The relaunched Australian Baseball League reaches its climax this weekend when the Perth Heat host the Adelaide Bite in a best of three game series to decide the 2010/11 champions.
A season that began early last November concludes this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday (if needed) at Barbagallo Ballpark.
Perth won hosting rights after sweeping Sydney at Blacktown Olympic Park in round one of the playoffs. Adelaide had a tougher ride to the championship series, having to overcome Melbourne at home before travelling to Sydney and beating the Blue Sox 2-1.
Sunday’s clinching game was an exhausting 15-inning affair that went almost five hours and capped off a gruelling schedule for the South Australians. It remains to be seen how much of a toll their effort has taken with the fresher Heat likely to start favourites.
Pitching will be crucial for both sides with Perth relying on the likes of Daniel Schmidt, Cole McCurry, Liam Baron and Warrick Saupold to get deep into games. For its part, Adelaide will look to Paul Mildren, Dushan Ruzic, Brandon Maurer and Mark Brackman to keep the Perth offense quiet. Both teams have strong bullpens intent on doing everything possible to gain the edge for their club.
For offense the Heat will be hoping that Luke Hughes, Robbie Widlansky, Ronnie Welty and Matthew Kennelly will carry over their regular season form where all were batting over 300. They can also count on first baseman Lachlan Dale, a late season call up who averaged 412. The Bite are not short of their own hot hitters in Scott Gladstone, James McOwen, Tom Brice, Quincy Latimore, Brendon Pett, Jeremy Creswell and Stefan Welch.
There was little between the teams during their regular season clashes which they split 4-4. Perth finished second on the table with a 24-16 record just in front of Adelaide’s 23-17. The Bite reversed this order in the runs scored category with 229 against the Heat’s 215.
Perth just shaded Adelaide when it came to pitching, posting an ERA of 3.79 compared to their opponent’s 3.83. Both have experienced managers in Tony Harris (Adelaide) and Brooke Knight (Perth), skippers who know how to get the best from their rosters.
The inaugural ABL champions will be awarded the Claxton Shield thus maintaining a link with the tradition and history of baseball in Australia. The series will be televised by Fox Sports commencing Friday 4.00pm Perth time. If the season to date is anything to go by we are in for a captivating weekend.
Baseball Convert
Guest
My family went to see our first professional baseball game in Sydney in December, and it was terrific. My two boys really want to play baseball now they have seen what its like. My eldest, who is 11 said "at least everyone gets to bat" and his brother 9: "Its so boring just standing in the outfield" (meaning cricket). Judging on what the Sydney outfielders showed they can do, I think I've got a couple of converts now. Great to see the finals on Fox but there was very little promotion of it to the general public. We found out almost by mistake. Agreed, way too much time spent on AFL, Rugby, Cricket etc and not enough on baseball. What a great game!
King of the Gorgonites
Roar Guru
Great effort by foxtel to show the ABL live. stumbled across it this weekend, and made for some great viewing. good to see some lesser sports get some air-time. to much afl and rugby league at times on tv/
Joe O'Sullivan
Guest
Agree with the Fox coverage Jamie I was plesently surprised at how good it was including Warren Smith's commentary.
Mark Davidson
Guest
And the umpires need to learn how to call sliders and curve balls.
Mark Davidson
Guest
Jamie, noted your comments about umpiring. It seems to be a trend throughout most of the ABL season, although as a Level 4 (US) qualified umpire I can honestly say, having watched all three games in Perth that overall the umpiring standard for the finals was pretty darn good. Sure, there was the odd bad call but it was chalk and cheese compared with some of the games in Sydney and Canberra where the umpiring was at times, abysmal. The level of playing in the ABL is higher than the level of umpiring and even a 'highly awarded' umpire had one of the worst games of his life, at the most critical parts of a playoff game. The Australian umpires need help if they are going to continue to effectively officiate in the ABL. Batters need a consistent zone, it's as simple as that. High or low, inside or outside, it doesn't matter providing it stays for the whole game. A lot of the time it hasn't.
Jamie Bee
Guest
what a shame that as we watch live on foxtel, game 3 is being decided by apallingly inconsistent umpiring! variable strike zone as the umpire stuggles to be consistent … and apears to be playing “payback” baseball… making calls based on what he owes the batter/catcher! congratulations to foxtel/delta airlines – great coverage from foxtel – the single best thing they have done this year and will make me stay a subscriber….