 Amsterdam defeats HCAW in make-up game
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
League-leader L&D Amsterdam Pirates defeated Mr. Cocker HCAW 6-1 on Monday-evening to make up their rained out game of last Sunday.
Amsterdam was outhit 9-5, but won the game behind two unexpected pitchers, who did a fine job on the mound.
With the win, Amsterdam will finish the regular season not lower than second place, meaning it will have home advantage in the Play-Offs.
...Winning pitcher Rik Geestman...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Head Coach Charles Urbanus named lefthander Rik Geestman as his starting pitcher for tonight's game and made his decision during the pre-game activities.
The reason for the late appointment goes back to last Thursday-evening.
During batting practice before the opening game of the 3-game series vs. HCAW, righthander Jos de Jong was hit in the head by a line drive foul ball.
De Jong was to be the starting pitcher in Game 2 on Saturday.
In the opener, Rob Cordemans started, but the game was cancelled by rain in the second inning with Amsterdam leading 5-0.
As the game was postponed to Friday, rookie Ian Delemarre was named as the new starter, while Cordemans was named as starter for Tuesday's scheduled make-up game against DOOR Neptunus.
While De Jong was on his feet again shortly after being hit, Urbanus switched the starting assignments for the weekend games, meaning Ben Grover moved from Sunday to Saturday and De Jong would start on Sunday.
Amsterdam won 21-1 on Friday-evening, then won 12-2 on Saturday.
However, Sunday's game was cancelled in the morning due to heavy rain and was re-scheduled for tonight.
While De Jong was to be the starter on Sunday, it wasn't announced whether he would indeed start the game.
Therefore, in the evening and through the day on Monday, it remained unclear if De Jong would take the mound tonight.
But just out of precaution, it was decided to keep De Jong aside and Rik Geestman started instead.
And so, Geestman made his first-ever start in the Dutch big league after having thrown in relief in 69 previous games, dating back to his debut in 2007.
This season, the lefthander made 15 relief-appearances.
In the first inning, Geestman gave up a 2-out single to Juriën Overman, but he stranded at first base.
In the second at bat, the lefthander began with his second strikeout, but Jerrold Martijn and Jasper Keijzer followed with singles.
But then Seb Visser grounded into a double play to end the inning.
It also ended the game for Visser, as he was ejected for arguing the call at first base.
In the third, Amsterdam made another inning-ending double play.
With one out, rookie Marciano Philippi singled, but then Linoy Croes lined into a double play to first baseman Sidney de Jong.
Amsterdam, which reached base two times in the first four innings (walk, basehit), opened the score with four runs in the fifth inning.
With one out, Bas Nooij walked and with two outs, Björn Hato singled.
The bases got loaded when Wesley Connor also walked.
A bunt-single by Roelie Henrique and a wild pitch then produced two runs and a throwing error on a grounder by Sidney de Jong made it 4-0 off starter Dennis Burgersdijk.
The fifth run was added in the sixth inning off new pitcher Marco Schel when Rashid Gerard led off with a double and scored on a sac-fly by Bas Nooij.
The lead was lifted to 6-0 when Roelie Henrique homered in the seventh inning.
After having thrown 84 pitches in seven innings, Rik Geestman was relieved after having done a great job in his un expected start.
Daan Hendrix took over and made his big league-debut.
With one out in the eighth inning, he gave up a homerun to Linoy Croes that produced HCAW's lone run.
Hendrix also pitched the ninth inning, gave up an one-out single to Jerrold Martijn, but then registered his first strikeout and made the last putout of the game himself on a comeback-grounder by Peter van Doesburg.
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(June 25)
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