Neptunus opened the score quickly in the top of the first inning off of Bayron Cornelisse, who made his second start of the season.
The righthander hit lead-off hitter Stijn van der Meer with a pitch.
He then moved on a sacrifice bunt by Benjamin Dille and scored on a 2-out double by Dwayne Kemp.
DSS came alongside immediately in its first at bat off of starter Diegomar Markwell.
With one out, Odion Gouverneur drove the ball down the leftfield-line with homerun-distance.
It sounded like the ball had hit the foul-pole, which of course stands in fair territory.
Initially, a foul ball was called, but the umpiring crew got together, had a brief discussion and made the correct call by signaling it was a homerun after all!
That made it an 1-1 score.
Hereafter, Omar Williams walked, but a double play ended the inning.
Starting with the batter who grounded into the double play, Markwell retired ten batters in a row.
He then walked Sven van de Sanden to start the fifth inning, but again was supported with a double play.
Markwell, who didn't really dominate, but just threw the good pitches, gave up his second basehit in the sixth inning.
With one out, Thomas Bos singled, but he was caught stealing after a pick-off moments later.
Markwell then hit Kevin Nieveld with a pitch, but closed with his sixth strikeout in the game, which also led to an ejection.
Neptunus re-took the lead in the top of the second inning.
Bayron Cornelisse struckout the first two batters, but then walked Gregory Muller and gave up a single to Shaldimar Daantji.
Both scored when Stijn van der Meer followed with a double.
...Stijn van der Meer...
...3-for-4, double, 3 runs, 4 RBI's...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
After giving up the runs, Cornelisse retired seven batters in a row.
The righthander added two more scoreless innings, with the sixth inning ending with a nice defensive play by third baseman Djewi Appelman.
In the seventh inning, Timo van Lingen took over from Cornelisse and made his first appearance of the season.
He gave up an one-out double to Gregory Muller, who scored on a 2-out single by Stijn van der Meer.
Moments later, Van der Meer scored the next run on a double by Benjamin Dille, who was 3-for-4 tonight to increase his league-leading batting average to .450.
Trailing 5-1, DSS got a run back in the bottom of the seventh off of Markwell.
The lefthander began with two strikeouts.
The second resulted in another ejection, as the batter (as did the first) argued balls-and-strikes of Home Plate Umpire Martijn Bosschaart, who had a very consistent strikezone and did well behind the plate.
With two outs, Markwell gave up a single to Sven van de Sanden, followed with a walk for Devano Pieter.
In an attempt to pick-off Pieter a first base, Markwell made a throwing error, which enabled Van de Sanden to score.
In the top of the eighth, Dwayne Kemp led off for Neptunus with his second double in the game.
With one out, Daniel Fernandes lined out to Mitchel Dautzenberg, who had just taken over in leftfield, an unfamiliar position, as he normally plays as short stop.
Kemp had left on contact and so, Dautzenberg completed a double play that ended the at bat.
...Kevin Nieveld played all 9 positions this season...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Neptunus staged a 4-run rally in the top of the ninth.
Lars Vogelaar took over the DSS-pitching, but ran into problems.
The first out was recorded on a very rare play.
Ruar Verkerk led off with a single.
Next batter Gregory Muller hit a soft grounder towards Kevin Nieveld, who had become the new third baseman the inning before.
As he had no play at first base, Nieveld tried for second base, but Verkerk was safe there and so Muller was credited with an infield-hit.
Hereafter, Shaldimar Daantji hit the ball into rightfield for an apparant basehit.
Muller moved to second base, but Verkerk left second base too late and was forced out on third base on a throw from rightfielder Sven van de Sanden.
With that, Daantji reached first base on a 9-5 fielder's choice!
Stijn van der Meer, Benjamin Dille and Brian Raap then all folowed with runscoring singles.
Raap singled in his first at bat in the game, after he had become the new catcher of Neptunus in the previous inning.
The bases got loaded when Vogelaar hit Dwayne Kemp.
The righthander then also hit Jochem Koedijk with a pitch, which resulted in another run.
Koedijk also had been a late-inning defensive replacement taking over in rightfield.
Koedijk was hit hard on his knee by Vogelaar's pitch and left the game.
Dwayne Kemp, who is an infielder, became the third rightfielder for Neptunus in the bottom of the ninth.
After hitting Koedijk and with the bases loaded, Vogelaar was replaced by Kevin Nieveld, who played four different positions tonight.
After starting at first base, he moved to leftfield in the seventh, then to third base in the eighth and now closed as pitcher.
The righthander began with a strikout, then a foul pop-up ended the inning.
With a 5-2 lead, Loek van Mil took over from Markwell in the bottom of the eighth inning.
He struckout the first two batters, but then walked Kevin Nieveld and hit Tino van Erk with a pitch.
Van Erk also came into the game late after the first ejection had taken place.
With runners on first and second base, Van Mil closed with his third strikeout.
Berry van Driel pitched the ninth inning for Neptunus.
He retired the side, striking out the final two hitters.
There were several defensive changes tonight, nine for DSS, five for Neptunus.
With all the changes, another rare feat happened tonight, as both teams ended without a designated hitter!
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Neptunus outscores DSS; Nieveld plays all positions
HAARLEM (Neth.) -
Curaçao Neptunus took an early lead and increased it to a 9-2 victory against DSS on a stormy Thursday-evening (August 3) in Haarlem.
Tonight, there were very strong winds at the coast where Haarlem is located.
When the game started, winds of 34 mph (55 kmh) were recorded.
The wind, which had a strength of 6 Beaufort (which is storm), continued throughout the game with the batted ball sometimes blowing into different directions.
Odion Gouverneur (DSS) ejected by Home Plate Umpire Martijn Bosschaart in bottom 6th inning for reaction after striking out.