Adelaide’s dreams of a national baseball title evaporated at Norwood Oval on Sunday night with a blow out in the decider.

After thrillers in game one and two, the Adelaide Bite collapsed at the final hurdle, losing 12-5 to Perth Heat in the deciding game three of the Australian Baseball League 2015 championship series.

The loss extends Adelaide’s 35-year Claxton Shield drought.

It was all over early with Perth racing to a 6-0 lead after Tom Kennelly belted a two-run home run in the first inning, then big RBI doubles by Brian Pointer and Tim Kennelly in the second, as well as Tim Smith’s home run.

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Adelaide most consistent hitter over the series, Mitch Dening, smashed a homer at the bottom of the second for Adelaide, but at the top of the fourth innings the Heat batters crossed home plate another three times to take an imposing 9-1 lead.

As they say … the rest is history.

This result of final contest was in direct contrast to the opening two fixtures of the series.

Game two on Saturday night went to extra-innings, with the Heat – the dominant team of recent years – claiming a thriller 5-3 in 10 innings to level the series at one-all.

The Bite had their chances to claim the ‘Holy Grail” with batters on base in the seven and eighth innings, but couldn’t advance them, only to see series MVP Allan de San Miguel belt a match-winning two-run double in the top of the 10th to keep Perth alive.

Adelaide Bite started in good style scored a nail-biting 3-2 victory in game one, after being 0-2 down in the seventh inning.

Stefan Welch started the scoreboard ticking and Tom Brice followed suit with a second homer.

Dening then smashing the longest hit of the game over the right-field netting, with the ball disappearing into the darkness – with the Bite holding onto this lead in an emotion charged opener.

In all there were 14 home runs hit over the series, eight by Adelaide.