The Canberra Cavalry's "frustrating" stoush with the ACT government over a 10pm light and noise curfew added another chapter on Thursday night.
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The Cavalry's Australian Baseball League clash with the Adelaide Giants ended after only eight innings as a mountain of runs pushed the game past the curfew.
At the stroke of 10pm game lights go off in favour of less-bright training lights, with patrons expected to leave Narrabundah Ballpark.
The loss of an innings of action left a sour taste in the mouths of Cavalry fans who were treated to a record-setting batting spectacular as the league-leading Giants beat Canberra 27-9.
"It's not an ABL thing, this is an ACT government thing that is very frustrating given we've played baseball at that stadium - not just with the Cavalry - for 35 years," Cavalry coach Keith Ward told The Canberra Times.
"We've got a team in the national competition and all of a sudden the last two years we've got these restrictions.
"It's frustrating for the fans, the players, the owners and our sponsors."
The ACT government said in a statement that the residential area around the venue is subject to the Environment Protection Act 1997 and Environment Protection Regulation 2005 as it applies to noise.
"The ACT government continues to engage with the Canberra Cavalry about the arrangements at the Narrabundah Ballpark," a spokesperson said.
"These noise regulations apply in residential areas from 7am to 10pm Monday to Saturday and 8am to 10pm on Sundays and public holidays.
"Transport Canberra and City Services will continue to engage with the Canberra Cavalry and with the relevant environmental regulators to seek the most favourable outcomes possible."
The Cavalry moved their earliest mid-week evening starts to 6.30pm to assist in finishing on time, but the nature of baseball makes game duration hard to predict.
"The score on Thursday didn't reflect it, but you never know what can happen in that last inning and not being able to play it really changes the whole dynamic of the game," Cavalry general manager Ciaran O'Rourke said.
"It's just disappointing. Thursday night was such an exciting game, and then you get to the middle of the seventh inning and over the loudspeaker they tell everybody that it's going to be eight innings because of the curfew, and you can see the deflation in the crowd.
"You still get people confused about what's going on, asking 'Oh why is that?' They're wondering why and we have to explain it's a residential area and that our hands are tied."
O'Rourke said the club persistently keep the dialogue going with the ACT government and push for ways to soften the curfew.
The Cavalry managed to get the 9pm curfew from the ACT Sportsgrounds Charter moved to 10pm because they play in "elite competition", but that's as far as the issue has budged.
"We're always hopeful that they won't enforce it and at the start of the season we always make sure that we ask the question," O'Rourke said.
"We see if there's any way that we can move it, change it, alter it slightly, or put in some different ground rules about how often it's used."
Despite the heavy defeat against Adelaide which set a Giants franchise record for runs in a game, Canberra remain upbeat about their prospects for the remainder of the ABL season.
Ward said the team were "embarrassed and upset" with the Giants result, but they are determined to keep swinging.
"There's still plenty of time left in the season," he said.
"If we can figure it out and string some wins together, we're only we're only four games out of the playoff mix coming into this weekend."
"It was a tough loss, but there's plenty of positives to take out of that game," O'Rourke added.
"I don't think anybody else put nine runs on Adelaide so far this year, so the bats are swinging. Once we get both offense and defence working in harmony, I reckon we're in actually in a pretty good spot."
Like the first game of the series against Adelaide, the Cavalry again played the Giants at 6.30pm on Friday night, then they're scheduled to face off on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at Narrabundah Ballpark.