![]() Bite starter Mark Brackman pitched through seven innings for the win
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With 19 hits and the first five batters in the line-up twice collecting consecutive hits, the Bite looked awesome, and with a similar performance on Friday night, can advance in the play-offs.
Tetsuya Nishikawa, who pitched well against Adelaide the last time the teams met in Melbourne, started for the Aces and threw two scoreless frames before getting into trouble in the third inning.
The first five Adelaide batters in the third frame, starting with Jeremy Cresswell, followed by Stefan Welch, Jamie McOwen, Quincy Latimore and Brandon Bantz, collected hits to force Nishikawa off the mound, with four runs scoring for a 4-0 lead.
Melbourne looked like climbing back into the game through the fifth inning, when Josh Davies singled and Andrew Russell cleared the fences to cut the advantage in half, at 4-2.
Latimore belted a home run for the Bite in the bottom of the fifth, then Adelaide went on another five consecutive hit rampage an inning later, Latimore belting a three-run shot, as the Bite went 10-2 up.
Adelaide managed a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh and again in the eighth, where Cresswell and Welch smashed solo home runs.
Bite starter Mark Brackman pitched through to the seventh frame, giving up seven hits and no walks for four strikeouts, to claim the win. Reliever Reed Brown had two three-up and three-down innings to finish the game in style.
There were many hitting stars for Adelaide, Cresswell reaching base six times and Latimore batting six runners home the standouts in a team effort.
If Adelaide can win Friday night's game two, it will qualify for the second week of the play-offs, while a Melbourne victory will see a deciding game on Saturday, both at Norwood Oval at 7pm.
Melbourne 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 - 2 Adelaide 0 0 4 0 1 5 2 2 x - 14 Hits: Melbourne - Davies 2, Karlsen 2, Biddle, Russell (hr), Lawman; Adelaide - Welch 4 (hr), Cresswell 3 (hr), Latimore 3 (2hr), Bantz 3, Brice 2, McOwen 2, Gladstone, Wilson. WP: M. Brackman; LP: T. Nishikawa.
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