2017-2018 Australian Baseball League

The 2017-2018 Australian Baseball League was the eighth season in the second incarnation of the Australian Baseball League.

The Brisbane Bandits won their third straight title. They had to rally, dropping game 1 of the title series to the Canberra Cavalry 5-1 as Brian Grening tossed 6 2/3 shutout innings and Tyler Herr wrapped it up for the save. Robbie Perkins and David Kandilas both hit two-run shots off Ryan Bollinger. Brisbane rallied in game 2 for a 12-2 win. Tim Atherton struck out 11 and allowed one run in 7 while his teammates hit seven home runs, two apiece by Chih-Sheng Lin (3 R, 3 RBI) and Andrew Campbell (4 RBI). Lake Bachar took the loss. In the winner-take-all game 3, Adam Weisenburger hit a 3-run homer and Mitch Nilsson added a solo shot to support excellent pitching from Travis Blackley (1 H, 0 R in 6 IP) in a 4-2 win. Ryan Searle got a save and Frank Gailey took the loss despite striking out nine in 5 2/3 IP.

Brisbane had several league-leaders in the regular season, with sluggers T.J. Bennett and Donald Lutz tying for the home run lead at 16 while Bollinger tied for the lead in both strikeouts (75) and wins (5) despite his struggles in the finals. Canberra had Jay Baum, who led in average (.439), hits (61, tied) and doubles (18), triples leader Buddy Reed (4), RBI co-leader Kandilas (44) and ERA champ Gailey (1.80). Other leading performances came from Perth speedster Jake Fraley (50 R, 61 H, 39 SB in 40 G), Perth's Luke Hughes (32 BB) and Cameron Lamb (6 Sv), Melbourne's Josh Tols (75 K), Adelaide's Loek van Mil (6 Sv) and Sydney's Chih-Hsien Chiang (44 RBI).

Lin and Chiang had joined the ABL after being let go by their CPBL team for disciplinary issues.

Regular Season Standings

1. Brisbane Bandits, 28-11 Manager: Dave Nilsson
2. Perth Heat, 26-14 Manager: Andy Kyle
3. Canberra Cavalry, 24-15 Manager: Michael Collins
4. Melbourne Aces, 17-23 Manager: Jon Deeble
5. Sydney Blue Sox, 13-27 Manager: Tony Harris
6. Adelaide Bite, 11-29 Manager: Chris Adamson