2018–19 Australian Baseball League season

The 2018–19 Australian Baseball League season was the ninth year Australian Baseball League (ABL) season, and was held from 15 November 2018 to 2 February 2019. It was the first season that it was played with eight teams, as the league expanded for the first time. The Brisbane Bandits won the championship for the fourth consecutive season.

2018–19 Australian Baseball League season
League	Australian Baseball League
Sport	Baseball
Duration	15 November 2018 – 3 February 2019
Number of games	160
Number of teams	8
Regular season
Season MVP	Timothy Kennelly Marcus Solbach
Championship Series
Champions	Brisbane Bandits (4th title)
Runners-up	Perth Heat

Teams

Main article: 2018–19 Australian Baseball League rosters

Bandits

Blue Sox

Cavalry

Aces

Heat

Giants

Teams in the ABL

Team	State / Territory	Stadium
Adelaide Bite	South Australia	Diamond Sports Stadium[1]
Auckland Tuatara	New Zealand	McLeod Park[2]
Brisbane Bandits	Queensland	Holloway Field[3]
Canberra Cavalry	Australian Capital Territory	Narrabundah Ballpark[4]
Geelong-Korea	Victoria	Geelong Baseball Park[5]
Melbourne Aces	Victoria	Melbourne Ballpark[6]
Perth Heat	Western Australia	Baseball Park[7]
Sydney Blue Sox	New South Wales	Blue Sox Stadium[8]

Regular season

With the addition of the Auckland Tuatara and Geelong-Korea as expansion teams, the competition was split into a 'Northeast' and 'Southwest' division. The league retained a 10-round, 40 game schedule, with teams playing division rivals eight times and inter division teams four times.

Key

	Secured Semi-finals berth
	Secured Wild Card berth

Northeast Division^[9]

Pos	Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Away
1	Brisbane Bandits	25	15	.625	1.0	12–8	13–7
2	Sydney Blue Sox	25	15	.625	–	14–6	11–
3	Canberra Cavalry	23	17	.575	2.0	13–7	10–10
4	Auckland Tuatara	14	26	.350	11.0	8–12	6–14

Southwest Division^[9]

Pos	Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Away
1	Perth Heat	24	16	.600	–	12–8	12–8
2	Melbourne Aces	23	17	.575	1.0	14–6	9–11
3	Adelaide Bite	19	21	.475	5.0	10–10	9–11
4	Geelong-Korea	7	33	.175	17.0	4–16	3–17

Statistical leaders

Batting leaders Stat Player[S 1] Team Total AVG Gift Ngoepe Sydney Blue Sox .437 HR T.J. Bennett Brisbane Bandits 13 RBI Tristan Gray Perth Heat 41 R Tristan Gray Tim Kennelly Perth Heat Perth Heat 38 H Dwayne Kemp Sydney Blue Sox 55 SB D.J. Burt Melbourne Aces 18

Pitching leaders Stat Player[S 2] Team Total W Tim Atherton Josh Guyer Steve Kent Brisbane Bandits Sydney Blue Sox Canberra Cavalry 7 L Jin-U Kim Geelong-Korea 8 ERA Shota Imanaga Canberra Cavalry 0.51 K Alex Maestri Sydney Blue Sox 78 IP Markus Solbach Adelaide Bite 65+1⁄3 SV Todd Van Steensel Sydney Blue Sox 10

1. Minimum 2.7 PAs per team game.^[10]
2. Minimum 0.8 IP per team game.^[11]

Postseason

A new playoff structure was announced 29 August 2018 with the addition of a single wild card game between the fourth and fifth seeds prior to two rounds of best-of-three finals series.

The top seed awarded to the team with the best regular season record, with the other division winner awarded the second seed. The third and fourth seed were awarded to the two divisional runner ups with the fifth seed being given to the team with the next best season record.^[12]

	Wild Card					Semi-finals series					Championship Series
						1	Brisbane Bandits	2
						5	Canberra Cavalry	1
	4	Melbourne Aces	0
	5	Canberra Cavalry	1
											1	Brisbane Bandits	2
											2	Perth Heat	0
						2	Perth Heat	2
						3	Sydney Blue Sox	1

Championship Series

31 January 2019 19:00 (UTC+08:00) Game 1	Perth Heat	2-3	Brisbane Bandits	Baseball Park, Perth Attendance: 2,870 Umpires: HP: Brett Robson. 1B: Paul Latta. 2B: Ryan Harder. 3B: Tom West. LF: Peter Bowie. RF: Lou Bonomi.
	LP: John Anderson (0-1)	Boxscore	WP: Ryan Bollinger (1-0) Sv: Ryan Searle (1)

02 February 2019 18:00 (UTC+10:00) Game 2	Brisbane Bandits	9-4	Perth Heat	Holloway Field, Brisbane Attendance: 2,304 Umpires: HP: Paul Latta. 1B: Ryan Harder. 2B: Tom West. 3B: Brett Robson. LF: James Shields. RF: Gavin Carson.
	WP: Tim Atherton (1-0)	Boxscore	LP: Connor Lourey (0-1)
	HR: T.J Bennett (1), Wade Dutton (1), Andrew Campbell (1)		HR: Pete Kozma (1), Robbie Glendenning 2 (2), Chris Clare (1)