(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
   Neptunus wins ninth European Champions Cup
Nederlands
 REGENSBURG (Germany) -
Curaçao Neptunus won 7-3 against UnipolSai Fortitudo Bologna from Italy in the Final of the European Champions Cup on Sunday-evening (June 11).
With that, the Rotterdam-based club won its ninth European Cup.
...Neptunus Head Coach Ronald Jaarsma...
...is showered by Brian Raap...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Neptunus last won the European trophy in 2015, which was the last year the championship was decided in a 2-tournament format.
Back then, the winners of two Qualifying tournaments would meet in a best-of-three Final.
In 2015, Neptunus also faced Bologna in the Final.
The first game was played in Bologna and won by the home team with a 5-3 score.
The series then moved to Rotterdam where Neptunus won the next game, 3-2 to force a deciding third game.
Neptunus then won the Cup by winning 7-3, the same score as today!
Last year, when the event was held in Rimini (Italy) and Serravalle (San Marino), Neptunus was dethroned by L&D Amsterdam Pirates.
The Amsterdam-squad then faced host Pirati dei Rimini in the Final and won the Cup by winning 5-4 in 10 innings.
This year, it was Amsterdam that was dethroned.
In the Semi-Final on Saturday, Amsterdam trailed 7-0 against Bologna, but came back strongly.
The game developed in a thriller, which took more than four hours and ended in a 9-8 win for the Italian squad.
On Friday-evening, last years finalist Rimini was eliminated by T&A San Marino, which won 6-3 in ten innings.
In the ninth inning of that game, there was a bench-clearing brawl, which led to the ejection of a Rimini-player.
Neptunus won its Semi-Final against San Marino with a 7-1 score.
On Sunday-afternoon, Amsterdam lost the Bronze Medal-game to San Marino with 7-3.
In the Final, Neptunus took an early 2-0 lead in the first inning.
44-year old Neptunus-starter Elton Koeiman did a great job, but saw Bologna come alongside by giving up runs in the fifth and sixth inning.
Neptunus re-took the lead in the seventh inning by scoring four runs.
A single by Christian Diaz made it 3-2, then Gianison Boekhoudt delivered a 2-run single and when that was followed by a throwing error, another run was added.
In the eighth, Shaldimar Daantji homered for Neptunus.
In the bottom of the seventh, Berry van Driel took over the Neptunus-pitching and did a fine job closing the game, despite having back-problems.
(June 11)
(more later)
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