 Pirates first to qualify for Play-Offs
Nederlands
    HOOFDDOROP / ROTTERDAM / THE HAGUE / BUSSUM (Neth.) -
On Sunday, league-leader and reigning champion L&D Amsterdam Pirates became the first team to officially qualify for the Play-Offs after completing a 3-game sweep vs. Vaessen Pioniers with a 3-2 victory in 10 innings.
DOOR Neptunus won 6-2 vs. Corendon Kinheim to also complete a 3-game sweep.
UVV swept AmigoO ADO Lakers by winning 5-1 and that meant, in combination with today's Kinheim-loss, that the team crawled closer again to fifth place.
UVV now trails only five points (or 2 1/2 games).
Sparta-Feyenoord came from behind to win 7-6 vs. Mr. Cocker HCAW to win its second game in four days, its third in six days and its fourth in 13 days after having won only one in the previous part of the season.
Vaessen Pioniers vs. L&D Amsterdam Pirates, 2-3 (10)
At Hoofddorp, L&D Amsterdam Pirates was one out away from a 2-1 victory, but then Mark-Jan Moorman homered to tie the score and force extra innings.
But Pirates, which was outhit for the second day in a row, then scored and won 3-2.
Amsterdam took a 2-0 lead in the third inning off Kevin Miner.
Wesley Connor led off with a walk and Roelie Henrique singled to put runners on first and third base.
A single by Sidney de Jong then produced the first run and a grounder by Bas de Jong made it 2-0.
Pirates was then held to only three hits and no runs through the ninth inning, while Pioniers came alongside.
In the fifth, Kevin Dirksen led off with a walk, advanced to second on a sac-bunt and scored on a single by Michael Pluijmers to make it 2-1 off starter Ben Grover.
In the ninth inning, closer Jurrian Koks took over the pitching for Amsterdam and got two quick outs.
But he then gave up a homerun to Mark-Jan Moorman that tied the score.
In the 10th inning, Amsterdam's tie-break runners Björn Hato and Wesley Connor advanced on a sac-bunt Henrique.
Hato then scored the go-ahead run when leftfielder Kevin Dirksen caught a foul-fly by Sidney de Jong, which therefore ended up in a sac-fly.
In the home of the 10th, a bunt-attempt to move the runners failed, then two outs followed to end the game.
And so, Koks won his second game in two days.
With the win, Amsterdam Pirates officially qualified for the Play-Offs.
UVV, which is in fifth place, can theoretically still tie the league-leader, but the head-to-head results are in favor of Amsterdam.
Also, any other combination of a 3-way, or even 4-way tie is in favor of Amsterdam, which therefore also secured its spot in next years big league.
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DOOR Neptunus vs. Corendon Kinheim, 6-2
At Rotterdam, DOOR Neptunus trailed 2-1 after three innings, then came alongside and rallied for three runs in the fifth en route to a 6-2 victory to win its eleventh game in a row.
Diegomar Markwell struckout eight in seven innings to win his ninth game, which leads the league.
Neptunus opened the score in the second inning when Jeffrey Arends scored on an error, but Kinheim answered with two runs in the third at bat.
The Neptunian defense then committed three errors that enabled Ramiro Balentina and Mervin Gario to score and give Kinheim a 2-1 lead.
Neptunus came alongside in the fourth when Dwayne Kemp doubled with one out and scored on a single by Rien Vernooij.
The Rotterdam-team then took a 5-2 lead in the fifth at bat.
Lennart Koster led off with a single, moved on a sac-bunt, then Rafaël Jozefa walked with two outs.
A single by Raily Legito (who again was the catcher in today's game) gave Neptunus the lead and double down the leftfield-line by Dwayne Kemp led to two runs and a 5-2 lead.
An insurance run was then added in the seventh inning.
With one out, Jozefa singled.
Kinheim-starter David Bergman was then relieved by Australian Todd Van Steensel, who gave up a 2-out RBI-single to Jeffrey Arends that made it 6-2.
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AamigoO ADO Lakers vs. UVV, 1-5
At The Hague, UVV led only 2-1 vs. AamigoO ADO Lakers after six innings, but went on to win 5-1 to move closer to fifth placed Corendon Kinheim, which today was left empty-handed by DOOR Neptunus.
An RBI-double by Austin Weymouth opened the score for UVV in the third inning, then the second run was added in the sixth inning.
In that at bat, Danny Rombley reached on an error and scored on a single by Brian Biezen, but UVV also left the bases loaded.
ADO Lakers got one run back in the home of the sixth on an RBI-grounder by Rudy van Heydoorn, but UVV then started to take some more distance.
In the seventh, a run was scored on a sac-fly by Rombley, then two more runs were scored in the eighth.
Rodney Michel and Brian Biezen (bunt) led off with singles and after a pitching change, the bases got loaded when Shurty Tremus walked.
Mitchel Koot then followed with a single that brought in two runners and made it 5-1.
UVV-starter Orlando Yntema gave up only two basehits in the eight innings he pitched, then ADO added one more hit off closer Derek Tarapacki in the ninth inning.
Line Score, Box Score & Play-by-Play
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Mr. Cocker HCAW vs. Sparta-Feyenoord, 6-7
At Bussum, Sparta-Feyenoord trailed 5-1 after six innings vs. Mr. Cocker HCAW, then came alongside in the seventh at bat and went on to win 7-6.
Sparta-Feyenoord took an 1-0 lead in the first inning when Kevin van Nederpelt led off with a single and went on to score on a single by Anthony Vrolijk.
The lead was shortlived, as HCAW reacted with two runs in its opening at bat.
Jerrold Martijn led off with a single and Kody Hightower walked with one out, then a single by Sergino Martis led to the tying run.
Hightower then scored on a following outfield-error that gave HCAW a 2-1 lead.
Two runs were added in the third inning on a sac-fly by Hightower and a throwing error.
HCAW lifted the lead to 5-1 in the fifth inning when Hightower doubled and scored on a sac-fly by Randy Reiph.
The game then turned around in the seventh inning in favor of Sparta-Feyenoord.
Churandy La Cruz led off with a double and Carlos Tavarez Castro followed with a single.
Hereafter, Jerrold Martijn was brought in as reliever for Caspar van Beest, who had taken over in the previous inning for rookie starter Kaj Timmermans.
The latter had made his first start of the season, after an earlier start rained out.
With this, Timmermans made his big league-debut and was closing in on his first win on the highest level.
But in the end, Timmermans got a no-decision.
First, a run was scored in a double-steal situation.
Next, with one out, Jochem Pronk walked and Kevin van Nederpelt followed with an RBI-single.
A throwing error trying to complete a double play on a force play-grounder by Emerson Paula and a single by Anthony Vrolijk then tied the score, meaning Martijn was credited with a Blown Save.
In the eighth inning, Sparta-Feyenoord took a 7-5 lead.
Brian Raap and Churandy La Cruz led off with singles, then both scored on a basesloaded double by Jochem Pronk.
HCAW managed to add one more run in the eighth on a sac-fly by Juriën Overman, but ended up short against Sparta-Feyenoord, which outhit HCAW 15-8.
And so, winning pitcher Elton Koeiman appeared in all three games Sparta-Feyenoord played this weekend.
Eh, when you look at the box scores.
Koeiman finished today's and yesterday's games after he had officially started the first game on Saturday, but of course that was on April 29.
Line Score, Box Score & Play-by-Play
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(June 17)
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