2020–21 Australian Baseball League season

The 2020–21 Australian Baseball League season is the eleventh year of the Australian Baseball League (ABL) season. The season is held from 17 December 2020 to 7 February 2021. The league was one of the many sports affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with its traditional November start pushed back to December, the schedule reduced to 24 games and the withdrawal of Geelong-Korea and Auckland Tuatara for the season.

2020–21
Australian Baseball League
Season details
SportBaseball
Country Australia
Teams6
Dates17 December 2020 – 14 February 2021
Defending championsMelbourne Aces (2019–20)
Regular season
Best batting averageDelmon Young (.400)
Most homeruns hitBlake Gailen (9)
Most stolen basesShane Sasaki (8)
Best ERANathan Wiles (1.61)
Most strikeouts (as pitcher)Shawn Morimando (47)

The season has included many scheduling changes due to the impact of state border closures mid-season that the league has committed to being flexible to.

Teams
Main article: List of current Australian Baseball League team rosters

On 12 November 2020, the league announced both Geelong-Korea and Auckland Tuatara had pulled out of the season for financial reasons. This breached Auckland's licensing agreement with the ABL and it was given 28 days to address the breach.[1]

The league reverted back to a six-team league for the first time since the 2017–18 Australian Baseball League season.

Teams in the ABL
Team State / Territory/ Country Stadium
Adelaide Giants South Australia Diamond Sports Stadium[2]
Brisbane Bandits Queensland Holloway Field[3]
Canberra Cavalry Australian Capital Territory Narrabundah Ballpark[4]
Melbourne Aces Victoria Melbourne Ballpark[5]
Perth Heat Western Australia Baseball Park[6]
Sydney Blue Sox New South Wales Baxter Field
Blue Sox Stadium[7]

Regular season

The league had originally planned a staggered 24 game schedule. Both Brisbane and Adelaide were to host week-long 'hubs' starting their season 5 January, later than everyone else, and making up games by playing doubleheaders and mid-week.

Scheduled doubleheaders consist of a seven inning game followed by a nine inning game. The league uses the WBSC tiebreaker rule for all games going beyond the 9th inning, or extra innings beginning less than one hour to a curfew.

Due to a more condensed schedule, roster limits were increased from 22 to 24, with no addition of underage development players.

The ABL roster formation points system was updated to 360 points across 24 games, with non-affiliated overseas players being worth two points, as opposed to four in previous seasons.

The season began with no state border restrictions until the first round of the season was impacted by the pandemic, with an outbreak of cases in Sydney's Northern Beaches effected both Canberra and Sydney unable to host or travel to multiple states. Sydney after playing the first two games of the season, were unable to play due to border restrictions through to 22 January. [8]

The second round between Melbourne and Perth was also interrupted due to the previous cluster spreading to Victoria and impacting Western Australia's border closure on the state. After one game, Perth was flown out to Queensland with Canberra playing the remaining three games of the series. The Heat also replaced Melbourne's January fixtures in Brisbane. Canberra's and Melbourne's schedule was amended to play each other three consecutive rounds as the only logistical option with border closures.[9]

A single COVID case in Queensland on 7 January saw Brisbane's hub that included the Bandits, Heat & Giants end prematurely as all three teams were flown out early to Adelaide as to not be stuck with border closures. Additional fixtures were added to be played in Adelaide to make up for some of these lost games. [10]

Sydney was finally able to resume their season from 22 January against Canberra in Lismore, New South Wales. By playing in regional New South Wales, the Blue Sox did not have to deal with closed state borders, and Canberra did not have to enter a COVID hotspot.[11]

The season was extended out an additional week to allow teams, namely the Blue Sox who had only played two games prior to 22 January, to play at least the benchmark of 14 games to qualify for the postseason.

Standings

Key
Secured Semi Finals berth
Secured Wild Card berth
Standings
Pos Team W L Pct. GB
1Melbourne Aces  199.679-
2Perth Heat  129.5713.5
3Adelaide Giants  1210.5454.0
4Canberra Cavalry  1114.4406.5
5Sydney Blue Sox  68.4296.0
6Brisbane Bandits  818.30810.0

Statistical leaders
  1. Minimum 2.7 PAs per team game.[12]
  2. Minimum 0.8 IP per team game. [13]

Postseason

Due to changes in the regular season presented by COVID enforced state border restrictions, the playoff structure was announced mid-season to include five teams. The fourth seed to host the fifth seed 9 February in a one game elimination, before the winner joins a double-elimination playoff, single elimination final on 14 February.

Wild CardRound 1Round 2Round 3ABLCS
                  
4
Canberra Cavalry
5
Sydney Blue Sox
1
Melbourne Aces
WC
W1
W2
2
Perth Heat
3
Adelaide Giants
W4
W5
W1
W2
L1
L2

References
  1. "TUATARA PULL OUT OF SEASON, BA RELEASES STATEMENT". David Penrose. Australian Baseball League. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  2. "Adelaide Giants Homepage". Adelaide Giants. Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original on 11 November 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
  3. "Brisbane Bandits Homepage". Brisbane Bandits. Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original on 11 November 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
  4. "Canberra Cavalry Homepage". Canberra Cavalry. Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original on 8 November 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
  5. "Melbourne Aces Homepage". Melbourne Aces. Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original on 9 November 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
  6. "Perth Heat Homepage". Perth Heat. Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original on 9 November 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
  7. "Sydney Blue Sox Homepage". Sydney Blue Sox. Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original on 9 November 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
  8. Woodcock, Mitchell (18 December 2020). "Perth Heat's Australian Baseball League game against Canberra Cavalry postponed". The West Australian. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  9. Bertoldo, Lucie (4 January 2021). "Canberra Cavalry to host Melbourne Aces again instead of Sydney Blue Sox this week". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  10. Pike, Chris (14 January 2021). "Brisbane lockdown sends Heat to Adelaide early as teams play border cat-and-mouse". Brisbane Times. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  11. Swanton, Will (18 January 2021). "Lismore plays ball". The Australian. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  12. "League Batting Leaders". Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  13. "League Pitching Leaders". Australian Baseball League. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
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