(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
  Adelaide forces 3rd game; Good outing Van Mil
Nederlands
 NEWMARKET, Brisbane, Queensland (Australia) -
SA Power Networks Adelaide Bite forced a third and deciding game in the best-of-three Australian Baseball League Preliminary Final by winning 8-4 in 12 innings against defending champion WellDog Brisbane Bandits on Saturday (February 4).
The third game will be played on Sunday.
On Friday, Brisbane came-from-behind in the opener to win 3-1.
The winner of this series moves to the best-of-three Championship Series next week against Jet Couriers Melbourne Aces.
At AFA Stadium at Holloway Field in Newmarket, which is a suburb of Brisbane, it was Adelaide that opened the score for the second day in a row.
But after leading 3-0 halfway the first inning, the team was held scoreless, then trailed 4-3 after six innings.
Adelaide came alongside in the seventh, got a fine relief-performance from Loek van Mil, rallied for four funs in the twelfth inning and won 8-4.
Adelaide Bite was off to a good start off of starting pitcher Kramer Champlin and scored three runs.
LeDarious Clark led off with a walk, then scored on a following double by Jordan Cowan.
With one out, Marcus Green, Jr. homered to give Adelaide a quick 3-0 lead.
Brisbane also appeared to have a productive start off of Jack O'Loughlin.
Aaron Whitefield led off with a walk, then Trent Oeltjen singled and Mitch Nilsson followed with a runscoring single to make it 3-1 score.
Hereafter, O'Loughlin struckout the next two batters and a force out then ended the at bat.
However, the lead of Adelaide was shortlived, as Brisbane tied the score in the bottom of the second inning.
With two outs, Wade Dutton and Aaron Whitefield hit back-to-back homeruns to make it a 3-3 score.
From the second inning, Adelaide was held scoreless through the sixth.
In the third and fourth inning, two runners were caught stealing.
In the fifth, Adelaide left runners behind on first and second base, then was retired in order in the sixth.
In the meantime, Brisbane took a 4-3 lead in the fifth at bat.
Off of new pitcher Greg Mosel, Aaron Whitefield reached on a throwing error from third baseman Stefan Welch.
He then was awarded second base on interference from first baseman Jordan McArdle.
With one out, Whitefield scored on a grounder by Mitch Nilsson.
In the bottom of the sixth, Brisbane got a baserunner with two outs.
Korean reliever Hei Chun Lee then was brought in as new pitcher and got a grounder to end the inning.
In the seventh, the Korean lefthander was replaced by Loek van Mil, who did a great job for Adelaide.
Trailing 4-3, Adelaide came alongside in the top of the seventh.
With one out, Josh Altmann singled, moved on a grounder and scored the tying run on a single by LeDarious Clark to make it a 4-4 score.
...Loek van Mil pitched four scoreless innings for Adelaide...
...On the photo, he pitches for the Netherlands Team...
...during the 2016 European Championship...
...in Hoofddorp (Netherlands)...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
As mentioned, Loek van Mil took over the pitching for Adelaide in the bottom of the seventh and he did very well.
The Dutch righthander saw Brisbane get into scoring position twice, but threw four scoreless innings.
With one out in the seventh, Van Mil gave up a double to Aaron Whitefield, but he was left behind.
He then retired the side in the eighth and ninth inning.
With the score at 4-4, the game went into extra innings.
Adelaide then got a chance to decide the game in the top of the tenth, but failed to do so.
New pitcher Ryan Searle gave up singles to Jordan Cowan and Mitch Dening, which led to runners at the corners.
Next batter Marcus Greene, Jr. grounded to third.
That led to a force out on second base, but kept Cowan on third base.
The bases then got loaded when Stefan Welch walked.
A force out at the plate followed on a grounder by Nathan Van Der Linden and a line out to leftfield ended the at bat, meaning three runners were left behind.
In the bottom of the tenth, Van Mil gave up two-out singles to Mitch Nilsson and David Rodriguez, but a force out ended the inning.
Van Mil was then relieved by Zach Cooper in the eleventh.
After both teams were retired in order in the eleventh inning, Adelaide struck with four runs in the top of the twelfth.
Jordan Cowan led off with a single and scored when Mitch Dening followed with a homerun.
Hereafter, Marcus Greene, Jr. and Stefan Welch both singled, then the bases got loaded when Jordan McArdle walked with one out.
A run was then added on a following single by Josh Altmann, which also led to a pitching change.
Adelaide then lifted the lead to 8-4 on a sacrifice fly by A.C. Carter.
In the bottom of the 12th inning, Zach Cooper walked Trent Oeltjen with two outs, but a line out into rightfield then ended the game.
In today's game, Adelaide collected 15 basehits, including four by Jordan Cowan and three each by Marcus Greene, Jr. and Josh Altmann.
During last season in Australia, Cowan suffered a severe injury dislocating his shoulder and a labrum tear.
Hereafter, the 21-year old American short stop was unable to play for six months, but made his comeback in Single-A with the Seattle Mariners last year, his fourth professional season.
The Mariners-prospect also returned to Australia and played in all 39 games for Adelaide during the regular season.
The lefthanded hitter batted .291 with 43 basehits, scored 31 runs and batted in 19.
(February 4)
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