Before the start of the game, the Cheerleaders Ravenna Lioness Team performed.
In May of this year, this team won the National Championship, as well as the Coppa Italia.
The Italian squad was productive in the first three innings off of Orange starter Diegomar Markwell, scoring three runs.
In the top of the first inning, the lefthander gave up an infield-hit to lead-off hitter Sebastiano Poma, which was followed by a throwing error from third baseman Max Draijer, which enabled the hitter to continue to second base.
Poma advanced on a grounder, then scored the first run on a single by Nicola Garbella.
Another single followed, this time hit by Robel García Rodríguez.
More runs were avoided, as a double play ended the at bat.
In the second inning, Italy added its second run when Mattia Reginato homered with one out.
Hereafter, Paolino Ambrosino walked, but with two outs, he was eliminated in a rundown after a pick-off from Markwell.
Italy made it a 3-0 score in the third at bat.
Markwell walked lead-off hitter Sebastiano Poma, then gave up a single to Alessandro Vaglio.
Poma moved to third base on a flyout, then scored on a force play-grounder from Roberl Garciá Rodríguez.
On this grounder, Vaglio reached second base safely, as short stop Stijn van der Meer made an error on the throw from first baseman Dudley Leonora.
Again, a double play closed the at bat, but Italy now led 3-0.
The Netherlands faced Andrea Pizziconi and also reached base frequently in the first three innings.
However, the Orange squad left four runners behind in scoring position, including the bases loaded in the second inning.
...Nick Urbanus was 2-for-5 and batted in a run...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the bottom of the first inning, Kalian Sams walked with one out.
After Pizziconi struckout next hitter Dwayne Kemp, Sams moved to third base when Nick Urbanus singled.
The inning ended when the righthander also struckout Dudley Leonora.
In the bottom of the second inning, the Netherlands got the bases loaded with no outs, but was unable to score.
Max Draijer led off with an infield-hit, then reached second base safely when third baseman Robel Gardía Rodríguez made a throwing error on a force play-grounder by Oliver van der Wijst Severino, who made his National Team-debut.
Hereafter, Paul Brands reached on a bunt-single in his first Orange at bat, as he also made his debut in the National Team.
With the bases loaded, Andrea Pizziconi struckout Remco Draijer, then next hitter Stijn van der Meer got a called strikeout.
With two outs, the inning ended when Brands was forced out on second base on a grounder by Kalian Sams.
With two outs in the third inning, Dudley Leonora singled and stole second base, but this time, the inning ended when Max Draijer struckout.
Italy got close to adding another run in the top of the fourth inning off of new pitcher Jim Ploeger.
The lefthander gave up a lead-off single to Alberto Mineo, but followed with a strikeout.
With two outs, Mattia Mercuri doubled to put runners on second and third base, but a grounder ended the at bat.
In the bottom of the fifth, Oliver van der Wijst Severino led off with a single down the leftfield-line, but was eliminated at second base when he tried to stretch it into a double.
With two outs, Remco Draijer singled, but was left behind.
Italy increased its lead to 5-0 by scoring two more runs with two outs in the top of the fifth inning, which initially started well for the Dutch team.
Jim Ploeger walked lead-off hitter Alessandra Vaglio, but he was eliminated at first base in a double play after Nicola Garbella lined out to rightfielder Remco Draijer, who got the ball in time to first baseman Dudley Leonora.
Hereafter, Robel García Rodríguez walked and Alex Sambucci singled to put runners at the corners.
Alberto Mineo followed with an RBI-double and Mattia Reginato added a runscoring single to make it a 5-0 score.
...Dwayne Kemp was 2-for-5 with a double...
...He also scored and batted in a run...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
The Netherlands came on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth inning off of new pitcher Tommaso Cherubini.
He began by striking out Kalian Sams, but then gave up a double to Dwayne Kemp, who scored the first Dutch run when next hitter Nick Urbanus singled.
Hereafter, Dudley Leonora reached on an error, but a force out and flyout followed, meaning another runner stranded in scoring position, as Urbanus was left on third base.
The Orange squad scored its second run in the seventh inning.
Kalian Sams led off with a ground-rule double off of Cherubini and scored when Dwayne Kemp followed with a single.
That brought in new pitcher Valerio Simone, who got a force play-grounder and struckout the next two hitters.
After Jim Ploeger had given up the two runs in the fifth, he retired the side in the sixth.
Lars Huijer then took over and retired the side in botm the seventh and eighth inning, but gave up a run in the top of the ninth.
After having retired seven consecutive hitters, Huijer walked Sebastiano Poma with one out.
Poma moved on a grounder and reached third base on a wild pitch, then scored on a single by Nicola Garbella to make it a 6-2 score.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, 19-year old Nicolo Clemente took over the Italian pitching.
Clemente played professionally in the organization of the Boston Red Sox in Rookie League in 2015-2016, but was released thereafter.
The righthander retired the side in the eighth, including two strikeouts!
The Netherlands got its final runner in the bottom of the ninth inning when lead-off hitter Stijn van der Meer reached on an error.
He moved to second base on an one-out grounder by Dwayne Kemp, but then became the sixth Orange-runner to be left behind in scoring position.
And that also ended the game.
Clemente entered the game for Italy with a 5-2 lead, which normally would have been a save-situation.
However, the starting pitcher didn't throw the required five innings to be credited with the win.
In that case, it is up to the Official Scorer(s) to determine which of the following pitchers (if there has been more than one reliever) has pitched most effectively to be credited with the win.
And that was Clemente.
The following players played for the Netherlands:
Stijn van der Meer (SS, 0-for-5, strikeout), Kalian Sams (CF, 1-for-4, double, run, walk, strikeout), Dwayne Kemp (LF, 2-for-5, double, run, RBI, 2 strikeouts), Nick Urbanus (DH, 2-for-5, RBI), Dudley Leonora (1B, 1-for-4, stolen base, 2 strikeouts), Max Draijer (3B, 1-for-4, 2 strikeouts), Oliver van der Wijst Severino (2B, 1-for-4), Paul Brands (C, 1-for-4, strikeout), Remco Draijer (RF, 1-for-4, 2 strikeouts).
Diegomar Markwell, Jim Ploeger and Lars Huijer were the Dutch pitchers.
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Italy hands Orange 2nd loss to win European Baseball Series
GODO DI RUSSI (Italy) -
Italy also has won the second game against the Netherlands in the third edition of the European Baseball Series.
Italy won 6-2 in the community of Godo, which is located in the Municipality of Russi.
With that, Italy also won the Series, as three game are scheduled in this years edition.
Italy won the first game of the Series on Friday-evening in Verona with a small 3-2 score.
In today's game, which was a home game for the Netherlands, Italy struck early and led 3-0 after three innings.
Italy collected eleven basehits, including a homerun by Mattia Reginato.
The Orange squad recorded ten basehits, including two by Dwayne Kemp and Nick Urbanus.
Kemp accounted for both runs.
He scored the first on a single by Urbanus, then batted in the second run himself.
130th international game in history of the Netherlands against Italy.