The Auckland Tuatara are headed back home with the pressure of two must-win games in front of them after dropping the first match in their playoff series against the Melbourne Aces last night.
The Aces managed to hold off the Tuatara 5-4 at Melbourne Ballpark to take a 1-0 lead in the the three-match series but will have to now claim a win on the road with the Auckland club hosting the final two games at North Harbour Stadium.
It's the first time the Tuatara have made the playoffs since their creation last season. They previously finished top of the Northeast Division but quickly found out the regular season means little when it comes to playoff baseball.
The Tuatara were left ruing after some errors both on the mound and in the field led to a costly four-run second innings and despite their best efforts, they weren't able to claw the deficit back.
Tuatara manager Stephen Mintz said starting pitcher Kyohei Muranaka "didn't have his best stuff" in the loss.
"He got into a bit of a jam in the second and we made a couple of errors in that inning.
"But I thought we fought hard to stay in the game and we did well to get back into having a shot at winning that at the end there."
With the series now headed to Auckland, Mintz is hoping a large home crowd for the two must-win games over the weekend will be enough to get his side into the championship series.
"This was always going to be difficult, but they have to beat us twice and now we get to go back to Auckland and try and get a couple of wins at home.
"I challenge everyone in Auckland to come out and support us. I would love to see 5000 people there so we can show the ABL what baseball in New Zealand is all about."
The Tuatara play game two of the series at 7pm on Saturday and, should they win, would then play the decider the following day at 1pm.
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