All set for a fresh start

Chance for ABL newcomers to turn tide

GEELONG- KOREA and Auckland will be hoping their first-ever Australian Baseball League meeting can ignite a playoff charge.

The ABL expansion outfits go head-to-head at Geelong Baseball Centre in a historic four-game series with plenty of work to do as the season heads towards the midway point.

GK sits last in the South- West Division with just two wins from 16 outings while the Tuatara are at the foot of the North-East Division with a 4-11 record.

Both teams suffered series sweeps last weekend.

Geelong-Korea dropped all four games at home to Adelaide and Auckland was taken down by Sydney in its last series on New Zealand soil this season.

A series against each other provides the chance for at least one losing streak to come to an end, and possibly a platform to surge in the second half of the season.

GK has made four changes as it looks to snap a sevengame losing streak.

Manager Dae-Sung Koo has added right-hander pitcher Jae-Gon Lee, infielder DaeGun Kook, catcher Sung-Gu Han and outfielder Hak-Jun Noh to his 22-man roster.

Koo will roll with the same starting rotation, led by JinYong Jang, which was unable to quell the Bite in round four.

The Tuatara have one forced change to their rotation with 19-year-old Kyle Glogoski’s season coming to an end one week earlier than planned.

Glogoski will be replaced in the starting rotation by 20year-old Elliot Johnstone.

Reliever Chen Yu-Hsuan and infielder Tsai Yi-Hsuan return for Auckland along with catcher Taka Kaneko.

GK and the Tuatara enter the round as the lowest scoring teams in the ABL and top the league in strikeouts. Ones to watch Geelong-Korea catcher Tae-Joon Lim and Auckland utility Guiyuan Xu are off to hot starts this season. Lim leads GK with a .333 batting average and Xu is top of the charts at the Tuatara with a .310 average. Lim, 30, went 4-for-9 against Adelaide last round. Xu did not manage a hit in three appearances against Sydney as his average dropped from .382. Did you know? The four-game series in Geelong is the first meeting between the two ABL expansion teams. It will also be the only series between GK and the Tuatara this season. Series schedule G1: Thursday, 6.30pm G2: Friday, 6.30pm G3: Saturday, 7pm G4: Sunday, 1pm *All four games at Geelong Baseball Centre, Waurn Ponds