(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
  Van Mil & Nooij in Play-Offs Australian Baseball League
Nederlands
   ADELAIDE, South Australia / CANBERRA, Australian Capital Territory / PERTH, Western Australia (Australia) -
Dutch players Loek van Mil and Bas Nooij have reached the Play-Offs of the Australian Baseball League.
The regular season closed on Sunday (January 29) and in the last series, the final decisions for the postseason were made.
Jet Couriers Melbourne Aces finished in first place and with that automatically qualified for the best-of-three Championship Series that will begin on Friday, February 10.
By finishing in first place, Melbourne also earned the right to organize the Series.
SA Power Networks Adelaide Bite, the team of pitcher Loek van Mil and catcher Bas Nooij finished in second place.
The team is followed in the ranking by reigning champion WellDog Brisbane Bandits, who secured third place on the final day of the season to reach the Play-Offs.
With this, Adelaide and Brisbane will face each other in the best-of-three Preliminary Final, which opens next Friday, February 3.
At Perth, Melbourne closed the season with two victories against Alcohol. Think Again. Perth Heat to claim first place.
Perth won the opener of the 4-game series last Thursday (January 26) with a 2-1 score, then Melbourne won the next games, 7-1 and 2-1, to secure the top-position.
Perth closed the season on Sunday (January 29) with an 8-2 win, but the team finished in sixth and last place with a 14-26 record.
Melbourne closed the season with a 26-14 record.
Melbourne is led by Jon Deeble, who also is the Manager of the Australian National Team.
Playing for the team are former Major League-pitchers Jeremy Guthrie and Mark Hamburger.
Guthrie joined the team in December and appeared in only three games.
He was 1-1 with a 3.38 ERA and gave up 21 basehits in 16 innings, while striking out nine batters.
Hamburger was 5-1 with an 1.90 ERA.
He was the lone 5-game winner in the league and struckout 86 batters in 75 2/3 inning in which he walked only 14.
Also pitching for the team is Dushan Ruzic, who pitched in the Dutch big league some years ago for Neptunus.
He was 4-2 with a 2.96 ERA and struckout 29 batters in 45 2/3 inning, while giving ip 46 basehits.
Brisbane closed the regular season at Canberra Elite Cavalry.
In the Australian capital, Brisbane won the opener of the 4-game series 8-5, then Canberra won the second game 4-1.
On Saturday, Brisbane won the next game in eleven innings with a 5-4 score.
That meant that the final game of the series (and the season) would be decisive for the reigning champion.
Brisbane won 3-1 and with that, finished in third place and qualified for the Preliminary Final.
Brisbane closed with a 21-18 record, Canberra finished in fourth place with a 20-20 record.
Justin Erasmus, who last year made his debut in the Dutch big league when he pitched for De Glaskoning Twins, is one of the pitchers of Brisbane.
Erasmus, who left Twins halfway the season to join Munich-Haar Disciples in Germany, was 3-1 with a 4.89 ERA and struckout 36 batters in 42 1/3 inning.
Also playing for the team are former Major League-players Donald Lutz and Trent Oeltjen.
Lutz batted .323 in 19 games with four homeruns, while Oeltjen played in 14 games, hitting .167 and also hit four homeruns.
Adelaide needed two victories in the final series of the season against CompassMarkets.com Sydney Blue Sox.
Playing at home, Adelaide lost the opener of the 4-game series 5-4, but then won the next three games.
Adelaide won 5-2, 15-3 and 4-3 to reach the Play-Offs for the third consecutive year.
With that, Adelaide closed the season in second place with a 23-17 record.
Sydney ended up in fifth place with a 15-24 record.
Loek van Mil appeared in 18 games on the mound for Adelaide, all in relief.
The righthander was 0-2 with an 0.40 ERA.
In 22 1/3 inning, Van Mil struckout 25 batters, walked only seven, but also gave up 20 basehits.
Bas Nooij made his ABL-debut in November, but was assigned to the minors in December.
He re-joined Adelaide in the first week of January.
In 13 games, Nooij batted .281 (9-for-32), scored three runs and batted in one.
In the first game last Thursday, Adelaide led 3-1 after two innings against Sydney, which came alongside in the third, then took a 5-3 lead in the fifth.
Adelaide came back to 5-4, but ended up short.
In the top of the ninth, Loek van Mil pitched for Adelaide.
With one out, he got the bases loaded via a walk, single and hit batter, but thereafter, he closed the at bat with two strikeouts.
Vaughan Harris, who pitched in the Dutch big league for Kinheim, took over the pitching for Sydney in the fifth inning and was the winning pitcher.
Todd Van Steensel, another former Kinheim-pitcher, pitched the ninth inning and earned a save.
In the second game, on Friday, Adelaide rallied for four runs in the second inning off of Sydney-starter Craig Anderson, who threw seven innings.
Anderson, who pitched in the Dutch big league for Neptunus, gave up seven basehits.
On Saturday, in Game 3, Adelaide trailed 3-1 after two innings, then scored in the third and fourth inning to come alongside.
Adelaide then rallied for five runs in the fifth and added seven in the sixth at bat to increase the lead to 15-3.
In this game, Bas Nooij entered the game in the bottom of the seventh as pinch-hitter and struckout, then stayed in the game as catcher.
Loek van Mil pitched the ninth inning.
He gave up a lead-off single, but then struckout the next three batters.
With this win, Adelaide secured itself of a spot in the Play-Offs.
In the final game of the season, Adelaide won 4-3 on Sunday.
Nooij played the entire game as catcher and was 2-for-4, while scoring once.
He also struckout twice.
With Adelaide trailing 1-0 and one out in the bottom of the second inning, Nooij singled.
Hereafter, Nooij advanced to second base when a throwing error followed on a force play-grounder by Karl Hoschke.
Nooij and Hoschke scored when next batter Connar O'Gorman homered.
Adelaide scored its fourth run in the fifth, then Sydney got two back in the seventh.
Adelaide opens the ABL Preliminary Final next Friday at home.
The teams then travels to Brisbane, where the next game will be played on Saturday.
When a third game is needed, that will be played on Sunday, also in Brisbane.
The winner of this series meets Melbourne in the Final, that will begin a week later.
(January 30)
Related Article:
 Loek van Mil, Bas Nooij enter final month Australia BB League. (January 2)
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