Australian Baseball League: Perth Heat squander two-game lead to tie series with Brisbane Bandits

Perth Heat have split their Australian Baseball League season-opening series with Brisbane Bandits at Empire Ballpark, after the visitors rallied from a two-game deficit with a pair of big wins.

Missing several stars away on international duty at the Premier12 tournament, the Heat shot out to a two-game lead in the series, winning 5-0 and 5-2 on Friday and Saturday.

However, the Bandits rallied and produced back-to-back 7-0 wins in games three and four to level the series at two apiece.

There were bright spots for the Heat, particularly Tampa Bay Rays’ prospect Angel Mateo recording 5 RBIs in the opening two games, while highly-touted young Korean pitcher Young Woo Shin impressed on debut.

Perth opened their season brightly in game one, although it took until the bottom of the fifth for them to score their opening run of the season when Marcus Strother doubled to send Bryon Armstrong in.

Mateo then took over, singling on a fly ball in the sixth inning to make it 2-0, before adding a three-run homer in the eighth to seal victory.

Shin started the game on the mound for the Heat and allowed no hits through four innings, throwing eight strike outs in the process.

The Heat got off to a fast start in game two as Mateo homered in his side’s opening inning after a sacrifice fly by Jhon Diaz to help Perth a 2-0 lead.

Brisbane halved the deficit through Donald Lutz at the top of the second before Hyungchan Um teid things up in the sixth inning with a triple.

But Perth responded quickly as Jess Williams drove in Jhon Diaz and Jaxon Limpus, and Marcus Strother singled to make it a three-run sixth inning for the Heat, enough to claim a 5-2 win.

Unfortunately for the Heat, the Bandits fought back in game three as three-run homers to Brennon McNair and Dermot Fritsch helped set up a 7-0 victory.

A four-run fifth inning for Brisbane in game four steered them to a series tie, as Yao-Huang Lin and Chia-Yen Tsai did the damage with the bat to establish a four-run lead.

Any hope of a dramatic comeback from the Heat was dashed by Luke Smith’s three-run homer in the seventh inning.