 Kinheim continues streak by winning Holland Series-opener
Nederlands
 ROTTERDAM (Neth.) -
Corendon Kinheim continued its surprising streak of successful games, as it won 4-2 vs. DOOR Neptunus on Thursday-evening in the opening game of the best-of-seven Holland Series.
The championship final continues on Saturday in Rotterdam, then Game 3 will be played on Sunday at Haarlem to be followed by Game 4 on Tuesday-evening, also in the Pim Mulier Stadium.
Sunday's game, which will start at 1:30 PM, can also be followed through live coverage in NOS Studio Sport.
On Thursday-evening, Kinheim-starter David Bergman, who celebrated his 31st birthday, dominated in the first six innings, giving up only three hits and no runs.
While leading 3-0, the righthander gave up two unearned runs in the seventh inning and then was relieved by Pim Walsma.
Neptunus-starter Diegomar Markwell appeared to be in trouble early, but got some support from both the Kinheim-baserunners, as well as his defense, resulting in the game remaining scoreless for five innings.
After Kinheim was retired in order in the first at bat, Neptunus got its first batter on base when Adrian Anthony led off with a single in his first-ever Holland Series at bat.
But moments later, he was picked off at first base when next batter Rafaël Jozefa struckout.
Kinheim then appeared to start a rally in the second inning, but in ended in a rare at bat, as five consecutive batters reached base safely, but three of them were eliminated at the plate.
First, Bryan Engelhardt led off with a walk.
Next, Ramiro Balentina reached on an infield-hit, but both runners advanced when a throwing error followed.
After retrieving the ball, it was thrown to second base and at that moment, Engelhardt tried to score, but was eliminated at the plate.
With Balentina at second base, Quintin de Cuba followed with a single to put runners at the corners.
Hereafter, Roy Seltenrijch hit the ball back to Markwell, who threw the ball to catcher Mourik Huijser to throw out Balentina.
With runners at first and second base, Niels de Weert singled through the left side of the infield, but then De Cuba ran through the stop-sign of Head Coach Hans Lemmink and became the third runner to be thrown out at the plate.
And so, Kinheim ran itself out of the inning and that appeared to be costly, as the team from Haarlem reached base only once in the next three at bats, but that runner was eliminated in a double play.
For Neptunus, Dwayne Kemp led off the second inning with a single, but stranded at second base.
In the third at bat, Mourik Huijser led off with a double, moved to third on a sac-bunt, but was left there.
Starting with the sac-bunt, Bergman retired 12 batters in a row, before running into problems in the home of the seventh inning.
Despite its unproductive second at bat, it was Kinheim that then did open the score in the sixth inning.
With one out, René Cremer reached second base on an error in leftfield, then reached third base when another error was made on a grounder by Dirk van 't Klooster.
With two outs, Cremer then scored the first run on a check-swing double down the leftfield-line by Bryan Engelhardt.
Kinheim added two runs in the seventh, which was another rare at bat, as no basehits were hit.
Markwell walked both Quintin de Cuba and Roy Seltenrijch, who then advanced on a sac-bunt by Niels de Weert.
De Cuba then beat the throw to home plate on a grounder to second base by Remco Draijer to make it 2-0.
Next, a force play-grounder by René Cremer made it 3-0.
In the home of the seventh inning, Neptunus finally was able to do something back off Bergman.
Lead-off hitter Raily Legito reached on an error, then moved to third base on an one-out double by Benjamin Dille and scored on a passed ball.
Bergman then walked Rien Vernooij and gave up an RBI-single to Lennart Koster that narrowed the deficit to 3-2.
It marked the end for Bergman, who was relieved by Pim Walsma, who then was supported with a double play to end the inning.
In the eighth inning, Rafaël Jozefa doubled with two outs off Walsma, who was then relieved by closer Ashwin Asjes.
The righthander walked Raily Legito, but then a force out ended the Neptunian at bat.
Kinheim then added an important insurance run in the top of the ninth inning.
Roy Seltenrijch led off with a double off Jorian van Acker, who had relieved Markwell in the previous at bat.
Van Acker was relieved by Berry van Driel, but he gave up singles to Niels de Weert and Remco Draijer that lifted the lead to 4-2.
Kinheim left runners at second and third base in the inning, but it had now a 2-run margin lead.
With two outs in the home of the ninth, Lennart Koster singled for Neptunus, but Asjes then ended the game by striking out Mourik Huijser to secure the win and take an 1-0 lead in the Holland Series.
(August 16)
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