MELBOURNE

SYDNEY 7, MELBOURNE 3 AT SYDNEY

Sydney scored five in the first inning and led all the way.  Jarryd Dale was 2-for-4 for Melbourne.  Kyle Perkins was 1-for-2 with a home run (his second) and two walks.  Ex-Twin Sam Gibbons started for Melbourne.  He pitched 3.1 innings, allowing five runs on eight hits and a walk and striking out two.

Record:  Melbourne is 19-8, in first place in the Australian League, four games ahead of Perth.

Next game:  The regular season is over.  Five of the six teams go to the playoffs.  The playoffs start with a play-in game between Canberra and Sydney.  After that, the four teams remaining play a double-elimination tournament.  Except, the championship game is not double-elimination.  In other words, if you reach the finals, there's no advantage to being the undefeated team other than you played one fewer game so your pitching might be in better shape.  If a team goes undefeated, but then loses to the one-loss team in the finals, it does not get another chance.

CARIBBEAN SERIES FINAL

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 4, PUERTO RICO 1

The Dominican scored two in the sixth to break a 1-1 tie.  Ramon Torres was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.  Ronald Guzman was 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs.  Johan Camargo was 1-for-3 with a home run.  Cesar Valdez pitched five innings, giving up one run on four hits and two walks and striking out three.  Puerto Rico had only four hits.  Hector Hernandez struck out seven in five innings, giving up one run on two hits and a walk.

The Dominican Republic goes undefeated and wins the Caribbean Series.