(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
 Bas Nooij & Loek van Mil miss Australian Play-Off with Adelaide
Nederlands
 ADELAIDE, South Australia (Australia) -
Starting om Friday (February 2), the best-of-three Semi-Final Play-Offs will begin in the Australian Baseball League.
This season, Adelaide Bite is not one of the four teams who qualified for the postseason.
With that, the Australian season also has ended for Dutch catcher Bas Nooij and pitcher Loek van Mil, who played again for Adelaide.
Last weekend, Adelaide closed the regular season with a 3-1 series-win against Sydney Blue Sox, which therefore was elimimated for the final four last Friday.
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...Bas Nooij & Loek van Mil...
(© Both Photos: Henk Seppen) |
In its final game of the season, Adelaide won 8-1.
Highlight of the game was a grand slam homerun from 41-year old Taiwanese star-player Tai-shan Chang.
He hit the homerun in the eighth inning in what was his last at bat in the season and maybe the last at bat in his career.
Chang, who is nicknamed 'Tarzan', is the all-time homerun and basehit-leader in the Chinese Professionall Baseball League, the professional league in Taiwan.
Japanese pitcher Ryo Koura struckout 12 batters in 6 1/3 inning to become the winning pitcher.
16-year old Brodie Arriola was 3-for-4 with two doubles for Adelaide.
This season was one of the worst in the history of Adelaide, which finished in last place in the 6-team league.
Last season, Adelaide reached the Play-Off, but then was eliminated by Brisbane Bandits that won the best-of-three, 2-1.
In the folowing best-of-three Championship Series, Brisbane swept Melbourne Aces to capture its second consecutive title.
Brisbane Bandits, which finished in first place in the league, and Perth Heat earned the right to host the best-of-three Semi-Finals coming weekend.
Brisbane will play at home against Melbourne Aces, while Perth faces Canberra Cavalry.
The two winners will meet each other a week later in the best-of-three Championship Series.
(January 30)
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