(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
  Season ends for Van Mil & Nooij; Brisbane in Australian Final
Nederlands
 NEWMARKET, Brisbane, Queensland (Australia) -
Reigning champion WellDog Brisbane Bandits reached the Championship Series on a sunny Sunday-afternoon (February 5) by winning the third game of the best-of-three Australian Baseball League Preliminary Final against SA Power Networks Adelaide Bite.
Brisbane led only 4-1 after six innings, but then rallied for six runs in the seventh and added eight more in the eighth to register a big 18-2 victory.
With that, Brisbane won the Preliminary Final 2-1 and reached the Championship Series for the second consecutive year.
On Friday, Brisbane came-from-behind in the opener to win 3-1.
On Saturday, Adelaide won 8-4 in 12 innings.
Brisbane now will travel to Melbourne for the best-of-three Championship Series against Jet Couriers Melbourne Aces, which opens next Friday.
At AFA Stadium at Holloway Field in Brisbane-suburb Newmarket, Brisbane collected 23 basehits, including seven homeruns!
Adelaide was limited to only six basehits, but that also included two homeruns.
With the loss, the Australian season ended for Dutch pitcher Loek van Mil and catcher Bas Nooij.
Van Mil had a fine outing in the second game, pitching four scoreless innings.
Nooij got one pinch-hit at bat in the third game.
Adelaide was retired in order in three of the first four innings by Rick Teasley, who struckout nine batters and gave up only three hits in the seven innings he pitched.
Adelaide had a runner on third base in the second, but Teasley then closed with two strikeouts.
Adelaide-starter Steven Chambers gave up a lead-off single in the first inning, but then retired the next nine batters.
He then gave up the first run in the fourth inning when Trent Oeltjen led off with a homerun.
Adelaide came alongside in the top of the fifth when Stefan Welch also homered.
But Brisbane re-took the lead in the bottom of the fifth off of new pitcher Hei Chun Lee when Ryan Battaglia hit a 2-out homerun.
In the bottom of the sixth, Brisbane added two runs.
Reliever Matthew Williams first gave up a single to Mitch Nilsson and a double to David Rodriguez.
Hereafter, the two scored when Logan Wade and Kevin Padlo also singled to make it a 4-1 score.
...Stefan Welch homered for Adelaide...
...On the photo, he is hitting for...
...the Australian National Team...
...during the 2013 World Baseball Classic...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the seventh, Brisbane started to put to lead out of reach for Adelaide when it rallied for six runs with two outs.
New pitcher Greg Mosel got two quick outs, then gave up a single to David Rodriguez, followed by a homerun from Logan Wade.
Kevin Padlo and Thomas Milone followed with singles, which brought in new pitcher Nathan Van Der Linden.
He got the bases loaded when he walked David Sutherland.
Moments later, Ryan Battaglia connected for his second homerun, this time a grand slam!
And that lifted the lead to 10-1.
In the top of the eighth inning, Adelaide scored its second run off of new pitcher Samuel Holland when Jordan McArdle led off with a homerun.
With one out, Bas Nooij entered the game as pinch-hitter and reached on a throwing error.
He advanced on a single by LeDarious Clark, but a double play then ended the at bat.
In the bottom of the eighth, Brisbane rallied for eight runs.
Mitch Nilsson and David Rodriguez led off with back-to-back homeruns.
With one out, a run was scored on a ground-rule double by David Sutherland and with two outs, Trent Oeltjen added a 2-run single.
Hereafter, Mitch Nilsson got his second at bat in this inning and this time, he belted a 3-run homerun to increase the lead to 18-2.
Brisbane collected 23 basehits, including four by Mitch Nilsson, who also batted in four runs.
Ryan Battaglia batted in five runs.
All nine players in the starting line-up hit at least two basehits and scored at least one run.
Brisbane is managed by Dave Nilsson, who played in the Major League in 1992-1999.
In eight years, he played in 837 games, all for Milwaukee Brewers, most of them as a catcher.
In 2000, Nilsson played for the Australian National Team during the Olympic Games in Sydney (Australia).
In 1992, Dave Nilsson became the third Australian player to reach the Major League.
The first was Joe Quinn, who played in the Majors in 1884-1901.
Craig Shipley was the second Australian in the Major League when he made his debut in 1986.
Through the 2016 season, there now have been 33 Australians playing in the Major League.
(February 5)
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