(Story Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen & WBSC)
   Kingdom Team beats Puerto Rico; 1st team to reach Quarter Finals!
Nederlands
 TAICHUNG (Taiwan) -
The team of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on Saturday-afternoon (November 14) won 11-7 vs. Puerto Rico in its fourth game of the Premier12.
And with that, the Orange squad became the first team to secure itself of a spot in the Quarter Finals!
The Orange led 8-0 (!) after two innings, but towards the end, suspense was building as Puerto Rico started to come back and was trailing only 9-7 after eight innings.
After collecting 17 hits against Italy on Thursday, the team today had 16 basehits, including two homeruns by Randolph Oduber.
Before the game, there was a moment of silence for the victims of the terrible tragedy in Paris (France) on Friday-evening.
There also was a moment of silence before the first game today game between Venezuela and the Dominican Republic that began 30 minutes earlier in Taoyuan.
In today's game, Chris Garia made his first appearance of the tournament and played in leftfield.
Curt Smith, who was the starting leftfielder in the previous games, today started at first base.
There, he took the spot of Andruw Jones, who was sidelined today with a sore hamstring, which, it was reported, is not a serious injury.
The Netherlands began the event on Monday with a 7-4 win vs. Chinese Taipei, then lost 6-5 to Cuba on Wednesday, followed by a huge 16-1 win vs. Italy on Thursday.
The Orange squad will play its next game on Sunday and then meets Canada in Taichung, starting at 6:35 PM local time (11:35 AM Dutch time).
This will be the final game of the preliminary round.
(November 14)
Shairon Martis started for the Kingdom-squad.
In 2006, during the first World Baseball Classic, against Panama, Martis threw the first and still only No-Hitter in the history of the event, which now has been held three times.
In the first game of the Premier12, Martis pitched effectively in relief in the opening game against Chinese Taipei and then was the winning pitcher.
In that game, he took over from Tom Stuifbergen, who left with an ankle-injury.
Luckily, Stuifbergen's injury wasn't serious and he is improving daily.
The starting pitcher for Puerto Rico was 23-year old righthander Fernando Gonzalez.
This season, he made his professional debut, pitching for Gary SouthShore RailCats in the Independent American Association, which is comparable with the Double-A level.
There, he was 3-1 in 10 starts.
Before turning professional, Gonzalez pitched two seasons for the team of the University of West Alabama.
In the 2015 college-season, his final year at UWA, Gonzalez was 10-2.
After completion of the season, he then signed a professional contract in July.
In 2013, Puerto Rico lost the final of the World Baseball Classic 3-0 to the Dominican Republic.
Back then, the team reached the final thanks to several Major League-players on its roster.
Today, it was a complete different story, there were no (active) Major Leaguers and the team faced a hot-hitting Netherlands Kingdom-team.
They of course also have to do without their Major Leaguers, but Manager Hensley Meulens and his staff compiled a strong squad that is very productive so far.
...Shairon Martis dominated; 2nd victory...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Martis pitched in the Major League for the Washington Nationals (2008-2009) and Minnesota Twins (2013).
He appeared in 26 games (19 starts) and was 6-7.
Last year, Martis pitched for Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions in the professional Taiwanese Major League.
This season, the righthander pitched for two teams in an Independent League.
Martis retired the side in the first inning, then was supported with two runs in the bottom of the first.
Randolph Oduber led off with a walk, then advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Chris Garia.
After Yurendell de Caster popped out towards the rightfield-line, Oduber stole third base.
A daring play so early in the game, but also successful, as he then scored on a following hard line drive basehit towards third from Wladimir Balentien.
Next, Curt Smith reached on an infield-hit, hitting a comebacker to Gonzalez, who reached to field it, but instead diverted it towards short.
The bases got loaded when next batter Kalian Sams walked.
The Orange then added its second run when Shawn Zarraga also walked.
During the last two at bats, Puerto Rican Manager Edwin Rodriguez cleary didn't agree with Italian Home Plate Umpire Fabrizio Fabrizi on his strikezone.
With the bases still loaded, the inning ended when Hainley Statia popped out.
In the top of the second inning, Puerto Rico came close to its first run.
Martis retired the first two batters (including his second strikeout), but then gave up a stand-up triple off the fence in right-centerfield to Joiset Feliciano.
Moments later, Feliciano tried to score on a wild pitch that jumped away from Zarraga, but he got the ball in time to Martis, who took over home plate and tagged out the runner to end the inning.
In the bottom of the second inning, the Orange squad took more distance with a 6-run rally.
Carlton Daal led off with an infield-hit, then hot-hitting Randolph Oduber followed with a 2-run homerun.
That marked the end for Gonzalez.
Gabriel Hernandez took over, but he was greeted with a triple down the rightfield-line by Chris Garia, who slid into third base on a close play.
With one out, a force play was set-up by walking Wladimir Balentien intentionally.
Hereafter, Curt Smith lined the ball towards third for a bad-hop infield-hit that enabled Garia to score the next run and make it a 5-0 lead.
And the inning wasn't over yet.
After Kalian Sams struckout, Shawn Zarraga added a runscoring single to lift the score to 6-0 and brought Smith to third base.
Zarraga advanced on a passed ball, then both he and Smith scored on a single by Hainley Statia.
With that, eight of the nine Dutch players had reached base and the second inning wasn't even completed.
After a new pitching change, the inning ended with a force out and an Orange lead of 8-0.
In the top of the third inning, Puerto Rico scored its first run when, with one out, Juan Medina homered.
A single followed, but a double play ended the at bat.
On Thursday, Puerto Rico trailed 7-2 in the ninth inning vs. Cuba, then rallied for five runs to tie the score and force extra innings.
Cuba then won 8-7 in 10 innings.
In the bottom of the third, Yurendell de Caster became the ninth and last Dutch player to reach base.
With one out, Chris Garia singled, then De Caster did the same, but both were left behind.
Martis continued his dominance in the fourth and fifth inning, allowing only one batter reach base (walk).
In the bottom of the fifth, the Netherlands Kingdom Team added another run when Randolph Oduber hit his second homerun in the game with one out.
Orlando Yntema took over for Martis in the top of the sixth inning.
He struckout two batters, but also gave up two doubles and a run.
Jack Lopez led off with a drive into leftfield, which was more or less misplayed by leftfielder Chris Garia.
It appeared that the ball might leave the field, but while Garia ran backwards towards the fence, the ball dropped on the ground on his right side and near the warning track.
And so, Lopez ended up with a double, but Yntema followed with a strikeout.
Next batter Alexis Pantoja then also doubled to bring in Lopez.
After another strikeout, Yntema walked Aldo Mendez.
Hereafter, lefthander Yasamberty Arbelo was the next hitter and Meulens brought in lefthander Jim Ploeger.
He struckout Arbelo to end the inning.
In the bottom of the sixth, Kalian Sams doubled with two outs and with that all nine Netherlands-players had now at least one basehit.
A pitching change followed and Sams then stranded.
...Kingdom Team wins; first to reach Quarter Finals...
(© Photo courtesey of WBSC) |
Puerto Rico became more productive in the top of the seventh inning off of new pitcher Wendell Floranus, who became the fourth Netherlands-hurler.
Shortly before the start of the tournament, Floranus was added to the Netherlands-roster, taking the spot of Kevin Heijstek.
Floranus had been with the team during the exhibition games in the week before the tournament.
Heijstek started one of those games, but then was replaced on the roster.
Floranus was greeted with an infield-hit by Joiset Feliciano, then Juan Silva also singled.
With one out, pinch-hitter José Rivera hit an RBI-double off the fence to bring in Feliciano.
That marked the end for Floranus, who was replaced by Bayron Cornelisse.
He gave up a 2-run double to Jay Gonzalez that narrowed the deficit to 9-5.
Cornelisse followed with two strikeouts to end the at bat.
Puerto Rico reached base again in the top of the 8th off of Cornelisse.
First, Aldo Mendez led off with a walk.
Hereafter, first baseman Curt Smith made a great play on a high hopper to retire batter Yasamberty Arbelo.
He then threw the ball to short stop Carlton Daal for a possible double play, but Daal missed the ball and Mendez was safe.
When next batter Joiset Feliciano walked, Meulens brought in closer Loek van Mil.
But he also faced a Puerto Rican-team that suddenly was getting back into the game.
After a groundout moved the two runners into scoring position, a 2-run single by Juan Medina followed to make it a 9-7 score.
José Rivera followed with another basehit.
Next, Luis Rivera hit the ball up the middle for an infield-hit, but when the ball was thrown past second base, Medina took off to score, but got into a run-down.
He was unable to return to third base, as Rivera had arrived there and so Medina was tagged out, ending the inning.
And that was a huge play, as Puerto Rico would have had the bases loaded otherwise!
In the bottom of the eighth, the Orange added some insurance runs.
With one out off of new pitcher Roy Geiger, Wladimir Balentien was hit by a pitch and wasn't happy with that.
He was replaced by pinch-runner Dwayne Kemp.
When Curt Smith followed with a walk, another pitching change was made.
José Ayala was greeted with a single by Kalian Sams that could have led to a basesloaded situation.
However, Kemp ran to a stop sign trying to score, returned too late to third base and was tagged out there.
With two outs, Nicholas Valenza became the third pitcher in this inning.
He gave up a 2-run single to Shawn Zarraga that gave the Orange an 11-7 lead.
Another single by Hainley Statia followed, but a groundout then ended the inning.
In the top of the ninth, Van Mil retired the side to end the game and earn a save.
And with that, the Kingdom of the Netherlands clinched a spot in the Quarter Finals!
The starting players, their replacements, positions and hitting in this game were:
1 - Randolph Oduber (CF, 3-for-4)
2 - Chris Garia (LF, 2-for-4)
3 - Yurendell de Caster (3B, 1-for-5)
4 - Wladimir Balentien (DH, 1-for-3), replaced by Dwayne Kemp (PR-DH, 0-for-0)
5 - Curt Smith (1B, 2-for-4)
6 - Kalian Sams (RF, 2-for-4)
7 - Shawn Zarraga (C, 2-for-4)
8 - Hainley Statia (2B, 2-for-5)
9 - Carlton Daal (SS, 1-for-5)
Pitchers - Shairon Martis, Orlando Yntema, Jim Ploeger, Wendell Floranus, Bayron Cornelisse, Loek van Mil.
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