Grand Slam
Softball Recaps Promotion/Relegation
September 30 - October 8, 2005
Compiled and Copyright © 1997-2005 by Marco Stoovelaar

Promotion/Relegation Play-Off
Pirates and Birds in balance. (October 1-2)
Victory for Birds. (October 4)
Birds win, Pirates relegate. (October 8)


Pirates and Birds in balance
Nederlands
AMSTERDAM / ZOETERMEER (Neth.) - Amsterdam Pirates and Birds, who shared seventh place in the big league after the regular season, are facing each other in a best-of-five Relegation Play-Off after the two teams lost a semi-final last weekend.
Pirates was beaten by Computer SOS Tex Town Tigers and Birds lost to Euro Stars. The two winning teams therefore secured their place for next years big league.
In the Relegation Play-Off, the losing team will relegate to the First Division and be replaced next season by First Division champion Centrals.
The Series continues on Tuesday-evening in Zoetermeer, when the two teams will make up the original first game, which rained out on Friday.

On Saturday, Birds opened with a 14-4 win at Amsterdam.
The team already had an 8-0 lead in the third inning. Birds collected 15 basehits off of two pitchers, including former national pitcher Mirjam Hellinga-Sluijters, who was recalled from a lower team. Amongst the 15 hits, there were four triples, including two by Chantal Versluis, who had four RBI's. In the second inning, she cleared the bases with a 3-run triple. In the first inning, she tripled in the opening run after Kim Kafoč had led off with a single. Claire Lutz and Daisy Verstappen also tripled.
Pirates came back with two runs in the home of the third and fourth inning to cut the deficit to 8-4, but was unable to add more runs in the remainder of the game after Marjan Verhart had relieved starter Rebecca Antonissen in the fourth inning.

On Sunday, Pirates trailed 4-0 after one inning, but came alongside in the third inning.
In the fifth at bat, Pirates got the bases loaded with two outs. Judith Stoovelaar-Van Erk, another former national team-player on the Pirates-roster, who was recalled from a lower team, then hit a baseclearing, 3-run double to give Pirates a 7-4 lead.
Birds answered with a run in the home fifth, but Pirates got that run back in the seventh inning on a single by Chantal van Loosdrecht to win 8-5 and even the Series.
Birds stranded 12 runners, including three in the sixth. Pirates left six runners behind, including two in the sixth and three in the seventh.
Birds took a 4-0 lead in the first inning on singles by Michelle van Driel and former Pirate Sandra Rusman, a wild pitch and a sac-bunt. In the third, Pirates scored four runs on a 2-run single by Gallieth Haaker, an error and a passed ball.
Line Scores & Box Scores
(October 1-2)


Victory for Birds
Nederlands
ZOETERMEER (Neth.) - Birds won 6-3 on Tuesday-evening vs. Amsterdam Pirates to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five Relegation Play-Off. The Series continues next Saturday in Amsterdam.
Birds led 4-0 after four innings in the third game and saw Pirates come back to 4-3, before taking more distance in the fifth and sixth inning.
The game was initially scheduled for last Friday, but then was postponed because of rain. While this is a Play-Off for relegation, no tie games are possible, eventual traffic jams and the fact that players have to work during day time, the game was re-scheduled to be played (again) in the evening on a weekday. All clubs (whoever might play in these Series) accepted the schedule before the season, but the club representatives might consider other game days, as this is an important Play-Off, which decides relegation.

Pirates arrived in time in Zoetemeer and was close to a run in the second inning when lead-off hitter Chantal van Loosdrecht was on third base with two outs, but a grounder ended the at bat.
Birds, which left a runner on third base in the first inning, rallied for four (unearned) runs in the home of the second inning. Michelle van Driel and Claire Lutz led off with singles and both advanced two bases when an error was made on a sac-bunt by Sandra Rusman, resulting in a 1-0 lead. A pop-fly and a strikeout then accounted for two outs, but Kim Kafoč then followed with a 3-run homerun to make it 4-0. A bunt-single and an infield-hit followed, but now a flyout ended the inning.
Birds threatened to add more runs in the third inning. An error and a walk put two runners on base, who then moved on a double-steal. After a flyout, Pauline van Leeuwen's bunt resulted in an out at the plate, followed by another flyout.

Pirates narrowed the deficit to 4-3 in the fifth inning by scoring three runs. Maartje Fontani led off with a triple and scored on a passed ball. Iris Kolman then singled and scored when Gallieth Haaker singled with one out. Next, Astrid Crebas also singled, enabling Haaker to score, but two groundouts prevented more runs.
Pirates was unable to add more runs in the remaining two innings.

Birds got one run back in the fifth. Claire Lutz led off with a walk and moved on a single by Sandra Rusman. The two advanced on a sac-bunt. A bunted ball by Valerie Grampon was then thrown to the plate, resulting in Lutz returning to third, by Rusman was thrown out at scond base. Grampon advanced on a fielder's choice after which Kim Kafoč was walked intentionally to load the bases and create a force play. However, a 'regular' walk for Marsha Smulders then did gave Birds an extra run, but the team left three runners behind.
In the sixth, Birds scored its sixth run when Daisy Verstappen singled and went on to score on an infield-hit by Sandra Rusman.
Line Score & Box Score
(October 4)


Birds win, Pirates relegate
Nederlands
AMSTERDAM (Neth.) - Birds on Saturday won 8-1 at Amsterdam Pirates to win the Relegation Play-Off 3-1 and secure its place in next years Major League. With the loss, Pirates relegated to the First Division after having played 15 consecutive seasons (16 in total) and 546 games in the Dutch Major League.
In 1989 Pirates played in its first big league-season and relegated. A year later, the team promoted again to the highest division and went on to reach the Play-Offs four times (1992, 1995, 1996, 2002). In 1996 and 1997, Pirates won the European CupWinners Cup. Pirates wants to return to the big league as soon as possible.
Birds played its first big league-season in 2003 and finished in seventh place in each of its three seasons on the highest level, winning only 19 games in that period.

Birds was the better team on Saturday-afternoon, as Pirates committed four errors defensively, which led to three unearned runs.
Birds opened the score in the second inning. With Michelle van Driel on base, Claudia Ansems doubled to left field, which led to the first run.
The team from Zoetermeer added three unearned runs in the next at bat. With two outs and a runner on first, Daisy Verstappen singled, but then a line drive by Michelle van Driel was missed to load the bases. Then, a basesloaded walk and a 2-run error gave Birds the three additional runs.

Pirates got its lone run in the home fourth. With one out, former national team-player Judith van Erk (who helped Pirates promote to the big league in 1988 and was the MVP in the 1996 CupWinners Cup-tournament) and Martine van Axel Dongen singled. After a strikeout, a single Manon Scholte produced Pirates' only run.
Birds put the game out of reach in the fifth inning by scoring four more runs to take a 7-run difference and end the game after five innings. All runs were scored with two outs. Sandra Rusman had an RBI-single, Kim Kafoé walked with the bases loaded and Mascha Smulders followed with a 2-run single to make it 8-1.
Line Score & Box Score
(October 8)

Holland Series. (September 30 - October 8)


Thank you for visiting this site. See you soon!

Mail suggestions and questions to stoov@wxs.nl

Last Update: October 8, 2005
Copyright © 1997-2005 Marco Stoovelaar.