   Exhibition win Dutch Team in Panama
Nederlands
...The Dutch Team arrives on...
...Tocumen Airport in Panama City... |
 LA CHORRERA (Panama) -
The Dutch National Baseball Team on Monday, September 26, won its first of a series of exhibition games as part of its preparations for the upcoming 39th World Cup, which will be held in Panama and opens on October 1.
On Monday-morning, the Dutch squad played against Venezuela and won the match-up with a 10-6 score.
The game was highlighted by five Dutch homeruns, which were hit by Curt Smith, Sharlon Schoop and Bryan Engelhardt.
Smith and Schoop each hit two homeruns.
There were also two Venezuelan homeruns in the game, which was played in Estadio Justino Salínas in La Chorrera, 30 km southwest of capital Panama City.
The game started 30 minutes later than scheduled, as the bus that had to pick up the Dutch team arrived one hour too late at the hotel.
The game was scheduled to start at 10:00 AM, but the bus only arrived at 9:12 AM for th 45-minute ride to the stadium.
And so, without a proper preparation, the Dutch team started the game.
So far, things are not running that smoothly organisation-wise.
Not only did the bus arrived too late, the team also got it's schedule with details for the exhibition games (where, when, time) during the previous night, only a few hours before the first game was scheduled to be played.
Shairon Martis started the game for the Dutch Team and threw four innings.
The pro-pitcher struckout four batters in his four innings, but also gave up eight basehits, while walking one batter.
Leon Boyd took over in the fifth inning, went three innings and gave up only one basehit.
He walked two and struckout one batter.
Orlando Yntema and David Bergman then each threw one inning.
Yntema walked a batter and gave up one hit, Bergman also gave up a hit and registered one strikeout.
The Dutch Team was off to a good start and scored at least once in each of the first five innings.
After scoring two in the first at bat, one run was added in the second, then two more in the third and one again in the fourth to make it 6-0 in Dutch favor.
In the home of the fourth, Dutch starter Shairon Martis gave up five runs which narrowed the lead to only 6-5.
But in the fifth, the Dutch added another run, then two more in the seventh to take more distance to 9-5.
After Venezuela scored another run in the eighth off Orlando Yntema, the Dutch team added another run in the top of the ninth to make it 10-6.
Manager Brian Farley started with the following players in this first game:
Danny Rombley (LF, 2-for-4), Mariekson Gregorius (SS, 0-for-4), Sidney de Jong (C, 2-for-2), Curt Smith (1B, 2-for-2), Bryan Engelhardt (DH, 1-for-5), Vince Rooi (3B, 1-for-4), Kalian Sams (RF, 1-for-4), Sharlon Schoop (3-for-4), Shaldimar Daantji (CF, 2-for-5).
During the game, Michael Duursma replaced Gregorius at short and went 0-for-1.
Shawn Zarraga took over the catching for De Jong and was 0-for-2.
Dwayne Kemp replaced Smith in the batting order and went on to play at 2nd base, hitting 2-for-3.
With Kemp at second base, Schoop moved to third base and Rooi took over at first base.
The Dutch team outhit Venezuela, 16-11.
For Venezuela, this was its third exhibition loss, as the team also was beaten twice by Panama, 6-2 and 9-4.
The Dutch Team arrived last Saturday in Panama City.
The team opens the Championship on October 2 against Taiwan.
In the days leading up to the Championship, the Dutch Team will play four exhibition games.
On Tuesday, the next game will be played vs. Panama, to be followed by games against Taiwan (Wednesday) and again Venezuela (Thursday).
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...Sharlon Schoop, Curt Smith, Bryan Engelhardt - 5 homeruns...
(© Photos: Henk Seppen) |
(September 26)
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