...Loek van Mil threw 2 1/3 inning...
...to earn a save in Play-Off opener...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
On a rainy and cloudy evening in Adelaide, Travis Demeritte homered twice to lead the home team to the win in the opening game of the best-of-three Play-Off.
Demeritte had a great outing for Adelaide.
The 21-year old American short stop was 3-for-3 (double, two homeruns), walked once, scored twice and had four runs batted in.
Since 2013, Demeritte plays in the organization of the Texas Rangers and played in Single-A last year.
Dutch pitcher Loek van Mil retired the side in the eighth and ninth inning to earn a save.
Initially, it was Canberra that opened the score with two runs in the top of the second inning off of starter Josh Tols.
With one out, Bryan Pounds doubled, then Ryan Miller followed with a homerun.
Adelaide immediately came alongside in the bottom of the second inning off of starter Brian Grening, thanks to three doubles.
Stefan Welch and Tom Brice led off with back-to-back doubles to bring in the first run.
Two flyouts followed, but then Brice scored the tying run when Travis Demeritte also doubled.
...Tom Brice playing for...
...Neptunus in 2011...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the bottom of the third, Adelaide again scored two runs with two outs.
Davis Page led off with a walk.
With two outs, Tom Brice singled to bring Page to third base, who then scored the go-ahead run on a following single by Angus Roeger.
Brice, who played in the Dutch Major League in 2011 for Neptunus, moved to third base on this last single, then the bases got loaded when next batter Marc Wilk walked.
Hereafter, Travis Demeritte also walked to bring in the next run.
In the top of the fifth, Canberra got a run back.
Boss Moanaroa led off with a walk, moved on a passed ball and a grounder, then scored on a single by David Harris.
Hereafter, River Stevens also singled.
He tried to advance to second base on the throw to third base, but was eliminated at second base.
Adelaide took some more distance in the bottom of the sixth inning when Travis Demeritte led off with a homerun to make it a 5-3 score.
Next batter Wilson Lee then singled, which led to a pitching change.
Colton Turner took over for Grening and was then supported with a double play.
In the top of the seventh, Canberra narrowed the deficit again to only one run.
With one out, Aaron Sayers was walked by Hei-Chun Lee, who had replaced starter Tols during the previous inning.
Lee followed with a strikeout, but enabled Sayers to advanced on a wild pitch and then gave up a runscoring single to River Stevens, which made it a 5-4 score.
It led to the departure of the 36-year old Korean, who was replaced by Loek van Mil.
He got a force play-grounder that ended the at bat.
Van Mil then retired the side in the top of the eighth and Adelaide an insurance run in the bottom half when Travis Demeritte connected for his second lead-off homerun in the game.
He homered off of reliever Aaron Thompson, who then struckout the next three batters, but Adelaide had made it a 6-4 score.
In the top of the ninth, Loek van Mil again retired the side to secure the win.
Two pop-ups to short were followed by a fly into centerfield, resulting in a sliding catch by centerfielder Kyle Petty.
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Loek van Mil earns save in Australian Play-Off Opener
ADELAIDE, South Australia (Australia) -
Dutch professional pitcher Loek van Mil threw the final 2 1/3 inning for Adelaide Bite on Friday (January 29) and earned a save in the opening game of the best-of-three Preliminary Final of the professional Australian Baseball League.
Adelaide won 6-4 vs. Canberra Cavalry.
Today's game was played at Norwood Oval (or Coopers Stadium), which is used mainly for Australian rules football, as it is the home of Norwood Football Club (The Redlegs).
But the site is also the home of Adelaide Bite and is also used for soccer, rugby and American football.
As there are no big dug-outs in the stadium (as is custom in baseball), the players are sitting outside on chairs outside a small dug-out in a specially created area on the playing field.
Also, a temporary fence is set up in the outfield.
Game Two will be played on Saturday in Australian capital Canberra, which also will host an eventual third game on Sunday.