Tom Stuifbergen dominated for seven innings.
And maybe he dominated the entire game, as he wasn't responsible himself for the loss tonight.
However, Stuifbergen wasn't supported offensively, as Amsterdam-starter Rob Cordemans also had another fine outing.
The veteran righthander struckout seven batters and gave up only four hits to Kinheim in the seven innings he pitched.
Only twice Kinheim reached second base.
...Catcher Bas Nooij (who broke the No-Hitter)...
...congratulates winning pitcher Tom de Blok...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the first inning, Mervin Gario singled with one out, moved on a wild pitch, then stranded.
In the seventh, Kinheim got its second runner on second base.
Kalian Sams, who had flied out and struckout in his previous two at bats, then reached on an error, as did next hitter Jeffrey Arends.
But then Sams was forced out at third base on a grounder by Dudley Leonora and Cordemans closed with two strikeouts.
In the meantime, Stuifbergen was silencing the Amsterdam offense.
He retired the first ten batters in a row, then his Perfect Game ended when he walked Michael Duursma with one out in the fourth inning.
Duursma stole second base, but then was left behind, as Stuifbergen retired the next eight batters.
He then walked Duursma again to lead off the seventh at bat.
Duursma advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Nick Urbanus, but stranded again.
And so, Stuifbergen entered the eighth inning, still pitching a No-Hitter.
The last big league regular season No-Hitter was pitched exactly five years ago, on April 30, 2010 by Dushan Ruzic (Neptunus).
In August of that year, Joey Eijpe (HCAW) also threw a No-Hitter, but that was in the Play-Downs.
Stuifbergen's No-Hitter ended when Bas Nooij led off the eighth inning with a double into rightfield.
He moved to third base on a sacrifice bunt by Jesse Aussems, then next batter Rashid Gerard was hit by a pitch.
And then, the Kinheim-defense made two costly errors.
A grounder by Linoy Croes towards third base ended in a throwing error by third baseman Mervin Gario towards home plate, as Nooij had took off on the grounder and went on to score.
Hereafter, Croes was forced out at second base on a grounder by Roelie Henrique, but when trying to complete a double play, second baseman Kevin Moesquit threw past first baseman Jeffrey Arends, which enabled Gerard to score the second run.
Tom de Blok had taken over the pitching for Pirates in the eighth inning.
With two outs, he saw Mervin Gario reach on an error, but he was left behind.
In the ninth inning, De Blok hit lead-off hitter Kalian Sams with a pitch.
The professional was then replaced by pinch-runner Niels van Weert.
But hereafter, De Blok finished strongly, as he struckout the next three batters to end the game and secure the victory.
The double by Nooij remained the lone basehit allowed by Stuifbergen.
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Pirates turns almost No-Hitter into victory vs. Kinheim
AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
L&D Amsterdam Pirates was silenced in seven innings on Thursday-evening (April 30) by Corendon Kinheim-pitcher Tom Stuifbergen, who was six outs away from a No-Hitter.
The righthander had only allowed Michael Duursma to reach base twice via a walk, but had retired all other batters in the Amsterdam line-up.
However, both Stuifbergen and Kinheim ended up empty-handed.
