(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 DSS ends losing streak by winning cray marathon
Nederlands
 HAARLEM (Neth.) -
DSS was facing an early 8-0 deficit against HCAW on Saturday (August 6), staged two 8-run rallies and went on to win 17-15 in a wild and bizarrre game that lasted more than four hours!
With the win, DSS ended a 16-game losing streak, while HCAW ended its 5-game winning streak.
There were 32 runs in the game, 34 basehits, five errors, 22 (!) walks and eight pitchers, who combined delivered 438 pitches.
Besides that, the game took a long time and became official after two hours and 42 minutes were played!
At that time, one of the other three big league-games today already had ended, while another one ended a few minutes later.
The third game ended while the DSS vs. HCAW game was in the bottom of the sixth.
Also, two of the three softball double-headers that were played today in the Golden League had been completed when the game in Haarlem was still underway.
In the end, the game ended after four hours and three minutes to become the third longest 9-inning game in history!
For the neutral spectator, it was a fun game to watch, as a lot happened.
HCAW scored four runs in the first (including three on a homerun by Kevin Weijgertse) and in the third inning off of starter Tim Halderman.
With that, the Bussum-squad took an early comfortable lead, needing only two more runs to reach a mercy-rule run-difference.
That all changed in the bottom of the third inning, as DSS rallied for eight runs off of starter Kaj Timmermans.
All nine batters reached base safely and the first eight of them all scored, which is a rare accomplishment.
Seven of the runs were scored with no outs.
And so, we had a complete new ball game.
HCAW re-took the lead, scoring seven runs in the fourth and fifth inning combined.
Trailing 15-9, DSS staged another 8-run rally in the sixth inning, which was highlighted by a 3-run homerun by Sven van de Sanden, who had started the rally with a lead-off double.
The homerun gave DSS a 17-15 lead.
HCAW was held scoreless in its final four at bats.
However, trailing 17-15 in the top of the ninth inning, a tie-break was in the making when HCAW got its first to batters on base.
But they were left behind, as the next three batters were retired to end the long game.
Both teams collected 17 basehits.
Four HCAW-batters hit three each, while Kevin Weijgertse batted in five runs.
DSS had two batters with three basehits and saw Van de Sanden batting in five runs.
Before today, 24 nine-inning games this season lasted three hours or more.
Four of these games lasted more than 3:30 hours.
The longest game this season before today took three hours and 44 minutes and was played on June 12.
DSS also was involved in that game, turning an 11-0 deficit into an 18-17 victory against Pickles UVV.
The longest 9-inning game in history was played on July 13, 1997 when the match-up between Sparta/F and Neptunus took four hours and five minutes.
The second longest game also was played by HCAW and lasted four hours and four minutes.
That was played on May 6, 2006 against Hoofddorp Pioniers.
Today's game was only the fifth in history that lasted four hours or more to complete nine innings.
(complete recap will be added later)
(August 6)
Standings 2nd half
Standings Overall
Schedule & Starting Pitchers
Team Rosters
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Third longest 9-inning game in history in time, 4 hours, 3 minutes.