The Sundbyberg Heat scraped out a rugged 5-4 win over the Karlskoga Bats this past Sunday in Game 2 of the Swedish Baseball League finals. The Bats won the series opener on Saturday 7-0 behind a superb outing by ace pitcher Adam Sowell.
Making their first league finals appearance in club history the Bats grab a 1-0 lead in the opening frame of Game 1 when Stefan Fahlin drove home Sowell with an RBI single. Then both American starting pitchers – Sowell and Will Rickard – took over the game.
Sowell, who was 13-0 with a 1.57 and 70 strikeouts in 92 innings this past season, allowed just five hits in six shutout innings. Rickard blanked Karlskoga for five innings on four hits before both pitchers were lifted due to pitching restrictions on foreigners. The Sundbyberg hurler went 5-1 this past season with a 1.03 and 44 strikeouts in 35 innings.
The Bats bullpen continued what Sowell started with three scoreless innings from relievers Sammi Sakkinen (2.1IP, 1H) and Ronny Frid (1.0IP, 0H). Unfortunately, the Heat bullpen did not fare as well.
Rickard Ljung kept Sundbyberg in the game with two shutout innings before running into major trouble in the ninth. The Bats scored five runs off Ljung (2.3IP, 4H, 4R) and Michael Andersson (1H, 2R) to salvage a hard-fought 7-0 win in Game 1.
Olle Oijen – who had a key triple in the decisive final inning – also smacked a double and had two RBI. Fahlin, continuing to swing a hot bat, was 4-for-9 over the weekend and now has nine hits in four games this post-season.
Sundbyberg raced out to a 3-0 lead in Game 2 off Karlskoga starter Kent Karlsson and hung on down the wire for a 5-4 win to even the series at 1-1. A matchup featuring two national team hurlers, Heat ace Nick Soubiea survived a shaky third inning to register a complete game victory.
Soubiea was 5-4 with a 2.73 in 66 innings this past season while Karlsson went 11-4 with a 2.37 in 114 innings. Philip Gajzler – who his .362 during the regular season – drove in the winning run with a double in the eight.
Pitching has been at a premium in the series with Karlskoga hurlers shutting out the Heat in 15 out of the 18 innings played. Sundbyberg pitchers have been “almost” as good logging 14 scoreless frames over the weekend.
Rickard and Per Lindgren both went 3-for-4 for the Heat which racked up 12 hits on Sunday. Teammates Robert Porsklint and Peter Elfwing each added two hits for the victorious Sundbyberg squad.
