A championship drought will be broken this weekend in the Australian Baseball League.
The Brisbane Bandits will host the Adelaide Bite in the ABLCS, with the Bandits looking to win the first Claxton Shield for Queensland since 2006, while the Bite are looking to end South Australia’s drought, a drought that goes back 36 years.
The Bandits earned the right to host the Championship Series after a stellar regular season, finishing with a record of 37 wins and 19 losses, a mark that saw them finish six games ahead of the Canberra Cavalry.
The Bite faced the Cavalry in a see-sawing Primary Final matchup last weekend, with Adelaide winning the first game of the series 6-4, before the series shifted to Canberra with the home side forcing a decide game three with a 3-2 victory. A rampant attack greeted Canberra in game three and Adelaide cruised to a 9-2 win on the back of a par of home runs to Travis Demeritte backed up by Kyle Petty’s solo shot.
For Brisbane it is not only their first shot at a title in the second incarnation of the Australian Baseball League, but also their first playoff appearance. On the contrary, the Bite are looking for a first success in the ABLCS at the third time after asking, suffering 2-1 series defeats to the Perth Heat in 2010-11 and 2014-15.
The pair are evenly matched in many statistical categories this season, with the Bandits scoring eight more runs in the regular season than the Bite. A worrying sign for the Bite is that when Brisbane score first, something they have achieved on 24 occasions this season, they’ve gone on to win 22 of those games and are undefeated at home.
While the Bandits have more home runs than the Bite (60 and 51 respectively), the Bite have two of the top five home run hitters in the league, in Petty and Demeritte who will be crucial to the chances of the visitors.
A .351 On Base Percentage for Brisbane gives them little advantage over the Bite, who clock in at a point lower with a .350 OBP throughout the regular season.
The biggest advantage at the plate for Adelaide is their ability to work walks. Through the 56 game regular season the Bite worked an average of 3.94 walks per outing, whereas the Bandits averaged substantially lower, walked just 3.39 times per game, a differential of 31 walks across the season.
On the mound, just as in the batter’s box, there isn’t a lot between the two sides.
The sides ranked first and second in the regular season in Earned Run Average, with the Bandits producing a league best ERA of 3.53 and Adelaide a respectable ERA of 4.32.
Adelaide hold the edge in hits allowed across the season, giving up just 8.17 hits per game, with Brisbane allowing 25 more hits across the season for an average of 8.62 per game.
Ryan Searle and Kody Kerski are the two most prolific closers in the league and their performances this weekend will have huge implications on the result of the series.
Searle set a new ABL saves record with 17, while amassing a 5-2 record and a 0.40 ERA.
Kerski was a crucial member of the Adelaide pitching staff with 11 saves across the season.
Disappointingly for Kerski he couldn’t translate his strong saves record to a comparable win-loss record, going 1-4 with an ERA of 2.49.
In the five previous Championship Series’ the winner of the first game has gone on to win on three occasions. Frustratingly for the Bite they have won both openers in the series where the team who struck first has lost. On both occasions they’ve been narrowly beaten in game two, before a comprehensive defeat in the decider, losing the two games by a combined score of 19-6.
All games will be shown live on ESPN Australia, with game one tonight, game two tomorrow and game three on Sunday if required.