(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Pirates nips Neptunus in pitching-duel to reach Holland Series
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
L&D Amsterdam Pirates nipped Curaçao Neptunus 2-1 on Sunday (August 28) in the last game of the 9-game Play-Offs to become the second team to reach the Holland Series.
The Final opens on Saturday, September 24 after completion of the European Championship, which is played September 9-18 in Hoofddorp and Nieuw-Vennep (Netherlands.
The all-deciding best-of-seven will feature Amsterdam Pirates and defending champion Neptunus, which reached the Final last Thursday by winning the opening game of the 3-game series against the Amsterdam-squad.
The two teams last met in a Holland Series in 2014.
That was an exciting Championship Series, which needed all seven games to come to a decision.
It was the first time since 1989 that all seven games were needed in the Holland Series.
Last year, Amsterdam missed reaching the Holland Series, while being a favorite.
Amsterdam then closed the regular season in first place and therefore, it began the Play-Offs with the most bonus-points (six).
The team started by sweeping Pioniers, but then lost five of its next six games to be eliminated.
This year, Amsterdam started the Play-Offs in second place.
They won their first two series against Pioniers (2-1) and Kinheim (2-1) respectively, before facing Neptunus.
Before the start of that series, Pirates needed one win to reach the final, but lost the first two games.
In the meantime, Vaessen Pioniers was moving up to the ranking and started the final series of the season with two wins against Kinheim.
However, in order to reach the Holland Series, Pioniers needed to sweep Kinheim, while Pirates had to be swept by Neptunus.
But that didn't happen.
Pioniers did complete the sweep against Kinheim, but learned in the eighth inning that Pirates had won its game against Neptunus.
And with that, Pirates became the second finalist.
Pirates and Pioniers ended up in a tie, but the head-to-head results between the two teams is in favor of Pirates.
Today's game between Pirates and Neptunus was a pitching-duel.
Both teams collected only six basehits.
Veteran Rob Cordemans made only his second start of the season and is still recovering from an injury.
After having pitched the first two innings against Kinheim last Monday, the 41-year old righthander today pitched the first four innings.
He was relieved in the fifth by Kyle Ward, who also is still recovering from an injury.
The lefthander was credited with the win and in the seventh inning, he was replaced by closer Tom de Blok, who earned the save.
Looking back to early June and the following weeks, it can stated that by reaching the Holland Series, Amsterdam Pirates has realized a great accomplishment, which earned the squad a lot of respect.
Pirates had started the season with Cordemans on the disabled list.
On June 4, Amsterdam Pirates won the final of the European Champions Cup in Italy, but the team also lost its ace-starter Kevin Heijstek for the rest of the season with a severe hamstring-injury.
Shortly thereafter, starting pitchers Kyle Ward and Dennis Burgersdijk also sustained injuries.
The club didn't add any new players during the season, but kept on playing with the players who were on the roster from the beginning.
The lone exception, due to the injuries, was that two pitchers from its Rookie League-team were added to the main-squad, while reliever Robin Schel moved into the starting rotation.
They all did fine and Pirates kept on recording victories, as the team combined its pitching with good defense and a sollid offense.
The team already had secured itself of a spot in the Play-Offs by finishing in second place in the first half of the season.
And now, in the Play-Offs, Amsterdam Pirates again performed well by winning when it needed to win to reach the Holland Series.
With that, the team also secured its participation again in next years European Champions Cup.
By finishing in first place in the regular season, Neptunus first qualified for this event.
The team that captures the Dutch championship-title will be the second team to qualify.
In case, Neptunus wins the title, the losing team of the Holland Series will be second Dutch representative in the European Cup-tournament.
Today, both teams scored a run in the first inning.
For Neptunus, Christian Diaz led off with a double off of Rob Cordemans.
He advanced on a grounder by Randolph Oduber, then scored on a sacrifice fly by Raily Legito.
In the bottom of the first inning, Remco Draijer led off with a single off of starter Kenny Van Den Branden.
Draijer advanced to second base on a flyout, then scored on a 2-out single by Gilmer Lampe.
Amsterdam Pirates took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Kenny Berkenbosch led off with a walk, then a double play-grounder by Linoy Croes led only to one out.
An costly error enabled Berkenbosch to reach second base and he then scored the go-ahead run on a following single by Max Clarijs.
After scoring in the first inning, Neptunus got into scoring position only two more times in the remainder of the game and got only six more baserunners.
Pirates turned a double play in the third inning, while Cordemans retired the side in the second and fourth inning.
In the seventh inning, Neptunus got its first baserunner again in scoring position when Dwayne Kemp led off with a walk and moved on a sacrifice bunt, but he stranded on second base.
In the eighth, Christian Diaz doubled with one out, but also was left on second base.
After scoring the go-ahead run in the fourth inning, Pirates got more scoring opportunities.
The team left three runners behind in the fifth, then a runner stranded on third base in the sixth inning.
(complete recap will be added later)
(August 28)
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