Perth Heat have set up a mouth watering semi-final battle with the Adelaide Giants after splitting the weekend’s series with the Sydney Blue Sox including a final inning winning home run from Carlos Colmenarez.
All six teams went into the last weekend of the regular season still a chance of reaching the playoffs, and nothing was secured for the Heat as they took on the top ranked Blue Sox at Blacktown International Sportspark.
Sydney won Game 1 on Friday night 8-2 but the two teams split the games on Saturday with Perth winning first up 3-2 before the Blue Sox answered winning 12-2.
The Heat wrapped up the series winning 4-3 on Sunday to lock away a third position finish with a 20-20 record to set up a semi-final battle this weekend in Adelaide against the Giants.
ABL REGULAR SEASON, SERIES 10, GAME 1
Perth Heat made the perfect start to the final regular season series against the league-leaders with two runs in the first inning on Friday night but the Sydney Blue Sox took over from there for the 8-2 victory.
The series opened up with Tucker Smith making the pitching start for the Heat while it was Landen Bourassa on the mound for the Blue Sox, but the visitors made a blistering opening.
The very first bat of the game saw Johnny Ascanio produce a single with a fly ball to centre field before Jhon Diaz delivered a double and then Ulrich Bojarski got on base thanks to being hit by the pitch.
Alex Hall then hit a single and with the first four bats of the game, the Heat batters all got on base and thanks to that Hall hit, Ascanio came around to score.
Tim Kennelly then also got the ball into play to allow Diaz to score and the Heat had the perfect start with the 2-0 lead by the end of one.
That’s where the score remained until the bottom of the fourth inning when the Blue Sox got on the board with a hit from Alberto Rios allow Andy Atwood to get around to home base.
Sydney were able to take control of the contest the next inning with a string of hits that allowed them add three runs to take the 5-2 advantage.
The Blue Sox put up another three runs in the seventh inning to take the 8-2 lead and that’s where the final score would remain.
Perth did put up eight hits for the game with two of them coming from Alex Hall and Jhon Diaz with one each from Jess Williams, Tim Kennelly, Ulrich Bojarski and Johnny Ascanio.
Tucker Smith ended up pitching for four innings with 60 strikes from the 80 pitches before Steffon Moore coming on for five strikes from 12 pitches, Jordan Power 17 strikes from 38 pitches, and Tom Bailey 14 strikes from 29 pitches.
Alberto Rios and Brendan Ryan had two hits apiece for the Blue Sox with Landen Bourassa throwing eight innings with six strikeouts for 88 pitches with 66 strikes. Josh Guyer closed it out with 13 pitches and 12 strikes.
PERTH HEAT 2 (Diaz, Ascanio)
SYDNEY BLUE SOX 8 (Ryan, MacKenzie, Acton, Maguire, Atwood)
W – Landen Bourassa; L – Tucker Smith
Friday January 17, Sydney International Sportspark
ABL REGULAR SEASON, SERIES 10, GAME 2
The Heat levelled the series in the first game on Saturday in the most spectacular fashion with a ninth inning home run from Carlos Colmenarez to deliver the 3-2 victory over the Blue Sox.
Coming off the opening game loss on Friday, the Heat were looking to hit back in Game 2 to start the double-header on Saturday with Jong-Hae Won the starting pitcher for Perth while it was Ben Ferrer opening up for Sydney.
The scoring started in the bottom of the second inning when Solomon Maguire produced a hit for Sydney that allowed Andrew Semo to get around to home to plate to make it 1-0.
Perth were able to tie scores up with a run in the top of the fourth with that inning starting with hits to Ulrich Bojarski and Alex Hall before a bunt from Tim Kennelly.
Angel Mateo then produced another hit that allowed Bojarski to score and the ball game was all locked up at 1-1.
That’s where it stayed until Perth nabbed the lead in the top of the sixth starting with Hall being walked, a double to Kennelly and it was Angel Mateo giving the ball enough air to bring Hall around to score to give the Heat the 2-1 lead.
That didn’t last long with the Blue Sox levelling scores up at 2-2 with a run of their own after a string of single hits in the bottom of the sixth.
The game was then decided with a monster home run from Carlos Colmenarez over the left field fence to start the ninth inning. It was his sixth home run of the season and ultimately delivered the Heat the important 3-2 victory.
Along with the home run to Colmenarez, the Heat got one hit apiece from Johnny Ascanio, Jhon Diaz, Ulrich Bojarski, Enderson Delgado, Angel Mateo, Tim Kennelly and Alex Hall.
Jong-Hae Won was impressive pitching for the Heat with 5.2 innings made up of 66 strikes from 96 pitches before Warwick Saupold had a strong outing the rest of the way without conceding a run with 35 strikes from 54 throws.
Sydney got two hits each from Solomon Maguire, Jo Stevens and Brendan Ryan with Ben Ferrer throwing 86 pitches for 50 strikes, and Coen Wynne 36 pitches for 27 strikes.
PERTH HEAT 3 (Colmenarez, Hall, Bojarski)
SYDNEY BLUE SOX 2 (Semo, Rae)
W – Warwick Saupold; L – Coen Wynne
Saturday January 18, Sydney International Sportspark
ABL REGULAR SEASON, SERIES 10, GAME 3
The series was all tied going into the second game on Saturday but the Blue Sox bats caught fire starting with three runs in the first inning on the way to the 12-2 victory against the Heat.
Just by winning the first game on Saturday, the Heat had secured their playoff place but they wanted to keep winning to attempt to finish as high as possible by the end of the regular season.
Saturday night’s Game 3 saw the in-form Dariel Fregio starting on the mount for the Heat with Alex Wells the opening pitcher for the Blue Sox.
It was a huge first inning from Sydney with three hits including a double from Andy Atwood as they scored three runs to take the early 3-0 advantage.
That’s where the score stayed until the top of the fifth inning with a home run for the Heat courtesy of Enderson Delgado who cleared the left field fence for his second bomb of the season.
Sydney responded with a huge bottom of the fifth inning themselves with another three runs including hits from Brendan Ryan and Clayton Campbell as they opened up the 6-1 lead.
The Blue Sox were able to put the game to bed with a dominant seventh inning performance where the home team piled by six runs including a home run from Harry Fullerton, and another give hits along the way.
That saw Sydney lead 12-1 and the Blue Sox would eventually win 12-2 with the Heat getting one run back in the top of the ninth with a single from Alex Hall bringing Carlos Colmenarez around to score.
Perth finished the game with a home run from Enderson Delgado and two hits apiece from Johnny Ascanio, Alex Hall and Tim Kennelly.
Dariel Fregio ended up pitching for five innings with five strikeouts for 95 pitches with 57 strikes before Eui-Tae Seo came on for 40 pitches with 28 strikes, and Tom Bailey 26 pitches with 15 strikes.
Sydney got a home run from Harry Fullerton along with two hits each from Alberto Rios, Clayton Campbell, Jake MacKenzie and Brendan Ryan.
Alex Wells ended up pitching six innings for seven strikeouts from his 98 pitches with 68 strikes before the Blue Sox got an inning each from Matthew Rae, Liam Doolan and Bryan Blanton.
PERTH HEAT 2 (Delgado, Colmenarez)
SYDNEY BLUE SOX 12 (MacKenzie 3; Acton, Ryan 2; Fullerton, Stevens, Rios, Atwood, Campbell)
W – Alex Wells; L – Dariel Fregio
Saturday January 18, Sydney International Sportspark
ABL REGULAR SEASON, SERIES 10, GAME 4
Sunday presented the chance for the Heat to take momentum in the playoffs and they delivered four runs in the opening three innings to set up the eventual 4-3 victory against the Blue Sox.
The Heat were looking to bounce back from the loss on Saturday night to close the double-header heading into the Sunday afternoon match up to end the regular season.
It was Jake Bowey making the pitching start for the Heat while it was John Wilson on the mound for the Blue Sox.
It was an impressive start from the Heat in the first inning beginning with three straight hits in the first three at bats from Johnny Ascanio, Jhon Diaz and Alex Hall before Ulrich Bojarski was walked to bring in the first run.
Tim Kennelly then got the ball in play to bring around the second run and it was the Heat leading 2-0 at the end of the first inning.
The runs continued for Perth in the second inning thanks to hits from Jess Williams and Ascanio once more and the visitors were leading 3-0 after two in the fourth game of the weekend.
That became 4-0 in the third inning again with the Heat making a good start with hits from Hall and Bojarski. Carlos Colmenarez then allowed Hall to score with a line drive into left field and Perth were in control of the match up just three innings into it.
Even though the Heat didn’t manage another run the rest of the way, they still claimed the 4-3 victory after the Blue Sox managed to score two runs in the bottom of the eighth and another in the ninth.
The Heat racked up 10 hits in the game with two each from Ulrich Bojarski, Alex Hall and Johnny Ascanio, and one each from Jess Williams, Carlos Colmenarez, Angel Mateo and Jhon Diaz.
Jake Bowey pitched the first six innings with three strikeouts and with his stint made up of 86 pitches with 52 strikes.
Kieren Hall then came on for 17 pitches with nine strikes, Ji-Han Park 34 pitches with 17 strikes, and Steffon Moore 20 pitches with 11 strikes.
The Blue Sox got two hits each from Harry Fullerton and Jo Stevens with John Wilson throwing 66 pitches for 49 strikes, Taliesin Tardrew-O’Meara 13 for nine, Lachlan Brook 11 for eight, Josh Guyer 15 for seven, Bryan Blanton 12 for six, and Liam Doolan 12 for seven.
PERTH HEAT 4 (Williams, Hall, Diaz, Ascanio)
SYDNEY BLUE SOX 3 (Maguire, Campbell, Stevens)
W – Jake Bowey; L – John Wilson, S – Steffon Moore
Sunday January 19, Sydney International Sportspark