Twins vs. Twins Rookies
The game was initially scheduled to start at 1 PM, but eventually did so 75 minutes later.
Due to the freezing temperatures of the past days, there was some ice on the field, which had to be removed.
With the removal of the ice, the field of course had to be made dry.
The plate area was the last spot to be dried.
That was done with cat litter ganules, which were purchased moments earlier!
When the game went underway, Twins struck with three runs in its first at bat off of starter Brian de Graever.
Jarreau Martina led off with a walk.
In the off-season, he returned to the Oosterhout-squad after having played for HCAW last year.
Hereafter, Bart Hanegraaff also walked and then Dennis De Quint delivered a runscoring double in his first at bat for Twins.
Last year, he played for UVV.
Another newcomer in the team, Jeffrey Arends followed with an RBI-single that made it 2-0.
Arends played for Kinheim in the past few seasons.
With runners on first and third base and one out, another run was added on a single by Chris Ge.
Twins added its fourth run in the third at bat off of new pitcher Raf Cocu.
He walked lead-off hitter Bart Hanegraaff.
With one out, the bases got loaded when Arends singled again and Berry van Donselaar walked.
Hanegraaff then scored on a sacrifice fly by Chris Ge.
...Jeffrey Arends...
...three hits, 2 RBI's...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Twins lifted the lead to 6-0 by scoring twice in the fourth inning.
This time, Stijn Janssens led off with a walk, then moved on a wild pitch and a single by Mick Molenaar.
They went on to score on a wild pitch and passed ball, respectively.
In the fifth at bat, the sixth run was added off of Mic van de Ven.
With two outs, Twins got the bases loaded when Berry van Donselaar singled and both Chris Ge and Stijn Janssens walked.
Hereafter, Mees Baaijens was brought in as new pitcher.
He walked Mick Molenaar, which led to a run, but hereafter, three runners were left behind.
After the Rookies had turned their second double play in the sixth inning, the main-squad scored another run in the seventh off of Baaijens.
He walked lead-off hitter Bart Hanegraaff (who walked three times).
Hanegraaff stole second base, moved on a sacrifice bunt by Dennis De Quint, then scored on a single by Jeffrey Arends, who was 3-for-5 with two RBI's in his first game for Twins.
A sacrifice fly by Hanegraaff produced the ninth run in the bottom of the ninth off of Branden Kuzyk, who is currently on the roster of the big league-team.
Five Twins-pitchers gave up only one basehit in nine innings and combined on 18 strikeouts!
Four of them threw two innings today in the game, that took three hours and 15 minutes.
The lone hit by the Rookies was registered in the third inning by former big league-player Brian Biezen, who last year played for HCAW.
Three other batters walked.
In both the second and third inning, the Rookies got two baserunners.
In the second inning, off of Belgian starter Ben Van Nuffel, Branden Kuzyk led off with a walk.
With one out, Mees Baaijens also walked, but they both stranded when a strikeout and flyout followed.
With two outs in the third, off of veteran Elton Koeiman, Biezen produced his single.
An error then followed on a force play-grounder by Bram Grooten, but a grounder ended the at bat.
That grounder was hit by Rikkert Kempen, who last season played in the big league for HCAW.
With his grounder, he became the first of the final 19 batters to be retired in order.
Righthander Brendan Schoemaker threw the final two innings for Twins.
Schoemaker, who pitched for Euro Stars in the last few seasons, retired all six batters he faced and struckout five of them.
Infielder Anthony Vrolijk will also see pitching-duty this season.
Today, he threw the fifth and sixth inning and struckout four batters.
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Comfortable win Twins in exhibition opener
OOSTERHOUT (Neth.) -
Four teams from the Dutch Major League had their first exhibition game of the season scheduled for today (Saturday, March 5).
Two more games were scheduled for Sunday.
As predicted, the temperatures remained low in the past few days and because of that, two games were already cancelled on Friday, one to be played on Saturday, the other on Sunday.
However, two games were played today and with that, the exhibition season officially opened.