Adelaide advances; Mexico near Series title

The Adelaide Bite rallied today from being no-hit in the first game of the best-of-three Round 2 of the Australian Baseball League playoffs to defeat the Sydney Blue Sox in 15 innings and advance to the finals.

In a game that had been tied since the seventh inning, Adelaide scored three times in the top of the 15th for a 7-4 victory that moved the Bite in next weekend's best-of-three finals at Perth. Mathew Smith's infield single sent home the tie-breaking run, and he scored the second run in the inning. RHP Mark Brackman, the losing pitcher in LHP David Welch's no-hitter Friday, pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings to record a win. The losing pitcher was Dae-Sung Koo, who had held Adelaide scoreless after entering the game in the eighth inning.

In the Caribbean Series, Mexico had a chance to clinch the title tonight by defeating Puerto Rico, but trailed 7-5 in the bottom of the eighth inning tonight.

Puerto Rico had improved to 2-2 Saturday night by defeating Venezuela 4-2 in 10 innings. The host team's two runs in the top of the 10th scored on bases-loaded walks to Edgardo Baez and Javier Valentin by Venezuela's Jean Toledo. RHP Kiko Calero recorded a save with a binary line of 100001.

This afternoon, Venezuela defeated the Dominican Republic 3-0 with four pitchers combining on an eight-hit shutout. RHP Francisco pitched the ninth inning (line: 110000) for his second save in the series. LF Alexis Espinosa hit a fifth-inning solo homer.

Both the Dominican and Venezuela teams are 2-3 and with a Puerto Rico win tonight could finish in a four-way tie for the Series championship by winning Monday, the final day. Venezuela is scheduled to play Mexico at 3 p.m. EST, with the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico meeting at 7:30 p.m. EST.

If the hosts complete their victory over Mexico, they would improve to 3-2, matching the Mexicans' record. If those teams finish tied at 4-2, Puerto Rico would have a tiebreaker because it would have defeated Mexico twice. To win, Mexico would have to defeat Venezuela with Puerto Rico losing to the Dominicans.

However, if Mexico rallies to win tonight, it would take the title because at 4-1 it would have a two-game lead over each of the other teams with one game to play.