2024–25 Australian Baseball League season
Sports tournament
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2024–25 Australian Baseball League season was the fourteenth season of the Australian Baseball League (ABL), and began on 15 November 2024.[1] The six-team competition is the premier English speaking winter baseball league with players affiliated with Major League Baseball, Nippon Professional Baseball, KBO League, Chinese Professional Baseball League, and various independent baseball leagues.[2]
| 2024–25 Australian Baseball League season | |
|---|---|
| League | Australian Baseball League |
| Sport | Baseball |
| Duration | 15 November 2024 – 1 February 2025 |
| Teams | 6 |
| Regular season | |
| Season MVP | Alexander Wells |
| Postseason | |
| Champions | Canberra Cavalry |
| Runners-up | Perth Heat |
| Finals MVP | Colten Davis |
The Canberra Cavalry won their second championship, beating the Perth Heat two games to nil in a best-of-three Championship Series. It is Canberra's first championship since the 2011–12 Australian Baseball League season.
Teams
Regular season
The regular season began on 15 November 2024 and is scheduled to end on 19 January 2025.[1] Each team will play 40 games (20 home and 20 away) across 10 rounds and will face every other team twice (once at home and once away) in four-game series.[1]
The round two matchup between Brisbane and Melbourne in Brisbane was reduced to three games due to rain and fourth game rescheduled to round seven between the teams in Melbourne. The round three matchup between Sydney and Melbourne in Sydney was reduced to three games due to rain and the fourth game rescheduled to round nine between the teams in Melbourne.
The regular season placings and playoff qualification came down to the final day of the season, with four teams able to lay claim to the final two spots. Perth secured their own fate by toppling Sydney, meanwhile Canberra knocked out Brisbane in their matchup, but required a loss from Melbourne against Adelaide to tie in the standings qualify on the subsequent head-to-head tiebreaker. Melbourne who only needed a win to secure the final playoff spot gave up six runs in the ninth inning to drop their final game 9–7, ending their season.[9]
Standings
| Secured postseason berth |
| Pos | Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sydney Blue Sox | 24 | 16 | .600 | — |
| 2 | Adelaide Giants | 23 | 17 | .575 | 1.0 |
| 3 | Perth Heat | 20 | 20 | .500 | 4.0 |
| 4 | Canberra Cavalry | 18 | 22 | .450 | 6.0[NB 1] |
| 5 | Melbourne Aces | 18 | 22 | .450 | 6.0 |
| 6 | Brisbane Bandits | 17 | 23 | .425 | 7.0 |
- Canberra held the head-to-head tiebreaker over Melbourne 5–3
Statistical leaders
|
|
Postseason
The postseason is scheduled to begin 24 January 2025, with four teams making the playoffs.[1] All postseason series will use a best-of-three format, with the first-placed Sydney Blue Sox hosting the fourth-placed Canberra Cavalry and the second-placed Adelaide Giants hosting the third-placed Perth Heat.[1] The winners of the semi-finals will compete for the Claxton Shield, beginning on 31 January 2025.[1]
Postseason bracket
| Semi-Final Series January 24–25 | Championship Series January 31–February 1 | |||||||||
| 1 | Sydney Blue Sox | 2 | 2 | |||||||
| 4 | Canberra Cavalry | 3 | 5 | |||||||
| 4 | Canberra Cavalry | 10 | 5 | |||||||
| 3 | Perth Heat | 8 | 0 | |||||||
| 2 | Adelaide Giants | 1 | 3 | |||||||
| 3 | Perth Heat | 2 | 5 | |||||||
Championship Series: Canberra Cavalry v Perth Heat
Canberra Cavalry and Perth Heat played a best-of-three final, the first time the Championship Series did not feature one of the top two seeds. All three games were hosted in Perth at Empire Ballpark due to logistical reasons, but Canberra remained the home team for game one with Perth to be the home team in games two and three.
Canberra and Perth faced each other in back-to-back finals in 2013 and 2014, winning a Claxton Shield title each.
Despite being the lower seed in both the semi-final and championship series, Canberra swept the series 2-0. Indy-ball pitcher Colten Davis of the American Association won Championship MVP after pitching 8+2⁄3 scoreless innings in game two.
| 31 January 2025 19:00 (UTC+08:00) Game 1 |
Canberra Cavalry | 10-8 | Perth Heat |  Empire Ballpark, Perth Attendance: 2,394 Umpires: HP: Ben Nash. 1B: Paul Latta. 2B: Tom West. 3B: Ryan Harder. |
| WP: Jack Mahoney (1-0) | Boxscore | LP: Dariel Fregio (0-1) | ||
| HR: George Callil (1) | HR: Tim Kennelly 2 (2), Jhon Diaz (2) |
| 01 February 2025 19:00 (UTC+08:00) Game 2 |
Perth Heat | 0-5 | Canberra Cavalry | Empire Ballpark, Perth Attendance: 3,056 Umpires: HP: Paul Latta. 1B: Tom West. 2B: Ryan Harder. 3B: Ben Nash. |
| LP: Jong-Hae Won (0-1) | Boxscore | WP: Colten Davis (2-0) | ||
| HR: Miles Simington (1) |