Australian Baseball League: Perth Heat downed 3-1 by Canberra Cavalry in second straight series defeat

Perth Heat have lost their second series in a row to leave them stranded in fifth spot on the Australian Baseball League ladder.

Canberra Cavalry prevailed 3-1 in the two sides’ four-game series at Empire Ballpark to resign the Heat to an 8-12 record at the season’s halfway mark.

While Perth are just two games back of Melbourne Aces in fourth and three back of the second-placed Adelaide Giants, they will need a big effort down the stretch to lock up a finals berth.

The Cavalry got the perfect start in game one, recovering from an early deficit to prevail 6-2 as a three-run ninth inning helped seal the win.

Ulrich Bojarski’s sacrifice fly gave Perth the lead, only for George Callil’s two-run homer to give Canberra the lead in the third inning, before a Matt Halbach home run made it 3-1.

Jhon Diaz reduced the margin to 3-2 in the eighth, but Jordan Nwogu slammed the door on any Heat comeback with a three-run homer.

Perth squared up the series in game two in a tight, low-scoring affair, with Bojarski —playing in his 200th game — hitting a fourth-inning single which allowed Alex Hall to run home proving the difference in a 1-0 win.

And the Heat looked a chance to take game three as well, when Jake Bowey drove in Fumiya Kurokawa to provide the game’s first run at the bottom of the seventh.

But Halbach came to the rescue for Canberra, tying up the game in the eighth inning before Miguel Palma’s two-run homer secured the Cavalry a 3-1 win.

With Perth a chance to earn a share of the series spoils in game four, Canberra turned the screws and produced a blow-out 12-2 win highlighted by five-run innings at the top of the fifth and eighth.

After Cam Warner had given Canberra a 1-0 lead in the second, Palma, Halbach and Nwogu were all among the runs in the fifth as the visitors pushed their lead to 6-0, and the latter two both doubled in the eighth to put the game beyond reach, with Bojarski hitting a consolation homer in the ninth.