(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
 Exhibition wins Neptunus, Pirates, DSS, The Hawks
Nederlands
    ROTTERDAM / HOOFDDORP / HAARLEM (Neth.) / BORGERHOUT (Belgium) -
Today (Saturday, March 14), all eight Dutch big league-teams came into action in the exhibition season on a very cold afternoon.
All teams will play again on Sunday.
At Rotterdam, Curaçao Neptunus won 4-1 in a 9-inning game against Twins, which plays in the second highest division ('Overgangsklasse').
In last years Holland Series against L&D Amsterdam Pirates, Berry van Driel was very successful in two starts for Neptunus.
In his big league-career, the righthander was primarily used in relief and most of those appearances were as closer.
In the Holland Series, Van Driel was an unexpected starter and surprised everyone, including himself.
Van Driel was the winning pitcher in both games, won the championship-title with Neptunus and was voted Most Valuable Player of the Holland Series.
And so, Van Driel was the starting pitcher in the first exhibition game of Neptunus.
This season, Van Driel will be used in both a starting and relief-role by Head Coach Evert-Jan 't Hoen.
This afternoon, Van Driel threw 4 1/3 inning for Neptunus and was followed on the mound by Floris Timmer, who pitched 2 2/3 inning.
Jorian van Acker closed the game for Neptunus, throwing the final two innings.
Twins initially had taken an 1-0 lead and held onto it for several innings behind the good pitching of starter Ben Van Nuffel.
The latter was followed on the mound by Lars Molenaar (2 innings), Anthony Vrolijk (2 innings) and Branden Kuzyk (1 inning).
At Hoofddorp, L&D Amsterdam Pirates shutout Vaessen Pioniers, 4-0 in a 7-inning game.
Lefthander Kyle Ward started for the Amsterdam-squad and was followed by righthander Tom de Blok and lefthander Robin Schel, who both threw two innings.
The last two pitchers came to Amsterdam from HCAW following last season.
A year ago, De Blok initially was on the Amsterdam-roster, went to the States to start a professional career, but returned home after a week.
He then went on to pitch for HCAW in the 2014 season.
Reggie Bomberg started for Pioniers and was followed by righthanders Taylor Clemensia and Sedley Karel, who both threw two innings.
In the game, Rashid Gerard connected for a 2-run single to give Pirates a 2-0 lead, while Jesse Aussems contributed with two basehits.
Amsterdam-rightfielder Kenny Berkenbosch made a great catch on a drive by Quintin de Cuba (ex-Kinheim), which initially appeared to leave the field for a homerun.
After returning home last Thursday from Japan, where he played with Team Europe against Samurai Japan in the Global Baseball Match, Michael Duursma today was 'back-in-business' for Amsterdam Pirates and played a solid game defensively.
At Haarlem, DSS won 4-1 vs. Corendon Kinheim.
The game was played in the Pim Mulier Stadium, the home-site of Kinheim.
As it was announced in advanced that DSS had pitching for eight innings and Kinheim for seven, it was decided that DSS would take the field first, meaning they played at home instead of Kinheim.
Kinheim-starter Nick Veltkamp saw DSS reach base in the first two innings he pitched, but he avoided giving up runs.
In the first at bat, with runners in scoring position, the lefthander struckout three batters in a row, then added two strikeouts in the second inning.
Arshwin Asjes then threw the third inning, while Kinheim took an 1-0 lead.
But in the fourth inning, DSS scored two runs off of new pitcher Pim Walsma, which were both scored on a single by Joffrey Heus.
DSS then added two more runs in the sixth inning off of David Bergman, who threw the sixth and seventh inning for Kinheim.
Lefthander Rik Geestman started for DSS and threw the first two innings, then Jorn van Ingen pitched the next two innings.
Van Ingen, a former Kinheim-player, became the winning pitcher, thanks to the two runs DSS scored in the fourth at bat.
Mark van Deursen and Kevin Geestman then both pitched two innings and held Kinheim scoreless in the remainder of the game.
A defensive highlight came when newcomer Jasper Keijzer made a great catch in centerfield for Kinheim on a line drive by Ryan Miner.
Last season, Keijzer played for HCAW.
At Borgerhout (Belgium), Mampaey The Hawks won its third consecutive exhibition game.
The team from Dordrecht won 10-0 vs. Borgerhout Squirrels.
No other details are available of this game.
At Bussum, HCAW led 3-0, then trailed 5-3, but won 6-5 vs. UVV.
Detailed recap HCAW vs. UVV
(March 14)
Complete Schedule Exhibition Season
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