Baseball: Pirates sink Sharks' hopes

Pirates sailed into the 2014 baseball grand final with a convincing win over Sharks, setting up a three-game series against league leaders Swans starting on March 5.

Christian Wise carved out the win for Pirates, striking out no less than 13 Sharks' batters in just six innings and conceding three hits in the 16 runs to one mercy-rule win.

Both sides fielded under-strength teams but Pirates' hitting made a huge difference as they pounded out 15 safe hits and scored eight times in the second innings to set up the big victory.

Nick Kennedy led Pirates' hitting spree with a triple, double and single from four at bat to drive in four runners, Christian Wise added a double and two singles, while Ray Wasley put together three singles from five trips to the plate, with Brett Della earning a double-RBI single.

Darren Derschow's double in the third dig set up Sharks' only run for the game, while both Rob DeBurgh and Matthew Templeman managed a single base hit apiece.

The result puts Pirates in the enviable position of a possible seven successive premierships, following their six wins between 1995 and 2000, equalled by Brewers from 2001 through until 2006.

Pirates have bagged big awards since 2007, however this year's opponents Swans will be pulling out all the stops to break their 22-year drought, having last put their name on the trophy in 1992, and previously in 1988 and 1985.

At the association awards presentation later on Saturday evening, Swans' Kyle Edwards was awarded the major competition's best and fairest trophy, with Pirates' Kevin Charles taking out runner-up, along with the batting and earned run average trophies after hitting a record .889 average for the season and pitching a low 2.4 earned runs per game.

Ray Wasley and Ronnie Budd shared the RBI trophy with 13 apiece, while Ashleigh Christensen topped stolen bases with nine, and the home run award saw Charles, Christensen, Nathan Nordmann and Andre Chapman tie it up with two apiece.

Sharks' Darren Derschow was adjudged Most Valuable Player by the umpires during the regular season, and Swans' Kane Edwards joined the family trait to take out the Junior of the Year, while team mate Kurt Ballantyne was adjudged best under-21 player, Daniel Page from Sharks won the rookie award and Brewers' Kieran Deall collected the best first year player prize.

Sharks' Shane Potter made a clean sweep of the reserves' awards with best and fairest, batting at .590, 25 RBIs, four home runs and 10 stolen bases, with Edwards, Brad Christensen and Adam Jones sharing runner-up fairest and best.

No games are scheduled this weekend because of the Labour Day public holiday.