A couple of series sweeps have tightened the Australian Baseball League (ABL) playoff race with only two weeks remaining in the regular season.
Brisbane shocked pacesetters Canberra with five consecutive road wins to keep their post-season hopes alive and Sydney swept Melbourne to slip into a first place tie with the Cavalry.
The underrated Bandits' pitching rotation cooled Canberra's red-hot hitters throughout their round 11 series.
James Albury struck out 10 batters and allowed only one earned run in Brisbane's 6-1 game one victory and James Schult kept Canberra scoreless in game two for a 3-0 triumph.
Brisbane's batters then took over, with Josh Roberts collecting three hits, four RBI and a home run in the Bandits' 10-5 game three victory.
In game four, Brisbane scored seven runs in the fourth inning to seal their fourth consecutive win 9-5.
The sweep improved Brisbane to 19-19 and they sit only one game behind third place Perth, while Canberra dropped to 22-16 and a tie for first with Sydney.
In Sydney, Chris Oxspring guided the Blue Sox to the 13-3 win over the Aces while setting a new ABL record for the most strikeouts in a single season with 75.
Another record fell in game two, when Matt Williams earned his 14th save in as many attempts to preserve the 2-0 Blue Sox win.
Williams picked up another save in game three as Sydney defeated Melbourne 5-4.
In the final match, Tim Atherton continued Sydney's dominant performance on the mound by allowing just one run in seven innings of work as Sydney won 4-1.
Sydney finish the round at 22-16 while Melbourne remain in last place at 13-25.
In Perth, the Bite took game one, 5-2, but the Heat bounced back to claim game two, 11-7, behind a five RBI performance from Brendan Webb, who also had a homer in game three to lead the Heat to the 7-3 victory.
However, Adelaide earned the series split in the finale by beating Perth 9-4.
Quincy Lattimore and Stefan Welch each had three RBI in the game.
Perth remain in third place at 20-18 and currently hold the final playoff spot, while Adelaide remain in the hunt in fifth place at 18-20.
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