(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Pioniers completes sweep, but is left empty-handed
Nederlands
 HAARLEM (Neth.) -
Vaessen Pioniers won 10-7 against Kinheim on Sunday (August 28) to complete a 3-game sweep against the Haarlem-squad.
Despite that, no one was happy, as the Hoofddorp-team was left empty-handed because of the 2-1 victory of L&D Amsterdam against Curaçao Neptunus.
With that, Pirates and Pioniers ended in a tie for second place in the Play-Offs, but as Pirates had won the head-to-head series 2-1, it qualified for the Holland Series, while Pioniers was eliminated.
Pioniers ended the Play-Offs with the same record (6-3) as Neptunus, which last Thursday became the first team to reach the Championship Series.
But today, the season ended for both Pioniers and Kinheim.
A win today for Pioniers in combination with a loss for Pirates, would have resulted in qualification for the Holland Series for Pioniers.
Pioniers trailed twice today, but in the end was the winning team.
Trailing 2-0 after the first inning, Pioniers scored three runs in the top of the second.
A run was added in the third, but Kinheim came alongside in the bottom of the third.
Kinheim then scored twice in the sixth to take a 6-4 lead.
Hereafter, the suspense was building in both Haarlem and Amsterdam, where Amsterdam Pirates was leading 2-1 lead against Neptunus.
In the top of the seventh inning, Pioniers rallied for four runs to take a 8-6 lead, while Amsterdam was holding on to its minimal lead.
4:09 PM
In Amsterdam, the ninth inning begins with Pirates still leading only 2-1.
In Haarlem, the eighth inning begins with Pioniers leading 8-6.
4:11 PM
In Amsterdam, the first out is recorded in the top of the ninth.
In Haarlem, Pioniers adds a run, 9-6.
4:12 PM
In Amsterdam, the second out is recorded in the top of the ninth.
In Haarlem, Pioniers scores another run to lift the lead to 10-6.
4:15 PM
In Amsterdam, the third out is recorded and Amsterdam wins 2-1 to reach the Holland Series.
In Haarlem, the bottom of the eighth inning begins with a 10-6 lead for Pioniers, which learns that it has been eliminated.
With a 2-out, 2-run double, Niels van Weert opened the score for Kinheim in the bottom of the first inning.
In the top of the second, Pioniers comes alongside on a 2-run single by Stephen Henson, who then scored the go-ahead run on a single by Christopher Garia.
In the third, a run was added on a double by Shurman Marlin.
Kinheim came alongside in the bottom of the third on a single by Oliver van der Wijst Severino and a basesloaded walk.
With te score at 4-4, veteran righthander David Bergman took over the pitching in the top of the sixth.
Three weeks ago, he pitched in his final regular season-game.
A week later, he pitched in the first Play-Off series against Curaçao Neptunus, but left the mound with an injury.
He then didn't pitch a week ago in the series against L&D Amsterdam Pirates.
But today, he made one more appearance in what was to be the final game of his long career.
In the bottom of the sixth, Bergman became the pitcher-of-record, as Kinheim took a 6-4 lead on a double by Dudley Leonora and a single by Sander Paap.
However, Bergman's possible win was erased in the next inning inning when Pioniers rallied for four runs.
Former pro Christopher Garia started the rally with a lead-off triple and scored on a following grounder.
With the bases loaded, Shurman Marlin connected for a 3-run double that gave Pioniers an 8-6 lead.
Christopher Garia had played a big part for Pioniers since he joined the team after completion of the Baseball Week Haarlem.
In the Play-Offs, he was the second best hitter with a .344 average (11-for-32), led the team with 10 runs scored, was second in basehits (11), had two doubles, two triples, a homerun and batted in six runs (second best).
In five regular season-games, he batted .429 (6-for-14), scored four runs and batted in two.
In the top of the eighth, Pioniers scored two more runs, but then learned that Amsterdam Pirates had won 2-1 against Neptunus to decide the final sport for the Holland Series.
In the remainder of the game, Pioniers made some defensive changes and inserted some rookies, while putting three position players on the mound, Zerzinho Croes, Mervin Gario and Austin Weymouth.
Kinheim used two position players as pitcher in the top of the ninth inning, Julio Hernandez and Dudley Leonora.
The team had inserted rookie Devano Pieter in the outfield in the eighth inning and he singled in the ninth inning.
There was one more change remaining for Kinheim, as it inserted pitcher Scott Ronnenbergh as pinch-hitter with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
He struckout to become the final out of the season for Kinheim.
With that, the season ended for both teams.
The final words of the season were for longtime Public Address Announcer Yvonne de Vries, who retired after having been the team's announcer for 44 years.
Also retiring was loyal Scoreboard Operator Edward van Dijck, who had been active first for Haarlem Nicols, then Kinheim since the early eighties.
Both announced their retirement earlier in the season.
In July, both also retired from their activities during the bi-annual Baseball Week Haarlem.
(complete recap will be added later)
(August 28)
Final Standings Play-Offs
Final Overall Standings
Schedule
Team Rosters
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Play-Offs.