(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
 Brisbane captures second consecutive Australian baseball-title
Nederlands
 MELBOURNE, Victoria (Australia) -
WellDog Brisbane Bandits again is the champion of the professional Australian Baseball League.
After winning 6-2 in the opener of the best-of-three Championship Series on Friday, the defending champion won 3-1 on Saturday (February 11) against Jet Couriers Melbourne Aces to complete a sweep and capture its second consecutive championship-title.
With the championship, Brisbane also won the Claxton Shield, the trophy that is handed out annually to the national champion.
A week ago, Brisbane became the second finalist when it won the best-of-three Preliminary Final against SA Power Networks Adelaide Bite, 2-1.
Melbourne had reached the final automatically by finishing in first place in the regular season, which also gave them the right to host the Championship Final.
Three weeks ago, Brisbane was in fourth place, but in the final round of the season, the team moved into third place to qualify for the Preliminary Final.
In the second game, Brisbane got a great outing from starting pitcher Kramer Champlin.
The 26-year old American threw seven strong innings in which he gave up only one basehit.
The righthander struckout four batters.
Champlin played in minor league-teams in the organization of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2011-2014, but was released after the 2014 season.
Josh Tols was the starter for home-playing Melbourne.
The 27-year old lefthander, who is from Adelaide, also did fine.
He struckout six batters and gave up five hits in five innings.
Tols left then mound in the sixth with the score tied at 1-1.
Tols is in his first season with Melbourne after having played for Adelaide Bite in the previous three.
Brisbane left runners on first and second base in the first inning, but then opened the score in the second at bat.
With one out, Thomas Milone (fielder's choice) is the runner on first base and he advances on a wild pitch and a grounder.
Moments later, he scores the first run on a single by Wade Dutton.
In the third, Brisbane tries to double its lead, but is unsuccessful.
Trent Oeltjen leads off with a walk, then tries to score all the way from first base on a 2-out double by Logan Wade to leftfield.
Oeltjen is eliminated at the plate on the throw from leftfield via third base to catcher Allan de San Miguel to end the inning.
Wade was named the Championship Series Most Valuable Player.
Brisbane-starter Kramer Champlin retires the first nine batters he faces.
But in the bottom of the fourth inning, he gives up a lead-off homerun to Cody Jones that ties the score.
In the fifth, Brisbane gets another scoring opportunity, but this time leaves runners on first and third base.
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...Brad Harman (left) and James Beresford playing for the Australian...
...National Team during the 2013 World Baseball Classic...
(© Photos: Henk Seppen) |
The defending champion then strikes with two runs in the top of the sixth.
Jon Kennedy takes over the Melbourne-pitching, but with one out, he walks Kevin Padlo and gives up a single to Thomas Milone, which leads to runners at the corners.
A passed ball follows and that brings in Padlo to give Brisbane a 2-1 lead.
Kennedy then walks David Sutherland and is replaced by Sam Street.
He gets a force play-grounder from Wade Dutton, but no outs are made and with that, the bases are loaded.
A following grounder by Aaron Whitefield then does result in an out, but also bring in Milone to make it a 3-1 score.
Another pitching change follows.
Daniel McGrath takes over and strikes out Trent Oeltjen, but Brisbane has taken a decisive lead.
In the next three innings, Brisbane gets only one more runner in scoring position, but the small 3-1 lead is enough.
The pitching of Brisbane dominated.
After giving up the homerun in the fourth inning, starter Kramer Champlin again retires nine batters in a row.
With that, Cody Jones, who hit the homerun, is the lone Melbourne-player to reach base off of Champlin.
In the bottom of the eighth, trailing 3-1, Melbourne gets a chance to do something back.
Lefthander Ryan Rowland-Smith takes over for Champlin, but he gives up a lead-off bunt-single to lefthanded hitting Mike Walker.
Rowland-Smith is relieved by Ryan Searle, who had a strong closing appearance in Game One.
This time, he gets the bases loaded.
With Walker on first base and one out, Liam Bedford and pinch-hitter Ryan Dale both hit a single to put runners on all bases.
Searle recovers and strikes out the next two batters to end the inning!
It was the last scoring opportunity for Melbourne, as Searle retires the side in the ninth to earn a save.
With James Beresford (2nd base) and Brad Harman (short stop), Melbourne had two (internationally) experienced players in its line-up.
However, both went 0-for-4 in the game and Melbourne was limited to only four basehits.
This completed the seventh season of the Australian Baseball League, which had its inaugural season in 2010-2011.
Since then, Perth Heat won the title four times, while Canbarra Cavalry won the championship in 2013.
Baseball is being played in Australia since the 1850s.
The Claxton Shield is being handed out to the national champion since 1934.
Since then, the champion came from a competition between state-based teams.
New competitions were introduced later.
From 1989-1990 through 1998-1999, there was the original Australian Baseball League, which was a professional competition.
This was followed by the (professional) International Baseball League of Australia, which existed from 1999 to 2002 and was created by former Major Leaguer David Nilsson, the current Manager of Brisbane Bandits.
Since 2002, there was no professional baseball in Australia and the format returned to the original competition with state-based teams.
The new Australian Baseball League was created in 2009 and started playing in 2010.
While city-based teams have won the championship-title in the three professional leagues, the state is still engraved on the trophy.
With that, the 2017 Claxton Shield championship's engravement reads 'Queensland'.
(February 11)
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