Only two games were scheduled today. But in those two games, there was plenty of success for the teams with Dutch players on their roster. The Brisbane Bandits won a close one vs the Adelaide Bite (5-3) and the Sydney Blue Sox won vs the debuting Geelong-Korea team (8-1).
The Bandits took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on back-to-back home runs by Andrew Campbell and T.J. Bennett.
Two innings later the Adelaide Bite cut Brisbane’s lead in half on a leadoff home run by Mitchell Edwards. But in the next inning, Brisbane extended its lead with two runs, a lead that Adelaide would not overcome.
Both teams scored a run in the sixth inning and Adelaide pushed for one more run in the ninth. That was the moment where Dutch closer Loek van Mil entered the game against his former team. Van Mil gave up one run on two hits and struck out two for the save. Ken Frosch, who relieved Sam Holland in the fifth, pitched a perfect fifth inning for the win.
In the other game, the Sydney Blue Sox vs the Geelong-Korea team, Sydney stayed at the right side of the score.
With Italian born Alessandro Maestri on the mound for Sydney, Geelong-Korea took an early lead in the second inning when Yong-Wook Lee doubled home Seung-Han Kim for the 1-0 lead. For three innings Sydney was kept in check by starting pitcher Jin-Yong Jang. But in the third, the Blue Sox almost tied the game. Almost. Michael Campbell hit a leadoff double to right field, followed by Dwayne Kemp’s debut single in the ABL. Normally one is able to score from second base on a single but not this time. Right fielder Kwang-Min Kwon threw the ball right on the money so catcher Tae-Joon Lim could tag out Campbell for the first out of the inning.
Eventually, in the fourth inning, the Blue Sox’ offence exploded as they scored four runs followed by two more runs in the fifth inning and two more in the sixth.
Alessandro Maestri pitched long enough to earn the win. In five innings he gave up a run on four hits and two walks as his number of Ks reached double digits (11).
Dwayne Kemp did rather well at bat as he went 2 for 5. He wasn’t the best batter though. That honour went to Hao Wei Shen, the Taiwanese center fielder of the Blue Sox, who went 2 for 4.
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