The 2024-25 Australian Baseball League regular season has concluded, and the ABL Playoffs begin on January 24.
The Sydney Blue Sox are the top-seeded team out of the four ABL Playoff teams with a record of 24-16. The Adelaide Giants finished one game behind them in second place at 23-16. Third place went to the Perth Heat, with a record of 20-20, and were four games behind the Sydney Blue Sox. The final ABL Playoff team is the Canberra Cavalry with a record 18-22 and they won the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Melbourne Aces. The Brisbane Bandits finished in last place out of the six ABL teams with a record of 17-23.
The top two seeds will host a best-of-three semi-final series from January 24 to 26. The winners will advance to the best-of-three Championship Series, which will be played from January 30- to February 2. The lower-seeded team in the Championship Series will host game one, and the higher-seeded team will host game two and game three if necessary.
This will put the top-seeded Melbourne Aces against the fourth-seeded Canberra Cavalry. The other side of the bracket will feature the second-seeded Adelaide Giants against the Perth Heat.
ABL 2024-2025 Playoffs Schedule:
Friday, January 24- Game 1
Perth Heat vs. the Adelaide Giants at 3:30 a.m. EST at Diamond Sports Stadium in Adelaide
Canberra Cavalry vs. the Sydney Blue Sox at 3:30 a.m. EST at Blacktown International Sportspark.
Saturday, January 25- Game 2
Perth Heat vs. the Adelaide Giants at 3:30 a.m. EST
Canberra Cavalry vs. the Sydney Blue Sox at 3:30 a.m. EST
Sunday, January 26- Game 3 (If necessary)
Perth Heat vs the Adelaide Giants at 2:00 a.m. EST
Canberra Cavalry vs. the Sydney Blue Sox at 1:00 am EST
To watch the 2024-25 ABL Playoffs visit: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/baseball/id6448940670, https://plus.baseball.com.au/en-int/page
Hitting Regular Season Leaders:
Brisbane Bandits shortstop Breenon McNair, 22, leads the ABL with 11 home runs in 137 at-bats. Melbourne Aces first baseman Greg Bird, 32, leads the ABL with 27 RBI in 139 at-bats, one ahead of McNair, who has 26 RBI. Bird’s teammate, outfielder Aaron Whitefield, 28, leads the ABL with 49 hits. Alcalde Giants outfielder Jarred Carr, 25, led the regular season with a .387 batting average and an OPS of 1.118 in 75 at-bats. Sydney Blue Sox shortstop Jack MacKenzie, 25, led the ABL with 15 stolen bases.
Pitching Regular Season Leaders:
Canberra Cavalry left-handed pitcher Jake Mahoney, 25, led the ABL with 58.2 innings, Adelaide Giants pitcher left-handed pitcher Lachlan Wells, 27, leads with 66 strikeouts and the lowest ERA, and Sydney Blue Sox left-handed pitcher Alex Wells, 27, had the lowest 1.55 ERA among pitchers that threw 58 innings or more. Perth Heat right-handed reliever Tyler Beardsley, 30, led the ABL with 10 saves.
ABL Records:
Perth Heat outfielder Tim Kennelly, 38, set a record in the modern ABL with 500 hits on January 3 against Melbourne Aces right-handed starting pitcher Joey Steele with a single at home in Empire Ballpark. He is just the second player to reach 500 career hits or more in either edition of the ABL. Acladie Giants infielder Andrew Scott had 521 hits from 1989 to 1999, which was the origin of the ABL. The league reestablished itself in the 2010-2011 season. Kennelly currently has 503 regular season hits and trails Scott by 18 hits. Kennelly also has the most career regular-season RBI in the modern ABL with 250, which he achieved with a sacrifice fly on December 29 against the Adelaide Giants.
Kennelly’s career numbers are 63 home runs, 253 RBI, 69 stolen bases, and a slash line of .289/.366/.463 in 1,740 at-bats.
Adelaide Giants right-handed reliever Todd Van Strensel, 34, set the all-time saves record with 46 saves with a save against the Melbourne Aces in a 9-7 win at Melbourne Ballpark. He passed Brisbane Bandits reliever Ryan Searle’s 45 saves, which took place in the 2020-2021 season.
