Perth Heat delivered 10 home runs and scored 25 runs across the four games including a 16-run outburst on Friday and extra-innings win on Thursday with Tyler Beardsley earning two saves in 3-1 road series win over the Brisbane Bandits.
The Heat arrived at Viticon Stadium needing the win and ended up winning 4-3, 16-5 and 4-3 in the opening three matches of the pre-Christmas series before the Bandits clawed one back on Saturday night winning 7-1.
ABL REGULAR SEASON, SERIES 6, GAME 1
The Heat opened up the road series with the game winning extra-inning run on a hit from Johnny Ascanio to secure the Thursday night 4-3 win against the Bandits.
Both teams were desperate to get the series off to a winning start as the bottom two teams in the ABL and it took until extra innings for the first up match up at Viticon Stadium to be decided.
It was Tucker Smith starting on the mound for Perth with Ryan Bollinger on the mound for Brisbane with the Heat making the perfect start with a first inning home run from Alex Hall. It was his sixth of the season as he cleared the left field fence.
Perth doubled the lead in the top of the fourth inning with Ulrich Bojarski delivering his fourth home run of the season when he shot it over the left field barrier as well and gave the Heat the 2-0 advantage.
That same inning and the Bandits were able to level scores up with Brennon McNair also enjoying the smaller confines of Viticon Stadium with the home run to also bring around Dermot Fritsch to score.
The Bandits were the next to score in the bottom of the seventh with a hit from Yi-Cheng Wang bringing Mike Hart to score and to give the home team the 3-2 advantage.
The Heat were able to level scores up in the top of the ninth with the inning beginning with hits from Hall and Jhon Diaz before Angel Mateo got the ball into play which was enough to allow Hall around to score.
That sent the game into an extra inning after Kieren Hall struck out Fritsch to close the bottom of the ninth.
In the 10th, Carlos Colmenarez was hit by the pitch from Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis before a single from Johnny Ascanio allowed Jake Bowey around to score and ultimately that secured the 4-3 win for the Heat.
The Heat got the home runs from Ulrich Bojarski and Alex Hall along with two hits from Jhon Diaz.
Tucker Smith pitched for the first six innings with 12 strikeouts and giving up just the three hits and two runs before Ji-Han Park, Warwick Saupold, Kieren Hall and Tyler Beardsley all pitched an innings each to close things out.
Brisbane got a home run from Brennon McNair while Yi-Cheng Wang had three hits with Ryan Bollinger throwing the first seven innings for nine strikeouts in 98 pitches for 69 strikes.
Juhyeok Park then threw one inning with two strikeouts and Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis closed things out with 37 pitches and 24 strikes.
PERTH HEAT 4 (Hall 2; Bowey, Bojarski)
BRISBANE BANDITS 3 (Hart, McNair, Fritsch)
W – Kieren Hall; L – Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis, S – Tyler Beardsley
Thursday December 19, Viticon Stadium
ABL REGULAR SEASON, SERIES 6, GAME 2
On the back of the extra-inning win on Thursday, the Heat delivered an offensive onslaught on Friday night with the 16-5 win against the Bandits including home runs from Jess Williams, Jhon Diaz (two), Carlos Colmenarez, Enderson Delgado.
Jong-Hae Won was the starting pitcher for the Heat with Sam Holland opening up for the Bandits, and it was the home team making the fast start with a two-run homer from Mike Hart in the third at bat for them in the contest to put them up 2-0.
The Heat tied scores up in the top of the third inning when Jess Williams nailed his first home run of the season to clear the right fence and also allow Carlos Colmenarez to come around to score and make it 2-2.
It was Jhon Diaz's turn for a home run in the top of the fourth when he delivered the line drive to clear left centre field to give the visitors the 3-2 advantage.
Four walks to open the top of the sixth inning ended up seeing Tim Kennelly to come around to score and then with the bases loaded, Colmenarez produced the grand slam for his fourth home run of the season to give the Heat the 8-2 lead.
That became 10-2 with a second home run of the night to Diaz with Ulrich Bojarski also soring before a hit from Enderson Delgado and a groundout from Colmenarez made it 11-2 in that same eighth inning.
It was a wild ninth inning on both sides with another grand slam for the Heat this time from Delgado on the back of singles to Johnny Ascanio, Kennelly, Angel Mateo, Diaz and Jake Bowey.
That gave Perth the 16-2 lead before Brisbane did get a three-run homer of their own in the bottom of the ninth from Jacob Robson.
Jhon Diaz delivered two home runs for the Heat with one each from Jess Williams, Carlos Colmenarez and Enderson Delgado while Diaz had three hits all up and Delgado two.
Jong-Hae Won threw six innings to start things for Perth with eight strikeouts from 93 pitches with 56 strikes. Todd Hatcher came in for 42 pitches and 24 strikes, and Eui-Tae Seo 13 strikes from 19 pitches.
The Bandits home runs came from Mike Hart and Jacob Robson with Natanael Garabitos their only pitcher on the night not to conceded a home run but he also only lasted 24 pitches with eight strikes, and did concede four runs.
PERTH HEAT 16 (Diaz 4; Bowey 3; Colmenarez, Bojarski 2; Williams, Delgado, Mateo, Kennelly, Ascanio)
BRISBANE BANDITS 5 (Yang, Wang, Hart, Um, Robson)
W – Jong-Hae Won; L – Sam Holland
Friday December 20, Viticon Stadium
ABL REGULAR SEASON, SERIES 6, GAME 3
On the back of the dynamic offensive performance on Friday night, the Saturday double began proceedings at Viticon Stadium with a seventh inning home run from Bryon Armstrong securing the Heat the 4-3, and series, victory.
Young Woo Shin started off pitching in the first game on Saturday for the Heat while it was Connor MacDonald on the mound for the Bandits with the home team starting well with a home run from Jacob Robson in their very first at bat.
It took until the top of the fourth inning for the Heat to get on the board and it was another home run from Jhon Diaz as he continued his hot form from Friday night for a fifth homer of the season to level scores up at 1-1.
Brisbane grabbed the lead in the bottom of the fifth with a hit from Will Riley allowing both Jake Burns and Iyang Namoh to get around to score and to put the Bandits up 3-1.
The Heat had to dig deep going into the final two innings of the shortened first match of the double, and it started with a home run from Ulrich Bojarski who cleared the left field fence to cut the deficit in half.
Then after a double from Tim Kennelly, Byron Armstrong marked his return to the line-up this weekend by clearing right centre field and bringing he and Kennelly around to score to deliver Perth the 4-3 win that wrapped up the series victory.
Byron Armstrong, Jhon Diaz and Ulrich Bojarski hit home runs in the win for Perth.
Young Woo Shin delivered the first 82 pitches of the game for the Heat with 48 strikes and seven strikeouts before Ji-Han Park came in for 19 strikes from 32 pitches, and Tyler Beardsley earned another save from 20 pitches with 12 strikes.
Brisbane's lone home run in the game was hit by Jacob Robson on the very first at bat with Connor MacDonald throwing 70 pitches with 47 strikes, and then Juhyeok Park 27 pitches with 18 strikes but giving up two home runs.
PERTH HEAT 4 (Armstrong, Kennelly, Diaz, Bojarski)
BRISBANE BANDITS 3 (Burns, Namoh, Robson)
W – Ji-Han Park; L – Juhyeok Park, S – Tyler Beardsley
Saturday December 21, Viticon Stadium
ABL REGULAR SEASON, SERIES 6, GAME 4
The Heat had the chance to secure a first series sweep of the ABL season in the second game on Saturday night but it wasn’t to be with the Bandits securing the 7-1 victory at home.
Perth had outscored Brisbane 24 runs to 11 over the first three games of the series at Viticon Stadium with some impressive hitting in the smaller ballpark.
Dariel Fregio was the starting pitcher for the Heat with Gunnar Kines on the mound for the Bandits, and for the second straight game they got a home run on the very first at bat – again from Jacob Robson.
Perth tied scores up in the top of the second with Ulrich Bojarski able to get around to score on the sacrifice fly ball from Carlos Colmenarez.
It remained a 1-1 ball game until the bottom of the fifth when the Bandits mounted the pressure and Mike Hart produced a three-run double to give the home team the 4-1 advantage.
Hart then opened the bottom of the seventh with a home run and the Bandits added another two runs in that same inning on the way to the eventual 7-1 victory.
Jhon Diaz produced another two hits in the game for Perth with one each from Johnny Ascanio, Jess Williams and Byron Armstrong.
Dariel Fregio threw the first 95 pitches with 60 strikes and six strikeouts before Kieren Hall came in for 19 pitches with 15 strikes, Warwick Saupold 29 pitches with 18 strikes, and Jai Hewitt 20 pitches with 11 strikes.
The Bandits received home runs from Mike Hart and Jacob Robson with Gunnar Kines throwing 72 pitches with 47 strikes, Carter Hope 16 pitches with eight strikes, and Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis 43 pitches for 26 strikes including five strikeouts to close things out.
PERTH HEAT 1 (Bojarski)
BRISBANE BANDITS 7 (Robson 2; Durrington, Burns, Wang, Namoh, Hart)
W – Gunnar Kines; L – Dariel Fregio, S – Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis
Saturday December 21, Viticon Stadium