The Auckland Tuatara saw off a late fightback from Geelong-Korea to win game two of their series, 9-8 at North Harbour Stadium on Friday night.
The home side jumped out of the blocks quickly, piling on nine runs through the first two innings to blow the game open.
But they failed to score from then on, as Geelong-Korea mounted a late charge, only to fall short.
Auckland have now won nine-straight home games, and remain atop the northeast division with a 14-12 record.
"I'm frustrated with the way we finished that game," manager Stephen Mintz said. "We jumped out to a good early lead but we should have put that game away much earlier.
"We have to be more ruthless there. On another night we would have lost that game.
"I'm glad we got the win in the end but we need to turn up tomorrow and put in a better performance than that."
Auckland's seven runs in the first innings were the most scored in any one inning across the franchise's 66-game history.
Jared Walker's ninth double of the season opened the scoring for the Tuatara. Won-seok Kim's two-run double extended Auckland’s advantage ahead of Daniel Lamb-Hunt groundout making it 4-0.
Bas Nooij blasted a three-run homer to cap off a monster first inning.
Kim singled to drive in his third run of the ballgame and Andrew Marck also brought home a run on a hit to make it 9-0.
Geelong Korea finally got on the board in the fourth inning, and added more runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh, but Yujo Kitagata struck out Sung-Won Ju to end the contest.
Auckland will look to secure a series win when the two sides meet in game three starting at 7pm on Saturday night.
