ABL: Two Europeans advance to play offs

Today the last games of the regular season in the ABL were played. None of them was of any significance as the play off teams already clinched a spot.

The planned double header between the Blue Sox and the Aces was only played half. As the second game was cancelled.
In a game in which Melbourne hit twelve base hits and Sydney ten, the Blue Sox stayed at the right side of the score in a game that wasn’t even a slugfest but a festival of errors. Sydney committed four and Melbourne three. Only three of the eight runs that the Aces scored were earned. Of the ten runs that the Blue Sox scored, only seven were earned.

The Blue Sox had a 7-0 lead after two innings but the Aces crawled back by scoring runs in the third, fifth, sixth and seven innings, to take a 8-7 lead.

But the Aces’ Troy Marks (BS 2, L 0-2)  could not cling on to the lead as he gave up three runs (all earned) on four hits and a walk, to reach the final score: 10-8.

Aaron Sookee earned the win (W 2-2, 5.68 ERA) despite recording a blown save. Todd van Steensel earned his fifth save after pitching a perfect ninth in which he struck out one.

Best hitter for Sydney was Alex Howe who went 2 for 3 with two walks, two RBI and two run scored.

The Adelaide Bite faced the Canberra Cavalry in their final matchup before they meet again next week in the preliminary play offs.
In another low scoring game, the Bite took another lead in the first inning as Travis Demeritte hit a lead off homerun.

The Cavalry evened the score. Jeremy Barnes hit a lead off double and advanced to third on a 4-3 ground out, hit by Cord Sandberg. Barnes touched home plate thanks to a sac fly hit by River Stevens.

The Bite would score in the seventh to reach the final score of 2-1.  With runners on first and second Davis Page hit into a 3-6 force out, but in an attempt to make a double play shortstop Jason Leblebijian made a throwing error that allowed Ben Lodge to score from second base.

Loek van Mil entered the ninth inning and faced four batters. He walked one and struck out three for his fifth save of the season.

Takuro Ito earned the win (W 2-0, 2.51 ERA) after 1.1 innings.

Best hitter for the Bite was Chris Adamson, who went 2 for 4.

The Brisbane Bandits won today’s game as well to sweep the Heat 4-0.
For four innings both teams kept each other in check, but in the fifth, the Bandits scored four. Three of those runs were driven in on a homerun hit by Donald Lutz.
In the seventh and the eighth, the Bandits scored a run each.

All the Heat could do was scoring a run in the top of the eighth as Tad Gold scored from second base on a fly ball single to right field, hit by Derek Petersen.

Justin Erasmus earned the win. In five innings he gave up four hits and a walk and fanned four. The best hitter for the Bandits was Donald Lutz, who went 2 for 3 with a homerun, three runs batted in and a run scored.

With the regular season over, what can we say about the Europeans that participated in the ABL?

Jan Stöcklin showed flashes of brilliance but his ERA of 4.89 was rather high. His opponents hit .261 with him on the mound. His WHIP was also quite high with 1.72. With the Sydney Blue Sox eliminated, Jan can now focus on the 2016 Bundesliga season with his club, the Mainz Athletics.

Donald Lutz, played games in which he was on fire at the plate, but he also struggled at the plate. This resulted in a batting average of .273; not bad, but also not something to write home about. But Lutz proved himself to be a slugger as he posted a 5.24 slugging percentage with five homeruns and eleven doubles. His OPS was .872. after all Lutz can look back at a decent season.

 
Loek van Mil joined the Bite only in December as the season was about a month old. In thirteen appearances Loek won three games and lost two. He converted five of seven save opportunities and posted an ERA of 2.93.

Those were pretty good numbers. But a WHIP of 1.37 and an opponent batting average of .246 were a bit disappointing. But Loek can also give himself a pat on the back for a decent season.

Donald Lutz will play in the championship series for sure. If Loek van Mil will face him depends on next week’s series vs the Cavalry.