By ADEM SARICAOGLU
THE Melbourne Aces may be sitting second-last coming into the final weekend of the Australian Baseball League regular season, but they still remain in the hunt for post-season action.
The 20-22 Aces are one of four clubs log-jammed in the middle of the ABL table, with Adelaide (21-21), Sydney (21-21) and Canberra (20-22) all vying to fill the remaining two spots up for grabs in the top three.
Over the weekend the Aces managed to split their four-game series 2-2 with the Brisbane Bandits at the Altona Ballpark, keeping themselves alive with four more games to come on the road this weekend against the third-placed Sydney Blue Sox.
Manager Phil Dale is confident his Aces can easily bounce back after dropping the final game of the Brisbane series 4-2 on Sunday.
“We match up with anyone in this league and we’re as good a team as anyone, so on any given day we can beat any other team,” Dale said.
“We’ve just got to win every game we can now.”
Melbourne’s final home series of the regular season began in disappointing fashion on Thursday night with a 6-4 loss to the Bandits.
However the following two outings over the next two nights proved to be more fortunate for the Aces.
On Friday, Aces shortstop Brad Harman made a hero of himself at the end of a gruelling 13-inning encounter, firing a two-run homer over left field to hand Melbourne a memorable 4-2 win.
As though that wasn’t enough, Harman then did it again the following night in the bottom of the eighth, scoring another clutch home run to get his Aces over the line 5-3.
Sunday’s game was also on the line in the bottom of the eighth, with Melbourne looking to go ahead with bases loaded and only one out.
However, two consecutive strikeouts kept the final score to 4-2 in Brisbane’s favour.
While Harman’s hitting at the plate was a feature of the series, Dale was also keen to praise relief pitcher Brett Zawacki – who on Friday shut Brisbane out in the final four innings.
“I used him in an unusual lot of innings, which he’s not used to and that took him out of the game today (Sunday), but he did a great job to get the win (on Friday),” Dale said.
Melbourne’s do-or-die series with Sydney begins this Thursday night.
