The game went underway under a clouded sky, but the clouds cleared and it became a sunny afternoon with nice conditions to play.
The game between Amsterdam Pirates and UVV was quickpaced, had some good hitting, some fine defensive plays and a few errors.
And it had a good umpiring crew.
Home Plate Umpire Efrem Silvania had a consistent strikezone, while both Field Umpires made good calls on two close plays.
3B Umpire André Eijpe had one in a steal-situation at second base, while 1B Umpire Henny Jansen had a great call at first base on a hard and difficult line drive down the first base-line, which was the first play of the game.
The ball was fielded fine by first baseman Kenny Berkenbosch, Jansen had to step aside, but then made the correct call when pitcher Kevin Heijstek arrived at first base in time to make the out.
But today's game belonged to righthander Kevin Heijstek, who threw a very strong game.
In eight innings, he gave up only two basehits and struckout seven batters, while UVV never got into scoring position!
Heijstek allowed only three batters to reach base.
The first of them, Julian Goins, walked with two outs in the second.
In the fourth inning, Tijmen Takke led off with a single down the rightfield-line, but he was eliminated in an inning-ending double play.
After giving up the single Heijstek retired 13 consecutive batters.
He then gave up an infield-hit to Brandon Rijnbergen in the eighth inning, but he was forced out.
In the meantime, the Amsterdam-offense provided Heijstek with four runs.
Amsterdam Pirates opened the score in the third inning off of starting pitcher Jurjen van Zijl.
With two outs, Remco Draijer lined the ball into rightfield.
There, it hit the yellow line at the top of the fence and went over it for a homerun.
Hereafter, Zerzinho Croes singled, but was caught stealing at second base in a close play.
Amsterdam added its second run with two outs in the fourth at bat.
Nick Urbanus led off with a walk, stole second base with two outs and scored on a single by Danny Rombley.
Amsterdam got into scoring position again in the fifth.
Remco Draijer then singled with two outs, stole second base, but stranded.
The home team scored its third run in the sixth and it was again scored by Nick Urbanus.
This time, he led off with a single with centerfielder Julian Rip losing the ball in the sun.
Urbanus then stole second base and moved to third base when Gilmer Lampe reached on a throwing error.
Moments later, Urbanus scored when a grounder by Kenny Berkenbosch also ended in an error.
With runners on first and second base and still no outs, Jurjen van Zijl retired the next three batters, two of them with a strikeout.
Amsterdam made it a 4-0 score in the seventh off of new pitcher José Moreno.
Norbert Jongerius led off with a double, moved on a flyout and scored when Zerzinho Croes reached on an error.
Croes later was left behind on third base.
In the eighth, lead-off hitter Patrick Bok reached on the fourth error by UVV, then Danny Rombley walked.
They were left behind, as Moreno retired the next three batters.
And so, the top of the ninth inning began with a comfortable 4-0 lead for Amsterdam, which never came into jeopardy.
As mentioned, Kevin Heijstek was throwing a strong game and had thrown 94 pitches.
So, a complete game appeared to be a possibility.
However, Daan Hendrix took over in the ninth.
While he got two quick outs, he ran into problems thereafter and almost failed to hold the lead.
Hendrix faced pinch-hitters Kevin van Veen and Roland Laurens, who respectively grounded out and flyout.
But hereafter, he gave up singles to Tijmen Takke and Berend Ruben, then got the bases loaded when Sergino Martis walked.
Hereafter, Julian Rip delivered a 2-run single and a wild pitch led to another run, which narrowed UVV's deficit to only 4-3.
With the tying run on second base, Julian Goins hit a hard grounder to short stop Nick Urbanus, who made a nice play and ended the game.
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Amsterdam Pirates one-runs UVV; Strong outing Kevin Heijstek
AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
League-leader L&D Amsterdam Pirates led comfortably with a 4-0 score in the top of the ninth inning on Saturday (August 5) against Pickles UVV, but in the end won only 4-3.
Amsterdam won the opener on Thursday with a 15-5 score.
The series ends on Sunday in Vleuten.