1997–98 Perth Heat season

1997–98 Perth Heat
League	Australian Baseball League
Ballpark	WACA
City	Perth, Western Australia
Record	30–23 (.566)
Place	5th
General manager	Doug Mateljan

The 1997-98 Perth Heat season was the 9th season for the team. As was the case for the Heat's previous seasons they competed in the Australian Baseball League (ABL).

Offseason

Regular season

Standings

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	PCT	GB	Qualification
1	Melbourne Monarchs	52	32	20	.615	—	Advance to Finals Series
2	Sydney Storm	54	32	22	.593	1
3	Melbourne Reds	51	30	21	.588	1.5
4	Gold Coast Cougars	53	31	22	.585	1.5
5	Perth Heat	53	30	23	.566	2.5
6	Adelaide Giants	53	26	27	.491	6.5
7	Brisbane Bandits	53	20	33	.377	12.5
8	Hunter Eagles	53	10	43	.189	22.5

Source: ^[citation needed]

Record vs opponents

Opponent	W–L Record	Largest Victory			Largest Defeat			Current Streak
		Score	Date	Ground	Score	Date	Ground
Adelaide Giants	6-7	7-2	5 December 1997	Norwood Oval	1-7	5 December 1997	Norwood Oval	L2
Brisbane Bandits	3-3	15-2	5 January 1998	ANZ Stadium	2-18	4 January 1998	ANZ Stadium	W2
Gold Coast Cougars	4-2	8-2	10 January 1998	Carrara Oval	2-19	8 January 1998	Carrara Oval	W1
Hunter Eagles	5-2	17-6	28 January 1998	Marathon Stadium	0-8	19 January 1998	WACA	W4
Melbourne Monarchs	3-5	6-1	22 November 1997	WACA	2-7	14 December 1997	Melbourne Ballpark	L3
Melbourne Reds	4–2	13–6	26 December 1997	WACA	3–8	27 December 1997	WACA	W2
Sydney Storm	5-3	10-3	8 November 1997	WACA	1-5 & 5-9	15 November 1997	Concord Oval	W2
Total	30–23	Brisbane Bandits			Gold Coast Cougars			W1
		15–2	5 January 1998	ANZ Stadium	2-19	8 January 1998	Carrara Oval

Game log

W	Heat win
L	Heat loss
T	Heat tie
	Game postponed
Bold	Heat team member

1997-98 Game Log
October # Date Opponent Score Win Loss Save Crowd Record Ref 1 31 October (DH 1) Giants 6–5 1-0 [1] 2 31 October (DH 2) Giants 6–3 2-0 [1]
November # Date Opponent Score Win Loss Save Crowd Record Ref 3 1 November (DH 1) Giants 6–5 3-0 [1] 4 1 November (DH 2) Giants 2–8 3-1 [1] 5 7 November (DH 1) Storm 3–5 3-2 [2] 6 7 November (DH 2) Storm 3–2 4-2 [2] 7 8 November (DH 1) Storm 10–3 5-2 [2] 8 8 November (DH 2) Storm 4–1 6-2 [2] 9 15 November (DH 1) @ Storm 1–5 6-3 [3] 10 15 November (DH 2) @ Storm 5–9 6-4 [3] 11 16 November (DH 1) @ Storm 4–3 7-4 [3] 12 16 November (DH 2) @ Storm 11–7 8-4 [3] 13 21 November @ Monarchs 6–7 8-5 [4] 14 22 November (DH 1) @ Monarchs 6–1 9-5 [4] 15 22 November (DH 2) @ Monarchs 9–5 10-5 [4] 16 23 November @ Monarchs 0–2 10-6 [4]
December # Date Opponent Score Win Loss Save Crowd Record Ref 17 5 December (DH 1) @ Giants 7–2 11-6 [5] 18 5 December (DH 2) @ Giants 1–7 11-7 [5] 19 6 December (DH 1) @ Giants 1–5 11-8 [5] 20 6 December (DH 2) @ Giants 3–6 11-9 [5] 21 14 December (DH 1) Monarchs 10–9 12-9 [6] 22 14 December (DH 2) Monarchs 2–7 P. Dale 12-10 [6] 23 15 December (DH 1) Monarchs 0–3 E. Nelsen R. Spear 12-11 [6] 24 15 December (DH 2) Monarchs 4–6 12-12 [6] 25 19 December Giants 4–2 13-12 26 20 December (DH 1) Giants 4-0 14-12 27 20 December (DH 2) Giants 2–5 14-13 28 21 December Giants 2–6 14-14 29 26 December (DH 1) Reds 13–6 15-14 [7] 30 26 December (DH 2) Reds 1–0 16-14 [7] 31 27 December (DH 1) Reds 2–3 16-15 [7] 32 27 December (DH 2) Reds 3–8 16-16 [7]
January # Date Opponent Score Win Loss Save Crowd Record Ref 33 3 January @ Bandits 1–11 16-17 [8] 34 4 January @ Bandits 2–18 16-18 [8] 35 5 January @ Bandits 15–2 17-18 [8] 36 8 January @ Cougars 2–19 17-19 [9] 37 9 January @ Cougars 8–7 18-19 [9] 38 10 January @ Cougars 8-2 19-19 [9] 39 19 January (DH 1) Eagles 0–8 19-20 [10] 40 19 January (DH 2) Eagles 11–6 20-20 [10] 41 20 January (DH 1) Eagles 6–8 20-21 [10] 42 20 January (DH 2) Eagles 5–2 21-21 [10] 43 22 January @ Reds 2–0 22-21 [11] 44 23 January @ Reds 9–6 23-21 [11] 45 24 January @ Reds Wash Out 23-21 [11] 46 26 January @ Eagles 15–5 24-21 [12] 47 27 January @ Eagles 8–7 25-21 [12] 48 28 January @ Eagles 17-6 26-21 [12] 49 31 January Bandits 0–12 26-22 [13]
February # Date Opponent Score Win Loss Save Crowd Record Ref 50 1 February Bandits 12–6 27-22 [13] 51 2 February Bandits 5–1 28-22 [13] 52 5 February Cougars 6-2 29-22 [14] 53 6 February Cougars 3-10 29-23 [14] 54 7 February Cougars 7-4 30-23 [14]

Postseason

Finals Series at Melbourne Ballpark

In previous years the post season was played as home and away best of 3 games, with the two winner of each series meeting for a best of 5 series{fact}, in 1997-98 this was changed to a round robin play-off format with each team playing 3 games, 1 against each of the other 3 qualified teams, with the two highest places teams playing off in the Championship Series.[15]

All games for the 9th ABL title were played at the Melbourne Ballpark from February, 10–12 with the best of three championship series February 14–15.[15]

Full series results

Award Winners

ABL awards

Award	Name	Stat	ref
Reliever of the Year	Gabe Molina

All-stars

Position	Name	ref
Relief Pitcher	Gabe Molina

Heat Awards

Award	Name	Stat	ref

Roster

Perth Heat roster - 1997–98 ABL
Active roster
Pitchers Right-handed pitchers 17 Simon Eissens    Gabe Molina    Peter Moylan 10 Grant Moyle    Chad Paronto 22 Shane Tonkin    Brett Walters Left-handed pitchers    Fred Lindberg 15 Robert Wells		Catchers    Toby Barnett    Gavin Edmondson 42 John Moore 11 Michael Toohey Infielders 31 Clayton Barnes 20 Sean Jones 25 Ben Needle    Dean Robertson Outfielders    Mathew Davis    Johnny Isom  4 Gerard Prosper    Shane Smith
Current as of February 1998.[16]

References

1. "Round 1: PERTH HEAT vs ADELAIDE GIANTS". Perth Heat. Archived from the original on 6 May 1999. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
2. "Round 2: PERTH HEAT vs SYDNEY STORM". Perth Heat. Archived from the original on 6 May 1999. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
3. "Round 2: SYDNEY STORM vs PERTH HEAT". Perth Heat. Archived from the original on 6 May 1999. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
4. "Round 4: MELBOURNE MONARCHS vs PERTH HEAT". Perth Heat. Archived from the original on 8 October 1999. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
5. "Round 5: PERTH HEAT vs ADELAIDE GIANTS". Perth Heat. Archived from the original on 6 May 1999. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
6. "Round 6: PERTH HEAT vs MELBOURNE MONARCHS". Perth Heat. Archived from the original on 6 May 1999. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
7. "Reds Draw with Perth". Melbourne Reds. Archived from the original on 30 June 1998. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
8. "Round 9: BRISBANE BANDITS vs PERTH HEAT". Perth Heat. Archived from the original on 7 May 1999. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
9. "Round 10: GOLD COAST COUGARS vs PERTH HEAT". Perth Heat. Archived from the original on 6 May 1999. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
10. "Round 11: PERTH HEAT vs HUNTER EAGLES". Perth Heat. Archived from the original on 6 May 1999. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
11. "Round 12: MELBOURNE REDS vs PERTH HEAT". Perth Heat. Archived from the original on 6 May 1999. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
12. "Round 13: HUNTER EAGLES vs PERTH HEAT". Perth Heat. Archived from the original on 16 November 1999. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
13. "Round 14: PERTH HEAT vs BRISBANE BANDITS". Perth Heat. Archived from the original on 7 May 1999. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
14. "Round 15: PERTH HEAT vs GOLD COAST COUGARS". Perth Heat. Archived from the original on 7 May 1999. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
15. "FAI Cup Pitches new finals format and all star competition as baseball bats up for the summer of 1997/1998". Press Release. Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original on 30 June 1998. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
16. "Perth Heat Player Profiles". Perth Heat. Archived from the original on 6 May 1999. Retrieved 24 November 2012.