(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen & Robert Bos)
 Loek van Mil in Australian Play-Offs
Nederlands
  ADELAIDE, South Australia / BRISBANE, Queensland (Australia) -
Dutch professional pitcher Loek van Mil is currently active in the professional Australian Baseball League, which has arrived at its deciding stage.
On Friday (January 29), Van Mil and his team Adelaide Bite will open the best-of-three ABL Preliminary Final against Canberra Cavalry.
The winner of this Play-Off will meet Brisbane Bandits in the Championship Final.
Last Sunday, Adelaide closed the regular season with a 2-1 win against Canberra.
Adelaide took an 1-0 lead in the first inning, then Canberra came alongside in the fifth.
In the bottom of the seventh, Adelaide re-took the lead.
Lead-off hitter Ben Lodge was hit by a pitch and next batter Mason Pickard walked.
After a pitching change and with one out, Lodge scored on a throwing error that followed trying to complete a double play on a force out-grounder by Davis Page.
With the lead at 2-1, Loek van Mil pitched the top of the ninth for Adelaide.
The tall righthander began with two strikeouts, then walked a batter.
An error would then result in runners on first and second base, but Van Mil closed with another strikeout to earn his fifth save of the season.
When Van Mil entered the game in the ninth, he took over the pitching from Tom Brice, who had threw the eighth inning in his lone pitching appearance of the season.
A few years ago, Brice briefly played in the Netherlands big league as an outfielder for Neptunus.
Brice batted .273 this season for Adelaide as an outfielder.
...Loek van Mil pitching for the Netherlands Kingdom Team...
...during the 2013 World Baseball Classic...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Brice is not the only Australian, who has played in the Dutch Major League in the past.
Sydney Blue Sox, which finished the season in fourth place, has three on its roster, all pitchers, being Craig Anderson (ex-Neptunus), Vaughan Harris (ex-Kinheim) and Todd Van Steensel (ex-Kinheim).
The latter also earned his fifth save of the season last Sunday when he pitched the ninth inning in a 10-8 win for Sydney against Melbourne Aces.
Harris was 1-0, pitching in nine games as a reliever, while Anderson was 5-4, starting 12 games.
The 31-year old Loek van Mil pitched in 13 games for Adelaide this season.
Besides earning five saves, he finished with a 3-2 record.
In 15 1/3 innings, Van Mil struckout 19 batters, walked six and gave up 15 hits and six runs.
He closed with a 2.93 ERA.
Last year, Van Mil returned in the Dutch big league, pitching for Curaçao Neptunus after having appeared in only seven games for Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in the Japanese Major League in 2014.
That Japanese season followed after a professional career in the USA, where he played in 2006-2013.
In September of last year, Van Mil returned to professional baseball in the States after signing a contract with the Minnesota Twins.
Van Mil pitched in three games for Rochester Red Wings (Triple-A) towards the end of the regular season.
He then returned to the Netherlands and played in the postseason again for Neptunus, which won the Dutch Championship-title.
Early December last year, the 7'2 feet tall righthander (2,16 m) joined the team of Adelaide.
By pitching in Australia in these months, Van Mil keeps in shape and plays in good games to prepare for the upcoming Minor League Spring Training next month.
Brisbane Bandits closed the regular season of the Australian Baseball League last Sunday with a 6-1 victory to complete a 4-game sweep against reigning champion Perth Heat, which finished in fifth place and thus was dethroned.
The win was the 36th of the season for Brisbane, which finished in first place and therefore automatically qualified for the Championship Final.
By finishing in first place, the Bandits also earned home advantage and will be the host of the best-of-three Final next month.
It marks the first time that the Bandits will play in the postseason of the Australian Baseball League, which is in its sixth year of existence.
The ABL is jointly owned by Major League Baseball (75%) and the Australian Baseball Federation (25%).
Perth won the title last season for the second consecutive time and fourth time overall.
The only other team to win an ABL-title is Canberra Cavalry, which was the champion of the 2012-2013 season.
...Justin Erasmus pitching for Twins...
(© Photo: Robert Bos) |
At AFA Stadium at Holloway Field, Justin Erasmus was the starting pitcher for the Bandits and threw five scoreless innings in which he gave up only four basehits.
Erasmus struckout four batters to earn his fourth win of the season.
Last year, the righthander was the ace pitcher for Twins in the second highest league ('Overgangsklasse') in the Netherlands.
With Twins, Erasmus finished in first place, then won the Promotion/Relegation Play-Off to promote to the Dutch big league.
Born in South Africa, Erasmus had pitched for the National Teams of both South Africa and Australia.
In 2009, he pitched for South Africa in the World Baseball Classic and in 2011, he pitched for Australia in the World Championship.
In its last game of the regular season, the Bandits rallied for four runs in the fifth inning.
The first run was scored on a squeeze bunt by Riley Unroe, then Donald Lutz followed with a 3-run homerun, his fifth homer of the season.
Lutz, who turns 27 next month, played in the Major League in 2013-2014 for Cincinnati Reds, appearing in 62 games.
Last year, he played in only 13 games for Louisville Bats, the Triple-A team of the Reds.
In May, it was announced that he had to undergo Tommy John-surgery and was out for the season.
He was released in June to make room on the 40-man roster.
In November last year, after recovering from surgery, Lutz signed with Brisbane and returned to Australia, where he already had played earlier for Canberra Canavlry in 2010.
Before that, he also had played six years for Windsor Royals, including three in the main squad of the club.
Lutz was born in the USA (American father, German mother), but was a baby when he moved with his family to German.
There, he started playing baseball in youth-teams, went on to play in the German National Team and signed a professional contract with the Reds in 2007 by scout (and former Netherlands Team Manager) Jim Stoeckel.
As he had a fine period in Australia, Lutz was re-signed by the Reds two weeks ago and was assigned to the Pensacola Blue Wahoos in Double-A.
With the National squad of Germany, Lutz participated in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in 2008, the World Championship in 2011 and the World Baseball Classic Qualifier in 2012.
Brisbane added a run in the seventh when Andrew Campbell homered.
The sixth run was scored in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by Canadian Maxx Tissenbaum.
Brisbane now has to wait until the completion of the Play-Off this weekend to see who they will face in the Final, that opens on February 5.
(January 28)
Related Articles:
 Loek van Mil makes comeback in professional baseball. (September 6, 2015)
Loek van Mil will pitch for Neptunus this season. (March 3, 2015)
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