The Perth Heat’s 2018-19 Australian Baseball League schedule has been confirmed, with the 15xClaxton Shield champions taking on both the Auckland and Geelong-Korea expansion teams in the first two rounds.
After starting their season on the road for the last two years, the Heat will host Auckland at Perth Harley-Davidson Ballpark during Round One between November 15-18, before travelling to take on Geelong-Korea from November 22-25.
Baseball WA Chief Executive Lachlan Dale said he was looking forward to the challenge of hosting Auckland in Round One.
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READ NOW“It’s exciting to be the first team to host one of the expansion clubs,” he said.
“Auckland are a bit of an unknown this year, and it should be a great start to the season.”
The ABL will take on a completely new look in 2018/19, with a U.S. style conference system to be adopted.
The Heat will play in the South-West Division alongside the Adelaide Bite, Geelong-Korea and Melbourne Aces, contesting eight home and away fixtures against their conference rivals while playing just a single four-game series against the Brisbane Bandits, Sydney Blue Sox, Auckland and Canberra Cavalry who line up in the North-East Division.
“It’ll be really interesting to see how the conferences play out,” Dale said.
“Picking up wins against our South-West conference rivals will be crucial if we want to play finals.”
Despite the addition of both Auckland and Geelong-Korea, the league will remain a 40-game competition to be held over the course of 12 weeks.
Headlining Perth’s schedule is a difficult trip to take on three-time reigning champions Brisbane in Round Five, while they wrap up their campaign away to Canberra in a rematch of last season’s semi-final, which the Cavalry won 2-1.
The semi finals will then be held from January 24-27 before the Championship Series will be held between January 31-February 3.
An announcement regarding the league’s All-Star game is expected shortly.
Perth Heat 2018-19 Schedule
Round One: Heat v Auckland (November 15 – 18)
Round Two: Heat @ Geelong-Korea (November 22 – 25)
Round Three: Heat @ Adelaide Bite (November 29 – December 2)
Round Four: Heat v Melbourne Aces (December 6 – 9)
Round Five: Heat @ Brisbane Bandits (December 13 – 16)
Round Six: Heat v Sydney Blue Sox (December 20-23)
Round Seven: Heat v Adelaide Bite (December 27 – 30)
Round Eight: Heat @ Melbourne Aces (January 3 – 6)
Round Nine: Heat v Geelong-Korea (January 10 – 13)
Round Ten: Heat v Canberra Cavalry (January 17 – 20)
Semi-Final: (January 22 – 27)
Championship Series (January 31 – Febuary 3)
*All of the Heat’s home games will be played at the Perth Harley-Davidson Ballpark in Thornlie.