Curaçao Neptunus vs. T&A San Marino
Initially, Neptunus appeared to be off to a good start, scoring a run in the first inning.
After starting pitcher Kenny Van Den Branden had retired the side in the top of the first inning, Neptunus opened the score moments later.
Dwayne Kemp led off with a single off of Venezuelan Yoimer Camacho Infante and advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Benjamin Dille.
While reaching first base, the Belgian collided with San Marino-first baseman Francesco Imperiali and had to leave the game.
With two outs, Kemp scored on a double by Gianison Boekhoudt.
In the following five innings, Camacho would give up only one more basehit.
The 26-year old righthander played professionally in 2008-2013 in the organization of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
He also played in the Venezuelan Winter League in the past five seasons.
After giving up the run in the first inning, Camacho dominated.
In the second through fifth inning, he allowed only one batter to reach base.
Since giving up the double to Boekhoudt, he retired 13 of the next 14 batters he faced.
The Venezuelan retired the side in the second (3 strikeouts), third and fifth inning (2 strikeouts).
With two outs in the fourth inning, Christian Diaz had singled for Neptunus, but hereafter, the inning ended when Dashenko Ricardo struckout.
After having retired the side in the opening at bat, Kenny Van Den Branden gave up an one-out single to Franscesco Imperiali in the second inning, but he stranded on first base.
The Belgian righthander then retired the side again in the third at bat in which he struckout two batters.
San Marino then struck in the fourth inning off of Van Den Branden.
Jack Santora led off with a walk and thereafter Wuillians Vásquez Colmenares followed with a 2-run homerun.
The Venezuelan is no stranger to Dutch baseball, as he played in the Dutch big league for HCAW in 2010.
The next two batters grounded out, then Nicholas Morreale reached on a bunt-single, but he was left behind.
...Winning pitcher Loek van Mil...
...3 innings, 4 strikeouts, 0 hits...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the fifth, Van Den Branden walked Sebastiano Poma and Jack Santora with two outs, then faced Vásquez again.
But this time, the Venezuelan flied out.
San Marino added a run in the top of the sixth inning.
Van Den Branden hit lead-off hitter Joseph Mazzuca with a pitch, then saw a line drive by Francesco Imperiali being caught by second baseman Dwayne Kemp, who had taken over the position from Dille in the second inning.
Kemp started in leftfield and was replaced there by Daniel Fernandes.
After the line drive, Van Den Branden was relieved by Kevin Kelly.
Moments later, Mazzuca stole second base and advanced when a throwing error followed.
He then scored on a sacrifice fly by Nicholas Morreale to make it a 3-1 score.
In the bottom of the sixth, Neptunus got into scoring position for the first time since the first inning.
Dwayne Kemp led off with a walk and stole second base.
With one out, he also attempted to steal third base, but this time was caught stealing.
Next batter Raily Legito walked and moved on a wild pitch, but then Gianison Boekhoudt struckout and that ended the inning.
After Kevin Kelly had retired the side in the top of the seventh, Neptunus narowed the deficit to 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh after a pitching change.
Junior Oberto took over for starter Yoimer Camacho Infante, who had struckout 12 batters and gave up only three hits in the six innings he pitched.
Christian Diaz led off with a single off of the 35-year old Venezuelan Oberto, who plays in Italy since 2003 and also has an Italian passport.
With one out, Diaz was awarded the second base when the lefthander committed a balk.
Hereafter, Rien Vernooij walked, then Stijn van der Meer followed with a runscoring single.
With runners on first and second base, Randolph Oduber was inserted as pinch-hitter for Shaldimar Daantji.
Oberto struckout the former pro, then saw Dwayne Kemp flyout to end the inning.
Oduber, who is still recovering from a slight injury, was replaced again when the top of the eighth began, which led to some switches in the Neptunian outfield.
Loek van Mil became the new pitcher for the Rotterdam-squad and he retired the side.
...Gianison Boekhoudt...
...walk-off walk...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Neptunus got a chance to come alongside when it got two baserunners with one out.
Raily Legito and Gianison Boekhoudt then walked, but next batter Christian Diaz grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Van Mil also got three consecutive outs in the top of the ninth inning.
That meant that Neptunus got one final chance to erase the 3-2 deficit.
With one out, Rien Vernooij walked.
He got into scoring position on a following grounder by Stijn van der Meer.
The game appeared to be over when next batter Urving Kemp hit the ball towards third baseman Joseph Mazzuca.
However, the veteran misplayed the ball and that enabled Vernooij to score the tying run!
Dwayne Kemp then fouled off and that meant that the game went into extra innings.
San Marino re-took the lead in the top of the tenth inning.
Tie-break runners Simone Albanese (2nd base) and Pierangelo Cit (1st base) advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Luca Pulzetti.
Hereafter, Loek van Mil struckout Sebastiano Poma, but then followed with a wild pitch that enabled Albanese to score and put San Marino ahead, 4-3.
A following strikeout then ended the inning.
In the bottom of the tenth inning, Neptunus decided the game, as two pitchers were unable to find the strike-zone.
The Kemp-brothers were the tie-break runners, Urving on 2nd base and Dwayne on first base and both would score.
Ludovico Coveri became the new pitcher for San Marino and at that moment, there were two pitchers in the game with almost the same first name.
Loek van Mil's birthname is Ludovicus.
Coveri clearly had problems with his control and that was costly.
First, he got the bases loaded when he hit Daniel Fernandes with a pitch.
Hereafter, Coveri walked Raily Legito and that led to the tying run!
Coveri was replaced by Enrico Crepaldi, while first baseman Francesco Imperiali and rightfielder Nicholas Morreale also switched positions.
Crepali faced Gianison Boekhoudt and he also issued a walk.
With no room on the bases, all runners advanced and that gave Neptunus a 5-4 victory and a spot in the semi-final after all!
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Neptunus has narrow escape but reaches semi-final in European Champions Cup
SERRAVALLE (San Marino) -
Defending Cupholder Curaçao Neptunus was one out away from being dethroned, but the Rotterdam-squad had a very narrow escape and went on to win 5-4 in ten innings against T&A San Marino to reach the semi-final of the European Champions Cup.
The game started on Thursday-evening (June 2), but ended well after midnight on Friday-morning (June 3).
It rained throughout the day in San Marino, which led to the early ending of the afternoon-game between UnipolSai Fortitudo Bologna (Italy) and VOITH Heidenheim Heideköpfe (Germany).
The Germans had scored twice in the top of the seventh inning to take a 3-2 lead when the rain struck.
The game was halted, the runs were erased and with that, Bologna won 2-1 after six complete innings!
Game started one hour and 50 minutes later than scheduled due to rain and field-maintenance.