Pickles UVV vs. De Glaskoning Twins
UVV had a surprise player in its starting line-up, as Joris van Ballegooy was the catcher.
Van Ballegooy retired after last season to become the 3B Coach in the staff of Head Coach Ferenc Jongejan.
He played his last game on August 29 of last year in the Play-Downs.
Today, he was 0-for-2 with a strikeout, but also walked twice and scored two runs, including the tying run in the ninth inning.
Initially, UVV was silenced by Twins-starter Brendan Schoemaker.
The righthander threw seven strong innings, struckout eleven batters and gave up only three basehits.
When he left the mound, Twins was leading 6-1, but hereafter, the bullpen failed and gave up the comfortable lead.
In the first five innings, UVV got into scoring position only twice.
Schoemaker was supported with a double play in the first inning, then struckout the side in the second.
After retiring the side in the third (two more strikeouts), he gave up a lead-off single to Rick Kuipers in the fourth.
With two outs, he moved to third base on a wild pitch, but stranded.
In the fifth, Sergino Martis led off with a single, but Schoemaker then struckout the next two batters.
After Martis had stolen second base, the righthander closed with another strikeout.
But in the bottom of the sixth inning, it was UVV that opened the score.
Dennis Ribbens led off with a single.
An error then followed on a sacrifice bunt by Julian Rip.
That brought Ribbens to second base and he somehow also managed to score in this situation, while Rip was eliminated at first base after having reached it on the error.
With two outs, Jamie Verheyleweghen also reached on an error, but he was caught stealing moments later.
In the meantime, Twins was unable to do something off of UVV-starter Timo van Ancum, who threw five hitless innings.
In these five at bats, Twins not even reached second base.
In the first, Bart Hanegraaff walked with one out, but was eliminated with a pick-off.
In the second, Berry van Donselaar walked with one out, but then a double play followed.
In the third, Stijn Janssens reached on an error, but he also was picked off first base by Van Ancum, who then retired the side in the next two innings.
Despite having a good outing, Van Ancum was relieved in the sixth by rookie Rick Heijman, who then also retired the side.
...Dennis Ribbens...
...2 runs, 3 basehits...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
But Twins then struck with five runs with two outs in the top of the seventh inning.
With two outs, Heijman got the bases loaded when Adrian Anthony singled and both Jeffrey Arends and Berry van Donselaar walked.
The hit by Anthony broke the 6-inning No-Hitter.
With UVV still leading 1-0 and the bases loaded, Gilian van Lith took over for Heijman, but he walked Anthony Vrolijk, which led to the tying run.
Van Lith was then replaced by Tony Enos, but he ran into problems, as he was greeted with a 2-run single by Stijn Janssens.
With Vrolijk on third base, Janssens stole second base, which was followed by a throwing error, leading to another run.
The ball ended up in centerfield and when another throwing error followed, Janssens also was able to score.
Hereafter, Christopher Ge walked, Bob van der Meer singled and Denzel Bryson was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Twins then left three runners behind when a flyout ended the inning, but they were now leading 5-1.
After UVV left a runner at first base in its seventh at bat, Twins added a run in the top of the eighth.
Pinch-hitter Mick Molenaar led off with a single, then scored when Jeffrey Arends followed with a double.
That led to another pitching change, as Matt Erickson took over for Enos.
The American righthander has been not so successful during his outings on the mound and appeared to give up more runs, as he got the bases loaded.
He was greeted with a single by Berry van Donselaar, who then was forced out on a grounder by Anthony Vrolijk.
That brought Arends to third base and the bases got loaded when Erickson walked Stijn Janssens.
But UVV avoided giving up more runs, as a double play ended the at bat.
Having an apparent comfortable 6-1 lead in the bottom of the eighth inning, Twins went to the bullpen, but four relievers failed to hold onto the lead.
In the eighth, UVV scored four unearned runs off of two pitchers.
Brendan Schoemaker was relieved by Floris Timmer, who immediately got several baserunners.
He walked lead-off hitter Joris van Ballegooy, then gave up a single to Dennis Ribbens.
An error on a grounder by Julian Rip loaded the bases.
Timmer followed with a strikeout, but then walked Jamie Verheyleweghen, which brought in a run and a new pitcher, as Ben Van Nuffel took over.
With two outs, the Belgian righthander gave up a 2-run single to Sergino Martis and a runscoring single to Steven van Reem.
He closed with a strikeout, but UVV had narrowed the deficit to only 6-5.
In the top of the ninth inning, Matt Erickson had a fine outing.
He began with a strikeout, then gave up a single, but closed with two more strikeouts.
Moments later, he became the winning pitcher.
In the bottom of the ninth, Matthew Latta took over the pitching for Twins, but also ran into problems.
The Belgian walked lead-off hitter Joris van Ballegooy, who then stole second base.
Hereafter, Dennis Ribbens reached on an infield-hit, then the bases got loaded via a bunt-single by Julian Rip.
Latta then walked Berend Ruben, which made it a 6-6 score!
Another pitching change followed, as Latta was replaced by veteran Elton Koeiman, the starter in last Friday's opener.
The 43-year old righthander then threw seven innings (98 pitches).
Koeiman faced Jamie Verheyleweghen, who bunted towards third base, resulting in a force out at the plate.
But that also kept the bases loaded and Rip then went on to score the winning run when Mike Bazuin followed with a walk-off sacrifice fly.
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UVV avoids sweep against Twins with late comeback
VLEUTEN (Neth.) -
Pickles UVV trailed 6-1 halfway the eighth inning in its third game against De Glaskoning Twins and appeared to be swept by the team from Oosterhout.
However, UVV rallied for four runs in the bottom of the eighth, then scored twice in the ninth to win 7-6 and avoid a 3-game sweep.
Play-Downs.