ABL Week 3 - vs Perth Heat

This was always going to be a hard weekend playing the reigning champions and ABL front runners the Perth Heat but we felt like we were up to the task, but Perth outplayed us on the field and we couldn't get anything going for us.

The series started off on a bad note with the first game being cancelled due to rain. With the revised schedule we played a game on Friday night, two games on Saturday and an afternoon game on Sunday.

Game 1
Just like we had done the last 2 series, Craig Anderson got the ball to start the first game of the series. He pitched well but got into a little bit of trouble in the 7th and ended up giving 5 runs in 6 1/3 innings. Despite out hitting Perth 12 to 9, we couldn't capitalize when you got runners on base. Dan Schmidt who used to be signed with the Phillies when I was with them started for Perth and turned in his best start of the year going 8 strong innings giving up only 1 run, which came off the bat of Boss Moanaroa who hit a solo home run in the 8th.

Game 2
This is a game I would much rather forget. The team lost 16-1 and we gave up 24 hits in the 9 inning game. Personally I was embarassed with my performance. I came into the game in the 4th with us down 5-0 and runners on 1st and 3rd. By the time I exited the game with 2 outs in the 5th Perth's lead was 11-0. I gave up 8 hits, and 4 runs in 1 2/3 innings. A day I would much rather forget and I'm sure the team would rather forget.

Game 3
This game went into extra innings thanks to a great start from Wayne Lungdren, even better relief pitching from Chris Oxspring and clutch hitting by Michael Lysaught. We didn't get much going in this game, but when we did Lysaught did some damage by hitting 2 RBI doubles off the wall in the 4th and the 8th innings. Like we always do, we sent Koo out in the 9th and he threw a scoreless inning but couldn't escape the hot Perth bats in the 10th as they scored 3 unearned runs and had the game under control. We were able to get the winning run to the plate in the 10th but couldn't capitalize.

Game 4
If we thought the 16-1 loss was bad. We weren't ready for what Perth were going to do to us on Sunday. From the dugout, we just couldn't believe what we were seeing. Their first 2 hits of the game were both infield hits and it just made us think, what do we have to do for things to go our way? Apparently nothing wanted to go our way as we hit balls hard straight to fielders, and they hit bloop singles in between our fielders. Long story short, Perth won 19-3 and they pounded out 20 hits again.

This series left us with a 4-8 record and its left Perth with a perfect 11-0 start to the season. The season can't be won in November, but it definitely can be lost, so we need to start winning series and start creeping up the ladder again. It's time to turn our swag on.