(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Kinheim comes from behind and nips Pirates
Nederlands
 HAARLEM (Neth.) -
Kinheim again turned an early deficit into a victory on Saturday (July 30), winning 2-1 against L&D Amsterdam Pirates.
Last Thursday, Kinheim trailed 3-0, then won 7-3.
Today, the Haarlem-squad trailed 1-0 halfway the sixth inning, but then scored twice.
The loss by Pirates in combination by the win of league-leader Curaçao Neptunus means that the latter will finish in first place in the Overall Standings (two competition halves combined).
With that, Neptunus qualifies for participation in next years European Champions Cup-tournament.
Last year, Neptunus won the Cup for the first time since 2004, but last month, the Rotterdam-squad was dethroned by Amsterdam Pirates, which went on to win the Cup this time.
With the loss, Pirates will finish in second or third place in the Overall Standings.
Pirates is now six points (three games) ahead of Vaessen Pioniers, which today won against DSS to officially reach the Play-Offs.
Kinheim is currently in fourth place, trailing Pioniers by five points (2½ games).
However, Kinheim can still end up in a tie for fourth place in the second half with HCAW, which has won the head-to-head series in the second half, 2-1.
Based on that result (which is a tie-breaker), HCAW could reach the Play-Offs in case of a tie.
But, as mentioned in Thursday's recap, there is another ruling when two teams are tied for a relegation-spot.
And of course, a team that plays in the Play-Downs can end up relegating.
Another possibility, is a 3-way tie between Kinheim, HCAW and Amsterdam Pirates.
Or a 2-way tie for third place between Kinheim and HCAW with Amsterdam finishing in fifth place.
Amsterdam opened the score in the second inning on a wild pitch, but then was held scoreless in the remainder of the game by lefthanders Scott Ronnenbergh and Nick Veltkamp and righthander Reggie Bomberg, who threw the ninth inning.
Ronnenbergh started instead of the announced Tom Stuifbergen.
In his last start a week ago for the Netherlands National Team during the Baseball Week Haarlem, Stuifbergen left the moud in the sixth inning with an irritation to his elbow.
Amsterdam is still plagued by injuries in its pitching staff with four pitchers being injured, two of them being day-by-day.
One of them is Dennis Burgersdijk, who started today and threw five-plus fine innings, giving up four hits.
He gave up two of them in the sixth inning, which led to an 1-1 tie.
Hereafter, Burgersdijk was replaced by Pim Walsma, who gave up a runscoring triple to Niels van Weert that gave Kinheim a 2-1 lead.
And that also became the final score.
(complete recap will be added later)
(July 30)
Standings 2nd half
Standings Overall
Schedule & Starting Pitchers
Team Rosters
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