Curaçao Neptunus vs. Fortitudo Bologna
Neptunus faced 30-year old Venezuelan righthander Raúl Juan Rivero, who is 3-1 in the regular season and earlier played for Bologna in 2013.
Rivero played professionally in the organization of the Baltimore Orioles in 2005-2011 and reached the Double-A level.
Hereafter, he went on pitching in México and Venezuela, before returning to Italy this season.
Neptunus was unable to get into scoring position in the first four innings off of Rivero.
In the first at bat, Benjamin Dille walked with one out, but was left behind at first base.
In the second, Christian Diaz led off with a single, but was caught stealing to end the inning.
Rivero then retired the side in the third, but saw Neptunus get its lead-off hitter on base again in the fourth when Benjamin Dille reached on an error.
But he again stranded on first base.
Diegomar Markwell started for Neptunus.
The lefthander got far more baserunners, but also was supported by his defense.
Markwell retired the side in the first inning, but then saw Bologna open the score in the next at bat.
With one out, he walked Tyler La Torre, but he was caught stealing.
Hereafter, Alessandro Vaglio doubled and scored when Paolino Ambrosino followed with a single.
Another single by Marco Sabbatini followed, but Markwell then closed with a strikeout.
In the third inning, Juan Carlos Infante led off with a single and advanced on a sacrifice bunt.
A walk followed for veteran Claudio Liverziani, but the Neptunian defense then turned a double play on a line drive by Alex Sambucci.
...Winning pitcher Raúl Juan Rivero...
(© Photo: Rob Jelsma) |
Two more crucial defense plays followed in the next two at bats.
In the fourth, with two outs, Paolino Ambrosino singled.
Hereafter, Marco Sabbatini also singled.
Ambrosino moved to third base, but Sabbatini was eliminated trying to advance to second base, which ended the inning.
In the fifth, Bologna initially appeared to double its lead.
Alessandro Grimaudo reached second base on a throwing error, then moved to third base on a sacrifice bunt by Juan Carlos Infante.
Grimaudo then scored on what appeared to be a sacrifice fly by Ronny Cedeno.
However, Neptunus appealed that Grimaudo had left third base too early, which was confirmed by the umpires and so he was ruled out.
And that also ended the at bat.
Neptunus then got into scoring position for the first time in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Dashenko Ricardo led off with a single, then Stijn van der Meer walked with one out.
Van der Meer had joined the Rotterdam-squad just before it left for Italy after having completed his college-season in the USA.
He didn't play in the first game on Tuesday, but today started as short stop.
Regular short stop Dwayne Kemp played in leftfield.
Randolph Oduber, who played in leftfield since joining the team recently, didn't play yesterday and also didn't start today.
Last Saturday, he had left the game against L&D Amsterdam Pirates in the first inning after stealing second base.
Afterwards, it as announced that Oduber had been replaced out of precaution due to cramp.
However, it has now been confirmed that he sustained a strained muscle and because of that had been sidelined.
OK, back to the inning.
With Ricardo on second base and Van der Meer on first base, Ricardo was forced out at third base on a grounder by Shaldimar Daantji.
Another grounder followed to end the inning.
...Christian Diaz had two basehits for Neptunus...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Neptunus then got its biggest scoring opportunity in the bottom of the sixth inning.
After Benjamin Dille had lined out, Raily Legito, Gianison Boekhoudt and Christian Diaz all singled to load the bases.
It marked the first time in this game that Neptunus had a runner on third base.
However, the inning ended quickly when next batter Dashenko Ricardo grounded into a double play.
In the top of the seventh inning, Bologna got another runner on third base.
With one out, Alessandro Grimaudo singled.
With two outs, he advanced on a wild pitch, but a throwing error followed that enabled him to reach third base.
It was then opted to walk Ronny Cedeno intentionally to set up a force play, but a flyout ended the inning.
Neptunus got its lead-off hitter on base for the fourth time when Rien Vernooij led off the bottom of the seventh with a single.
However, he was forced out on a bunt by Stijn van der Meer.
With the latter on first base, Randolph Oduber entered the game as pinch-hiter, but flied out.
Van der Meer stranded when a grounder ended the at bat.
After his pinch-hit appearance, Oduber didn't play defensively, as he was replaced by Daniel Fernandes.
In the top of the eighth inning, Berry van Driel took over the pitching for Markwell.
With two outs, he walked a batter, but then closed with a strikeout.
In the top of the ninth inning, Loek van Mil became the third pitcher for Neptunus and he struckout the side.
In the bottom of the ninth, Nicholas Pugliese took over for Raúl Rivero.
The Venezuelan had thrown eight strong innings in which he had given up only six basehits.
For Neptunus, this was its final chance of doing something back and they almost did, as Pugliese ran into problems.
With two outs, Neptunus got the bases loaded.
Rien Vernooij walked, Stijn van der Meer followed with a single, then Daniel Fernandes also walked.
However, the game then ended when Dwayne Kemp grounded out.
And that left Neptunus empty-handed.
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Neptunus empty-handed against Bologna in European Champions Cup
RIMINI (Italy) -
Dutch champion Curaçao Neptunus was left empty-handed on Wednesday (June 1) in its second game of the European Champions Cup-tournament.
In Rimini, Neptunus gave up only one run, but that was enough for UnipolSai Fortitudo Bologna (Italy) to win 1-0.
Last year, Neptunus faced Bologna in the best-of-three Final of the European Champions Cup.
Bologna opened with a victory at home, then Neptunus won the next two games in Rotterdam to become the first Dutch team since 2007 to win the European Cup.
Neptunus and Bologna each had won the Qualification Tournament earlier in the year.
In 2008, a new European Cup-format was introduced with two Qualification Tournaments.
The best two teams of each tournament went on to play in the Final Four.
In the last few years, only the winners faced each other in a best-of-three.
But from this year on, the format is back to a single tournament, which ends with a final.