The Preliminary Final begins with a Rene Tosoni sighting!

PERTH 5, SYDNEY 4 IN SYDNEY

Perth:  Rene Tosoni was 2-for-5 with a home run.  Jordan McDonald was 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs.  McKenzie Acker pitched two shutout innings, giving up two hits with one strikeout.

Sydney:  David Kandilas (Colorado) was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk, scoring once and driving in two.  Alex Glenn (Arizona) was 2-for-3 with a walk, scoring once and driving in one.  Craig Anderson pitched six innings, allowing three runs on seven hits and two walks with two strikeouts.

The game:  Perth led 3-0 after five, but Sydney opened the sixth with three singles, a two-run double by Kandilas, and another single to score four times and take a 4-3 lead.  That lead held until the eighth, when a pair of one-out walks were followed by an RBI double by Matt Kennelly (Atlanta) to tie the game and a run-scoring single by Joey Wong (Colorado) to give Perth the lead.  Sydney did not get a man past first base after that.

Series status:  In what is called the Preliminary Final, Perth leads the best-of-three series one game to none.