Micro review of Game One - Blue Sox versus Heat

So, I headed out to BOP tonight to watch the Blue Sox vs Heat in the first game of the ABL playoffs. Here are my thoughts in no particular order:

• the crowd was disappointingly small and quiet (only 1000), probably due to the Thursday night thing. I expect they will be better tomorrow
• it was a game for the pitchers. They burned through the innings faster than Novak Djokovic loses his temper - the game time was a tick under two and a half hours
• the Blue Sox did not show a lot of discipline in the batting box tonight. They swung at way too many first pitches, and that allowed Schmidt to get ahead and get through a number of innings very quickly
• Welch was unlucky (again). The first runs from Perth were a direct result of an amateurish collision in right field between Mitch Dening and David Kandilas (in which Kandilas was lucky not to end up hurt). After that, Robbie Widlansky should have been caught stealing, but a slow throw from Kingman meant that Lysaught put it down and Widlansky was safe at second. He then went on to score.
• In looking at the box score - I am amazed that the Blue Sox were only charged with one error. The error they were charged with was a dropped foul by Pat Maat. It was a catch that should have been taken, and Maat made a meal of it. But....there were two other (in my mind) clear errors. David Kandilas gloves the ball, Dening runs into him, he drops it - de San Miguel gets to third. That is NOT a triple. Secondly, Mark Holland got his glove to a difficult, heavy spinning and high bouncing grounder, I think from Mitch Graham. I can't believe these weren't scored as errors (not that it really matters, just feeling negative I suppose)
• Matt Kennelly had a good night for the Heat. He made an absolute pearler of a play to end the sixth inning; diving full length to cut off a hard hit ball from Trent D'Antonio. He then hit a Chris Oxspring pitch in the ninth inning over the left field wall to take the game away from the Blue Sox.
• The Blue Sox didn't seem to show a lot of passion or motivation - they were flat, whereas the Heat were fired up and keen.
• As a Blue Sox fan, I can console myself by thanking my lucky stars I am not a Melbourne Aces fan.

Oh well, looking at it optimistically - we should hopefully get a third game in Sydney this weekend. But the Sydney side are going to need to pull their [Blue] Sox up a bit I reckon