Adelaide Giants eye home semi-final after sealing Australian Baseball League playoff berth
Adelaide Giants manager Chris Adamson says his team will be relentless in its pursuit of top spot and a home semi-final, after securing an Australian Baseball League playoff berth for the first time since 2017.
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They have already secured a return to the Australian Baseball League playoffs for the first time since 2017.
But Adelaide Giants will be relentless in their pursuit of a home semi-final and a shot at the club’s maiden championship, according to manager Chris Adamson.
The SA outfit went down 1-2 to Melbourne Aces at Melbourne Ballpark on Sunday to lose their penultimate four-match series of the regular season 1-3.
But the Giants remained top of the southwest conference with a 22-14 record and were guaranteed post-season action, thanks to their win over the Victorian side the previous night.
Adamson said his charges were determined to maintain their grip at the summit, and hang on to playoff hosting rights, as Perth Heat (21-15) and Melbourne (21-15) closed in.
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“We want to finish on top, that’s our goal,” Adamson said.
“We want to have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, because our guys love playing at West Beach.
“You sleep in your own bed and we’ve got that emotional connection with the place, so it’s good to roll out there.
“To know that we’re playing in the post-season is obviously positive, but we understand there’s still a bit of work to do.
“We need to keep winning to make sure we’re in the best possible position come the post-season.
“But we’re definitely enjoying the ride that we’re on thus far.”
A two-run homer to Jordan McArdle and three hits to catcher Mitch Edwards inspired Adelaide to a come-from-behind 8-6 triumph over the Aces on Saturday.
But with their top-five berth in the bag, the Giants found the going tough offensively in game four, having dropped the first two contests of the series 5-2 and 7-5.
Starting pitcher Tyler Beardsley shone with six strikeouts in as many innings, while Mikey Reynolds’ hit allowed Curtis Mead to score from second base in the third.
But the Aces, who had just four hits for the day, levelled in the fourth and hit the front in the seventh.
It set up a thrilling climax to the minor round, as the Giants hosted bottom-ranked Geelong-Korea (11-25) from Thursday and Melbourne travelled to face Perth.
The team with the best record across both conferences, currently Adelaide, will host the championship series should it progress that far.
“It was a pretty well-played game (four against the Aces) and both pitchers did a really good job,” third-year mentor Adamson said.
“We had a couple of opportunities and didn’t necessarily capitalise, and against a good team that’s all it takes.
“You’ve got to play good every day and we didn’t necessarily do that for the whole weekend, so we’ll definitely learn from it and move on.
“Come playoffs in any sport, anything can happen.
“We’ll just try and win every single pitch and hopefully we do something cool at the end.”