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(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
  Neptunus empty-handed in EC-opener vs. Bologna
Nederlands
 BOLOGNA (Italy) -
Curaçao Neptunus faced a 5-0 deficit after five innings, then scored three runs in the eighth, but was left empty-handed, losing 5-3 in the opener of the best-of-three Final of the European Champions Cup vs. UnipolSai Bologna.
The first game was played in Bologna (Italy) on Thursday-evening (August 6).
Game 2 will be played on Saturday-evening in Rotterdam, starting at 7:30 PM.
If a third game is needed, that will be played on Sunday-afternoon, starting at 12 PM, also in Rotterdam.
Early June, playing in its own stadium, Neptunus won the Qualifying Tournament when it defeated surprise finalist Draci Brno (Czech Republic) 8-2 in the final.
Bologna reached the best-of-three final by winning only 2-1 vs. L&D Amsterdam Pirates in the final of the other Qualifying Tournament, which was held in French capital Paris.
For next year, the format of the European Cup-tournaments have changed (again), as it returns to a single tournament format.
In 2016, the eight best European teams will meet in a tournament with the winner winning the European Champions Cup.
In May, the European Baseball Confederation (CEB) announced that ''following discussions with member Federations and the presentation of the new format of the European club competition at the Forum discussions in Dublin, the Executive Commission of the Confederation of European Baseball has decided to continue with a few changes to our plans on the format for the CEB European Cup tournaments''.
That means that from the 2016 season on, there will be three European cup competitions: European Champions Cup, CEB Cup and Federation Cup.
With this, the CEB tried to accomplish two main objectives upon a request from most of the national Federations.
That beind the creation of more cups-competition and also to establish a top European Cup-competition with the best eight teams, competing for the European Champion title and qualification to the Asia or World Club Series.
The line up for next year tournaments will be the final standings following the 2015 European Cup-competitions.
European Champions Cup
The eight participating teams will be the Champion or runner-up of the following Federations:
The first four placed Federations in both the Qualifying Tournaments in Rotterdam and Paris in June of this year.
Looking to these standings that means the 2016 European Champions Cup will be comprised of two teams from the Netherlands, Italy and Germany and one team each from the Czech Republic and San Marino.
By finishing in first place of the Overall Standings of the regular season, L&D Amsterdam Pirates won the KNBSB Cup and qualified for participation in the tournament.
The second Dutch participant will be the team that wins the Holland Series (Dutch champion).
In case, Amsterdam also wins the title, the second finalist to reach the Holland Series will qualify.
CEB Cup
The CEB Cup will also will have eight participants.
These are the Champion or runner-up of the Federations that ended in the last two places in Rotterdam and Paris, as well as the four winners of the Qualifier Tournaments played in June in Antwerp (Belgium), Athens (Greece), Karlovac (Croatia) and Ostrava (Czech Republic).
That means the participation in 2016 of two teams coming from France and Croatia and one each from Austria, Belarus, Switzerland and Ukraine.
Federation Cup
This will have four tournaments of six teams each that will serve as qualifiers for a Play-Off Tournament to be played in September by the four winners.
Participating in the Federation Cup will be the runner-ups of the Federations that have one representative in the European Champions Cup and CEB Cup; the Champion of all other Federations, who are not participating in the European Champions Cup or CEB Cup and the runner-ups of the best ranked Federations, who are not participating in the European Champions Cup and CEB Cup (who will be decided by the CEB Technical Committee).
As has been the case in the past with a 3-tournament format, teams can promote and relegate.
From the European Champions Cup, the last placed Federation will relegate to the CEB Cup.
From the CEB Cup, the best placed Federation will promote to the European Champions Cup.
From the CEB Cup, the two last placed Federations will relegate to the Federations Cup.
From Federations Cup, the best two placed Federations will promote to the CEB Cup.
(August 6)
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In the Gianni Falchi Stadium in Bologna, Neptunus faced a quick 2-0 deficit in the first inning.
Starter Orlando Yntema walked lead-off hitter Juan Carlos Infante.
With one out, the righthander also walked 40-year old Claudio Liverziani, another veteran on the Bologna-roster.
The two players both got into scoring position on a grounder by Venezuelan Cèsar Javier Suárez Vezga, who played professionally for ten seasons in the minor leagues, Venezuela, Mexico and Independent Leagues.
Moments later, Infante and Liverziani both scored when Raily Legito, the solid and reliable veteran third baseman of Neptunus, dropped a fly ball hit by Alessandro Vaglio to give Bologna an early 2-0 lead.
For the Italians, that proved to be enough, as it hold onto the lead the entire game.
Yntema retired the side in the second inning, then gave up singles to Liverziani and Suarez to start the third at bat.
But this time, a flyout and double play ended the inning.
Yntema then saw Bologna strand a runner on first base in the fourth.
In the fifth inning, Bologna took more distance, scoring three runs.
Francesco Fuzzi led off with a walk, then reached second base safely when an error was made on a force play-grounder by Claudio Liverziani.
With runners on first and second base, Kevin Kelly took over the pitching for Yntema.
On his second pitch, the reliever was greeted with a 3-run homerun by Cèsar Javier Suárez Vezga that lifted the lead to 5-0.
In the sixth inning, the Italians threatened to score more runs.
With one out, Alessandro Grimaudo and Juan Carlos Infante singled and both advanced on a wild pitch.
With two outs, Bologna got the bases loaded when Claudio Liverziani walked.
Hereafter, Berry van Driel became the new pitcher for Neptunus and he got a force out on a grounder from Suarez.
Marquis Fleming held Neptunus scoreless in the seven innings he pitched.
The American righthander played seven seasons professionally in the organisation of the Tampa Bay Rays (2008-2014), reaching the Triple-A level in 2011 and 2012.
Fleming struckout nine batters and gave up only six hits.
In the opening at bat, Fleming gave up a 2-out single to Raily Legito, but closed with a strikeout.
After retiring the side in the second, the American gave up an one-out single to Urving Kemp, but he also stranded.
In the fourth, Legito led off with a walk and stranded on second base, as three outs followed.
In the fifth, Neptunus got its lead-off hitter on base again when Stijn van der Meer singled, but this time, a flyout and double play ended the at bat.
In the sixth, the Rotterdam-squad got only its second runner in scoring position.
With one out, Benjamin Dille singled and advanced on a wild pitch, but Fleming then struckout the next two batters.
Trailing 5-0, Neptunus was able to do something back when Fleming left the mound.
In the top of the eighth inning, Filippo Crepaldi replaced the American, but ran into problems.
With one out, Benjamin Dille and Raily Legito singled, then Gianison Boekhoudt followed with a 3-run homerun to narrow the deficit to 5-3.
With two outs, Christian Diaz also singled, which led to another pitching change.
Nicholas Pugliese took over and closed the at bat.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Bologna stranded a runner on first base off of closer Loek van Mil.
Hereafter, Neptunus got another scoring opportunity in the top of the ninth.
Shaldimar Daantji led off with a single and Urving Kemp walked.
But despite having its first two batters on base and no outs, Neptunus failed to score.
Dwayne Kemp struckout and Benjamin Dille grounded into a double play to end the game.
And that ended a game, that began at 9:06 PM and lasted 3½ hours, ending well after midnight in front of 2500 spectators.
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| UnipolSai Bologna - Curaçao Neptunus 5-3 |
| R | H | E |
| Curaçao Neptunus (Neth.) | 000 | 000 | 030 | - | 3 | 11 | 2 |
| UnipolSai Bologna (Ita.) | 200 | 030 | 00X | - | 5 | 8 | 0 |
| pitchers Neptunus | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Orlando Yntema, L (0-1) | 4 (*) | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 |
| Kevin Kelly | 1.2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Berry van Driel | 1.1 | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| Loek van Mil | 1 | 1 | - | 1 | - | - |
| (*) - Yntema pitched to two batters in the fifth inning |
| pitchers Bologna | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Marquis Fleming, W (1-0) | 7 | 9 | 1 | 6 | - | - |
| Filippo Crepaldi | 0.2 | - | - | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| Nicholas Pugliese, SV (1) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | - |
| Homeruns: Neptunus: Gianison Boekhoudt (1)(8th,3-run,off Crepaldi); Bologna: Cèsar Javier Suárez Vezga (1)(5th,3-run,off Kelly). |
Umpires: HP-Jens Waider (Germany), 1B-Fabrizio Fabrizi (Italy),
2B-Frantisek Pribyl (Czech Republic), 3B-Michele De Notta (Italy).
Official Scorers-Fabio Zaccaria (Italy), Renzo Moretti (Italy), Alessandro Meli (Italy).
Technical Commissioner-Jürgen Elsishans (Germany).
Time-3:30 hr.
Game Notes:
Game One, best-of-three European Champions Cup.
Game played in Stadio Gianni Falchi in Bologna (Italy).
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Copyright © 1997-2015 Marco Stoovelaar / Grand Slam * Stats & News.
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