only by virtue of the fact that Andrew Russell lashed a single into left field and he scored the winning run on Tristan McDonald’s RBI single. I don’t want to even try to imagine the fall-out that may have followed if the game had gone pear-shaped for the Aces but, I do know one thing, it would not have in any way affected the official involved… sad isn’t it!

In summary eight hits and six earned runs would always be too many for young Boston Red Sox pro Justin Erasmus, while the Crawford boys were pretty effective in minimising the damage after that. While we would never discount Roneberg’s long ball in Mildura, it is impossible to down-play Daniel Lamb-Hunt’s 3-5 with a RBI, or Trent Baker’s 2-3, with two RBIs plus a walk. Brad Dutton batted 2-3 and the prolific David Sutherland went 1-3 plus a walk, a home run and two runs.

Offensively, it is easier to start with the obvious Victorian guys like Andrew ‘Rusty’ Russell. This bloke needs no introduction to any VBA baseball follower who has known for a long time what kind of batting force he is. So, it would surprise none of us that ‘Rusty’ came through again with a “lazy” 3-3 plus another home run and two runs scored. His Waverley club and Texarkana University team mate Daniel Berg also mashed another home run and his FIVE RBIs were, by far, the biggest scoreboard accumulator.

Infield duo James Beresford 2-4 and Brad Harman 1-2 with two walks and a RBI were also big contributors to the Victorian cause. Scott McIntyre was very good again with his 2-4, while Paul Rutgers walked and scored a run for his team.

No matter how many times I have been wrong, I still fall for the badger-trap of thinking that games might be easy to predict, like today, when Victoria was leading 9-1. Do we need any more evidence to convince anyone why baseball is the most intriguing game on earth… not for me!

For anyone who might have read my diatribe on Melbourne’s rain out of the opening game last night, then you would realise that a Victorian win like this would only be rubbing salt into those gaping wounds. No self respecting Melbournian would complain about such a resounding result, but there is always a hint of disappointment for those who didn’t get the opportunity to witness it. With no disrespect intended to the friendly folk in Mildura, country Victoria, it was a pity that this game was held at their “Old Aerodrome” diamond rather than somewhere in Melbourne’s baseball heartland.

I guess it must be said that the rain-out and the extra leg of travel could not have worked in the favour of the visiting Queenslanders, but then it would need to be a pretty heavy factor to explain the Grand Canyon like chasm between the performances of the Rams and the Aces in this instance. A 15-0 “Mercy Rule” massacre with 13 hits versus 4 and nine walks to three is more than enough to explain how this game panned out, but the FIVE Victorian home runs would only add a thundering insult to injury for the visitors.

It is hard to know where to start in a game like this where Adam Blackley’s superb pitching for Victoria may have been outshone by the explosiveness of the Aces offence that has only been briefly subdued by WA so far in Claxton Shield 2009. It might be simpler to get the Queensland details out of the way quickly and painlessly for them on this occasion, so here goes…

Former journeyman minor league professional and seasoned campaigner Chris Mowday has enjoyed a pretty good time in AMLB for the most part, but he would want to erase this nightmare losing start from his memory bank as soon as possible. Read “ditto” for Matthew Bates, who struggled during Claxton 2007 in Perth, and again here with seemingly not enough stuff to baffle hitters of this standard. To cut a miserable story short, this duo had the combined pitching line of… sit down first… 4.0ip 11h 12er 8bb 2k… OUCH! By comparison Matt Studeman, who has hit but not pitched for Queensland, but was originally seen as a pitcher with the 1999 Gold Coast Cougars in the ABL, did pretty darned well to allow just one extra run from his two innings.

It won’t take long to outline the almost non-existent Rams offence with only stalwarts Brett Roneberg, Brad Dutton, Wade Dutton and Matt Studeman recording singles in this game. Wade Dutton, who has emerged from brother Brad’s considerable shadow during Claxton 2009 so far, added a walk as he continues to find a way to get on base for his team. Let’s give most of this credit to Victoria's Adam Blackley for making life almost unbearably difficult for the Rams in Mildura.

OK, so let’s start with Blackley who collected his second win for Claxton 2009 to date and who is clearly coming into his own as a front-line pitcher at AMLB level this year. With a few years of pro ball at Boston and lately with the El Paso Diablos in the American Association Independent League behind him, 23yo Blackley is just starting to convince himself that he belongs on this type of stage. His seven inning complete game, four-hit shutout today is probably his finest hour in Australian Major League Baseball. To emphasise how good he was, he struck out six but, more significantly, he induced ten ground ball outs; two of which were inning ending double plays. It is a game of brilliance that he will find hard to top!

The famous Waverley Baseball Club in Melbourne will be a little stretched for personnel this weekend given their top-heavy contribution to the Victorian Aces. Pitcher Adam Blackley is one, plus his lefty bullpen mate Donavon Hendricks. Scott Wearne is unfortunately still injured from the Showcase Round, but coming into the squad to join Danny Berg and catcher Grant Karlsen are James Beresford and Andrew Russell… and, Hayden Dingle is a recent Waverley Club Champion before moving on to Blackburn! You have heard about Blackley, now you can hear for yourself how his Wildcats’ team mates fared.

Minnesota Twins duo Daniel Berg and Jimmy Beresford were terrific… Beresford leading off with 2-4 plus a walk, scored three times while Berg provided the clean-up duties with a mighty 3-5 with a home run and five RBIs to continue his outstanding competition thus far. Unassuming slugger Andrew Russell, who wasn’t going to play Claxton Shield until after Christmas, is probably glad that he was called up to join the Aces when he smacked 2-3 with a home run, two RBIs and he scored twice. Grant Karlsen, once again, was terrific behind the dish for Victoria and, while he didn’t hit this time, he scored twice after being walked once and then hit by a pitch.

Dingle continued his “breakthrough” AMLB campaign via a huge 2-3 with a home run, two RBIs plus two walks. Recent major leaguer Brad Harman stamped his undoubted class again with 2-5, a home run and three RBIs but he didn’t overshadow Independent League pro Paul Rutgers who couldn’t do any more than bat 1-1 with a home run, three RBIs, three runs scored and three walks… not a bad day at the diamond ‘Paulie’!

Just in case the onslaught of pitching and batting might have failed to excite the Victorian fans in Mildura, we are told that the Aces middle infield duo of pro guys Beresford and Harman, who are both OUTSTANDING short stops, put on a bit of a clinic for an audience that might not have quite appreciated just what they were seeing. I am assured that one hard-hit deflected ball that Beresford somehow managed to field and relay to Harman to start a sparkling double play was a thing of rare beauty! My friends in Melbourne can only imagine what it might have looked like!

Well Melbourne baseball fans, if you just blinked you have already missed the 2009 Claxton Shield carnival coming to town! That's right, as Porky Pig would say... "that's all folks!" Of course for those of us baseball devotees in Australia's "sports capital" it was always going to be thus. Call it "baseball gods", "Murphy's Law" or whatever you like, but there were those yet undiscovered tribes hiding in the Amazon rain forests that knew this might happen. Melbourne's often unfairly maligned weather has been quite superb for most of this summer and, as some might be aware, we are in drought conditions and suffering stage four water supply restrictions... so, you might gather, it hasn't been too wet here for many moons!

However, from the moment that those well-meaning and fine people at Baseball Australia saw fit to schedule just ONE, yes ONE, Claxton Shield game in our fair city this was a seemingly inevitable result. We had time to get used to the unpalatable idea because the weather bureau, god love them, finally predicted something correctly by telling us that it was going to rain, rain and rain from early Friday and well into the weekend. By mid-Friday, the day of our ONE game, Noah had started ordering the timber for his new boat and the animals had started to gather two-by-two.

Living more on hope that expectation, there was a very brief period at around 6:30pm that the rains cleared momentarily and, according to those closer to our Altona stadium that us, there was a genuine hope of starting the game at 8:00pm. Once again, more in blind hope than expectation, we set off for the long journey across town only to hear by mobile phone (what did we do before them?) that things had turned bleak again... not long after the fixture was officially abandoned.

I have nothing against the people of Mildura who, after all, are fellow Victorian kindred, but they'll have to excuse me for not appreciating their good fortune in adding another game to their already bulging schedule of two games between Victoria and Queensland. Oh yes, we are aware of some encouraging financial arrangement that brought the "novelty" game of baseball to Victoria's far north, and those highly questionable "philosophical reasons" why the game needs to be promoted in regional centres. Trouble is, the way we are feeling today, we just don't want to hear it!

As I sit here writing this garbled nonsense, I am starting to understand the cravings that might be experienced by a drug addict whose dealer has just left town, depriving him of a much needed fix... and just starting to realise that he would not be getting another one for a very long time. I'm not sure what Melbourne did to deserve the short end of the stick when the fixtures were finalised, but I can tell you that it has done NOTHING to promote the game here and that is a sad tragedy just, as we keep being told, one year out from a new National League.

Oh, and just by the way, if you are wondering why I have not mentioned the same rain-out situation in Canberra for the opening of the NSW versus WA series, well, that is because they will not be missing any games unless weather intervenes again. They had already enjoyed the luxury of a full three-game schedule and the Friday night game will simply be rolled-over into a weekend double header. What jolly good luck for you folks in the ACT... we'd love to know how you feel.