Atherton was named series MVP. 2018-19 season With the addition of the Auckland Tuatara and Geelong-Korea as expansion teams, the 2018-19 competition was split into Northeast and Southwest divisions. The league retained a 10-round, 40 game schedule, with teams playing division rivals eight times and inter division teams four times. The Brisbane Bandits were placed in the Northeast division with Sydney Blue Sox, Canberra Cavalry and Auckland Tuatara. A new play-off structure was announced 29 August 2018 with the addition of a single wild card game between the fourth and fifth seeds prior to two rounds of best-of-three finals series. The top seed awarded to the team with the best regular season record, with the other division winner awarded the second seed. The third and fourth seed were awarded to the two divisional runner ups with the fifth seed being given to the team with the next best season record. There were some interesting moments in the Bandit's quest for an unprecedented fourth straight Australian Baseball League Championship. After splitting the series against Canberra in the second last round, both Brisbane and Canberra held a 21–15 record, sitting behind Sydney on 23–13 in the Northeast division. In the final round of the regular season the Bandits swept Geelong-Korea, including a 23-5 opening match in which eight of the nine Bandits batting lineup hit home runs. In the Sydney Blue Sox corresponding series in Adelaide, the teams split the series. The Adelaide Bite won Game 1 (3-0) and Game 3 (3-2) but were comprehensively beaten by Blue Sox in Game 2 (2-12) and Game 4 (8-20). The series split meant the Bandits and Blue Sox would end the regular season with an identical 25 wins and 15 losses. A better head-to-head record (6-2) resulted in the Bandits claiming the Northeast division Championship and top seed for the play-offs. In the play-offs Brisbane hosted the wildcard winners, Canberra Cavalry, at Holloway Field in a best-of-three. In a replay of the previous season's Championship series the hosts opened the scoring with back to back home runs to Donald Sutherland and Daniel De La Calle off Kyle Kinman in the 2nd innings. Ryan Bollinger pitched through eight innings, allowing four hits and one run from a solo home run by Boss Moanaroa in the 5th innings. In Game 2, with the Bandits leading 4-3 heading into the eighth innings, Zach Wilson hit a 2