(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Amsterdam-pitcher Kevin Heijstek out for the season
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
Kevin Heijstek, the pitching ace of L&D Amsterdam Pirates, will be out for the remainder of the season.
...Kevin Heijstek...
...out for the season...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
On Sunday (June 12), before its home game against Vaessen Pioniers, Amsterdam Pirates was honored for winning the European Champions Cup a week ago in Rimini (Italy).
In the final of that tournament, Heijstek started for Pirates, but sustained a leg-injury in the sixth inning and had to leave the game.
During the honoring, Heijstek was not in uniform and walked difficult.
The righthander confirmed that the injury was much severe as initially thought, as he suffered a torn harmstring in his left leg and will be out for several months to recover.
With that, he will miss the remainder of the regular season, as well as the postseason.
As he also is a member of the Netherlands Kingdom Team, Heijstek also will miss the European Championship, which will be played in September in Hoofddorp and Nieuw-Vennep (Netherlands).
,,I'm now focusing on returning in time for next years World Baseball Classic'', Heijstek said.
This season, Heijstek had been the Game 1-starter in almost all 3-game series Amsterdam Pirates played.
He started seven games (one complete) and was 5-1 with an 1.80 ERA.
In 45 innings, the righthander struckout 33 batters and walked only six.
Besides Heijstek, Amsterdam Pirates also has to do without veteran righthander Rob Cordemans since the start of the season.
Cordemans, who was named Best Pitcher (again) in the Dutch big league last season, is recovering from a shoulder-injury.
A week before the team left for Italy, lefthanded starter Kyle Ward also got injured.
He missed his last start in the regular season, but returned to the mound during the tournament in Italy and als started last Saturday in the second game against Pioniers.
Amsterdam Pirates probably will add pitchers from within the club to the big league-roster to fill in.
In the first half of the season, Amsterdam Pirates had a 17-game winning streak and was the league-leader for most of the season.
Currently, Curaçao Neptunus is in first place of the first half, followed by Pirates.
On Tuesday-evening, Amsterdam and Neptunus will face each other in the final game of the first half.
The winner of that game will finish in first place.
Both Amsterdam and Neptunus already secured a spot in the Play-Offs by finishing in first and second place.
In the second half of the season, which started last Thursday, Pirates was swept in three games by Pioniers.
(June 12)
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