On a windy evening, veteran righthander Rob Cordemans took the mound tonight for Amsterdam Pirates vs. Neptunus.
This was the third and final game between the two teams that was moved ahead.
The series was originally scheduled for early August, but then Neptunus plays in the best-of-three final for the European Champions Cup.
In the first at bat, Dwayne Kemp led off with a single, but then next batter Benjamin Dille lined into a double play.
Neptunus then opened the score in the second inning.
With one out, Rien Vernooij walked and advanced on a wild pitch with two outs.
He then scored when Stijn van der Meer followed with a double.
Amsterdam answered with four runs in the bottom of the second inning off of Berry van Driel, who was a fill-in starter tonight.
Since Saturday, Neptunus has to do without lefthander Diegomar Markwell, who sits out a suspension (as is closer Loek van Mil).
Last Saturday, Orlando Yntema started, throwing 76 pitches in 3 1/3 inning in the big 19-2 loss vs. Vaessen Pioniers.
On Sunday Kenny Van Den Branden threw the first 5 2/3 inning, then Kevin Kelly (who also has been used once as a starter) pitched four innings in the 10-inning loss vs. Pioniers.
And so, reliever Van Driel made his second start of the season.
Last year, Van Driel started two games in the Holland Series vs. Amsterdam and was very successful, winning both.
This time, Amsterdam had a better view of Van Driel's pitches.
Remco Draijer led off with a walk.
With one out, he stole second base and advanced on a throwing error, then Patrick Bok also walked.
A grounder by Rashid Gerard then brought in the tying run and Linoy Croes followed with a 2-run homerun over the scoreboard in rightfield and the road beyond that to give Amsterdam a 3-1 lead.
Hereafter, Roelie Henrique also walked.
He then stole second base and scored when Michael Duursma doubled to make it 4-1.
Cordemans retired the side in the top of the third inning and shortly thereafter, his teammates added three more runs.
Kenny Berkenbosch and Remco Draijer led off with singles, which brought in Orlando Yntema to take over for Van Driel.
Hereafter, the two runners moved into scoring position via a sacrifice bunt by Bas Nooij, then the first run was scored when Patrick Bok followed with a single.
Next, Draijer scored on a grounder by Rashid Gerard and a double by Linoy Croes lifted the lead to 7-1.
After Cordemans again had retired the side in the fourth, he allowed two batters to reach base in the next at bat.
Christian Diaz led off with a walk, then Stijn van der Meer singled.
The veteran righthander then struckout the next two batters and the inning ended with a flyout.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Amsterdam added another run when Bas Nooij led off with a homerun that increased the lead to 8-1.
| HRs off Cordemans, Regular Season, while pitching for Amsterdam |
| Date | Opponent | Player | Runs | Inn. | Score |
| June 3, 2010 | Sparta-Feyenoord | Percy Isenia | solo | 6th | 6-1 W |
| April 26, 2012 | Pioniers | Mark-Jan Moorman | solo | 2nd | 10-1 W |
| May 23, 2013 | Neptunus | Gianison Boekhoudt | solo | 1st | 5-2 W |
| July 3, 2014 | ADO Lakers | Christian Diaz | 2-run | 3rd | 8-3 W |
| July 7, 2015 | Neptunus | Gianison Boekhoudt | 2-run | 6th | 8-6 W |
In the top of the sixth, Neptunus did something back.
With one out, Raily Legito singled, then Gianison Boekhoudt homered, that made it an 8-3 score.
It was the first homerun Cordemans gave up in just over a year.
On July 3 of last season, Christian Diaz homered off Cordemans when playing for ADO Lakers, which lost the game 8-3.
This season, Diaz plays for Neptunus.
The homerun was only the second hit by Neptunus off of Cordemans in two years.
The last one was hit on May 23, 2013 and back then, it also was Boekhoudt, who accounted for the fourbagger in a 5-2 loss vs. Amsterdam.
Cordemans is now in his sixth season with Amsterdam and this was only the fifth homerun the righthander gave up in a regular season-game since 2010.
Besides tonight's homerun and the ones hit last season and the year before, Cordemans gave up the other homeruns in 2010 and 2012.
All five homeruns Cordemans gave up, were hit in a home game at Sportpark Ookmeer in Amsterdam.
Umpire Roy van de Wateringen saw three of the five homeruns.
He was at 3rd base in 2010 and last year and he was at 1st base tonight.
Another member of tonight's umpiring crew, Martijn Bosschaart, was at 1st base when Cordemans gave up the homerun in 2012.
Tonight was Cordemans' 75th regular season-game in an Amsterdam-uniform and the five homeruns he gave up came in 466 innings pitched.
Besides these five homeruns, he also gave up three in the postseason since 2010.
After giving up the homerun to Nooij, Van Acker held Amsterdam scoreless in the next two innings.
In the sixth, he walked Michael Duursma with one out and gave up a single to Nick Urbanus, but Neptunus then turned a double play.
Van Acker retired the side in the seventh.
Cordemans retired the side for the third time in the seventh, then Kevin Heijstek took over in the eighth.
The righthander missed his scheduled start last weekend, as he became a father, and so he was used in relief tonight for the second time this season.
Off of Heijstek, Neptunus narrowed the deficit to 8-6 in the final two innings, but was unable to turn the game its way.
In the eighth, Heijstek gave up one run.
Dwayne Kemp and Benjamin Dille began with singles, then the first scored on an one-out single by Gianison Boekhoudt.
The inning ended when Rien Vernooij lined out to third baseman Rashid Gerard, who then completed a double play by eliminating Dille at second base.
In the bottom of the eighth, Amsterdam left a runner off of new pitcher Gijs Timmer, then Neptunus scored twice in the top of the ninth on back-to-back doubles.
Lead-off hitter Christian Diaz was hit by a pitch on his ankle and because of that, he was unable to run to first base himself.
It was reported that he was doing fine after the game.
Adrian Anthony took over as pinch-runner and he then scored on a double by Stijn van der Meer, who himself moved to third base when an outfield-error followed.
Next batter Gyenuar Lopez also hit an RBI-double that narrowed the deficit to only 8-6.
Moments later, Lopez advanced on a wild pitch, but hereafter, a flyout, strikeout and groundout left the runner at third base and ended the game.
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Amsterdam Pirates takes more distance by winning again vs. Neptunus
AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
League-leader L&D Amsterdam Pirates expanded its lead in both the second half of the season, as well as in the overall standings, by winning 8-6 on Tuesday-evening (July 7) vs. Curaçao Neptunus.