(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
   Neptunus also wins Pre-Season Tournament
Nederlands
 REUSEL (Neth.) -
The softball-team of Neptunus also has won the 13th edition of the international Pre-Season Tournament, which is organized annually by Roef!.
In the Final of the indoor-tournament, Neptunus won with a convincing 9-0 score against Euro Stars.
In January, Neptunus also won the Final of the 20th edition of The Cup - International Indoor Fastpitch Softball Tournament in Schiedam.
Back then, the Rotterdam-based Silver League-team shutout Olympia Haarlem 4-0 in the Final to win the event for the first time.
Ten teams coming from three countries participated in the two-day event, which this year was held at Sporthuis Reusel, a big sport accomodation where two playing fields were created.
Eight teams from the Netherlands got company from the National Team of Austria and Les Pharaons from France.
Amongst the Dutch teams were Golden League-teams Terrasvogels and Roef!, the host of the event and the reigning Dutch champion.
The ten teams were divided into two pools of five each.
In previous years, the Pre-Season Tournament was mostly held in the first weekend of March.
This year, it was decided to move the event up one month to interrupt the indoor practice sessions with a nice and attractive tournament.
In Pool A, Neptunus remained unbeaten and gave up only one run in the four games it played in the round-robin.
The team opened op Saturday with a 3-0 win against host Roef!, then added a 4-0 shutout against Red Lions later on the day.
On Sunday, Neptunus won 6-1 vs. Onze Gezellen, then closed with a big 10-0 win against Les Pharaons.
Pool B also was won by a Silver League-team, Euro Stars.
This team from Capelle a/d IJssel won three of its four games.
On Saturday, Euro Stars opened with a 4-2 win against Austria, then nipped UVV, 2-1.
In its third game on Saturday, the team played an 1-1 tie against Terrasvogels.
On Day 2, Euro Stars began tied for first place with Terrasvogels, which won on Saturday against UVV (3-0) and Roef! 2 (6-0).
Euro Stars then won 5-0 against Roef! 2.
In the next game, Terrasvogels faced Austria.
With a win, Terrasvogels would end up in a tie for first place with Euro Stars.
As the head-to-head result was an 1-1 tie, the next tie-breaker would have been the run-difference in all games played.
That might have been in favor of Terrasvogels.
However, the team sufferred a 2-1 loss against Austria and instead ended up in third place in Pool B.
And with that, Euro Stars finished in first place to qualify for the Final against Neptunus.
On Super Sunday, the remaining games in the round-robin were followed by the five games that would decide the final ranking.
UVV shutout Red Lions 5-0 to finish in ninth place, while Les Pharaons won 5-2 against Roef! 2 to end up in seventh place.
In the game for fifth and sixth place, Roef! won 3-0 against Terrasvogels.
In a suspenseful game for third place, Onze Gezellen nipped Austria, 3-2.
The tournament then ended with a lopsided Final, as Neptunus shutout Euro Stars 9-0 to win the event.
In previous years, a Tournament MVP was chosen.
That was not done this time.
(February 9)
Complete listing with Schedule & Scores
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