Riley Homers, Bandits Fall on Opening Night to Blue Sox

BRISBANE, QLD — Will Riley launched Brisbane’s first home run of the season and collected two of the team’s four hits, but the Bandits dropped their season opener 8–1 to the Sydney Blue Sox on Thursday night at Viticon Stadium.

Riley’s second-inning solo homer to right-center tied the game at 1–1 and gave the home crowd of 622 an early spark. The blast was Riley’s first of the season and his ninth in his Australian Baseball League career.

Sydney, however, answered back quickly. Harry Fullerton connected for a two-run homer in the top of the second, followed by another two-run shot from Hansel Jimenez in the third to push the visitors ahead 5–1. Catcher Jirvin Morillo added a solo homer in the fourth as part of an 11-hit night for the Blue Sox offense.

Brisbane starter Connor MacDonald (0–1) battled through five innings in his Bandits debut, striking out five and walking just one while allowing six runs on eight hits. Despite a few costly long balls, MacDonald settled in to retire seven of his final nine batters before handing the ball to the bullpen.

The Bandits’ relief corps impressed in its first outing of the season. Seung-Hyun Lee, Brandon Herbold and Luke Krkovski combined for four innings of three-hit ball, allowing only two runs and striking out six. Herbold worked out of a seventh-inning jam with back-to-back strikeouts, while Krkovski struck out two in a clean ninth.

Offensively, Riley led the way with a 2-for-4 performance, while Robbie Perkins and Kyosuke Mashiko each added singles. The Bandits put runners on in the fourth and sixth innings but couldn’t find the timely hit against Sydney left-hander Alex Wells, who struck out nine over 5 2/3 innings to earn the win.

Eric Rataczak paced Sydney with three hits and two RBIs, and both Fullerton and Jimenez finished with two RBIs apiece.

The Bandits will look to bounce back Friday night in Game 2 of the four-game series at Viticon Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. Fans can watch all Bandits games on Baseball+.