Today's game didn't had that much suspense, but there were some peculiar situations.
But they were handled very well by the umpiring crew, which did a fine job and made the correct calls, including some close ones on the bases.
Pioniers took a quick 3-0 lead off of starter Jurjen van Zijl, who struggled somewhat in the bottom of the first inning, which also was the result of two defensive errors.
But he also got some help from the game-rules.
Lead-off hitter Dudley Leonora reached on an error and stole second base.
Next batter Sander Paap walked, then Mervin Gario delivered a runscoring single.
An error on a grounder by Jeffrey Arends led to the next run and the bases got loaded when Quintin De Cuba singled.
Van Zijl followed with a strikeout.
With the bases loaded and one out, Brennan Nijhof popped the ball up in the air behind second base onto the grass-area of the outfield.
This resulted in the first rare situation.
This was cleary an infield-fly situation and the short stop went after the ball but stopped when the second baseman took over, while the centerfielder also approached.
However, the ball dropped and with that, all runners advanced.
The hit by Nijhof initially was ruled a basehit.
This kept the bases loaded, but suddenly, Pioniers Head Coach Dè Flanegin came out and started a discussion with the umpires.
When the ball was up in the air, an infield-fly was called by third base umpire Efrem Silvania, which wasn't noticed immediately.
And of course, there was some confusion due to the fact that the ball landed on the grass behind the infield.
While most infield-flies occur in the infield, it also can be callled when the ball is behind the infield-area on the outfield-grass, as long as it is catchable for an infielder.
As runners can advance on their own risk in an infield-fly situation, Pioniers now had runners on second and third base, while Gario had scored a run.
A flyout ended the at bat, but Pioniers led 3-0.
Van Zijl recovered, threw fine in the following three innings and saw Pioniers leave runner in scoring position twice.
But he then gave up additional runs in the fifth inning.
Chris Pfau had a good outing on the mound for Pioniers.
The lefthander struckout ten batters and gave up seven basehits.
...Umpires Jos van Eijsden, Efrem Silvania...
...and Rob Has get together to discuss the...
...situation in the 3rd inning...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Pfau retired the first six batters he faced, five of them with a strikeout.
A very rare situation then happened in the third at bat.
Mike Bazuin led off with a double and Berend Ruben reached on an error.
Rick Kuipers followed with a runscoring infield-hit that made it a 3-1 score.
With runners on first and second base and no outs, it was attempted to move the two into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt.
However, Jelle Blaauw bunted the ball up in the air in front of the catcher's area.
Catcher Sander Paap went after the ball, was unable to catch it and it dropped on the ground.
Thinking the ball was caught (or turn into a foul-ball), Blaauw didn't ran and stayed near the batter's box, while the runners stayed on first and second base.
But as the ball had dropped on fair territory, it now became a situation in which the runners were forced to run.
Third baseman Mervin Gario, who had come in towards the plate, did some quick thinking and did the right thing.
He picked up the ball and threw it to short stop Dudley Leonora at third base.
Leonora then threw the ball to first base, where Rick Kuipers dove back.
Hereafter, first baseman Jeffrey Arends threw the ball again to Gario, who was still near the catcher's area.
Gario then tagged Blaauw, who was still standing near the batter's box.
At the same, the two runners were still at first and second base.
That all resulted in some confusion, but in the end, the explanation and the ruling was very simple and the umpiring crew made the correct calls.
When Gario threw the ball to third base, Berend Ruben was forced out and became the first out.
When the ball then was thrown to first base, it meant that batter Blaauw was eliminated before reaching first base, making it a double play.
So when Gario tagged Blaauw moments later, that wasn't necessary anymore, as he already had been eliminated.
And so, this became a 5-6-3 grounded into double play.
As the force play was then lifted, Rick Kuipers was entitled to stay af first base.
Initially, it was opted by some that it was an infield-fly, but that can never be called on a bunt.
Also, it was thought by some that the catcher had picked up the ball and had tagged the batter.
But that didn't happen, as it was the third baseman who picked up the ball and threw it to third base for the force out.
The batter was then eliminated after the lead runner was forced out.
This rare situation and the following explanation to the coaches, which also included a conference between the three umpires, led to a delay of some six minutes.
In the end, all the rules were applied well by the umpires and the game continued.
On the next pitch by Pfau, a flyout followed, ending the at bat.
Oh, when Pioniers had thrown the ball from third to second and then to first base, it could have made a Triple Play.
In the top of the fifth inning, UVV narrowed the deficit to only 3-2.
Mike Bazuin led off with a single, then Berend Ruben was hit by a pitch.
After a double-steal and a strikeout, Bazuin scored on a single by Jelle Blaauw, but a strikeout and force out then ended the at bat.
Bazuin was 2-for-4 and scored twice for UVV.
He also accounted a defensive moment that could have been very painly.
As third baseman, Bazuin went after a pop foul-ball, which left the field at the third base-leftfield-area.
However, Bazuin raced full force and ran into the fence hard and fell down.
Luckily, he didn't sustain any injuries.
He stood up almost immediately and even jumped over the fence to pick up his glove, which had flown over the fence.
Leading 3-2, Pioniers took more distance by scoring four runs with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning.
With one out, Mervin Gario walked, stole second base and reached third on a pick-off error.
With two outs, Quintin De Cuba walked and Shurman Marlin and Brennan Nijhof delivered runscoring singles.
The bases got loaded when Gianni Frolijk walked, then rookie Joey Eeman followed with a 2-run single to lift the lead to 7-2.
UVV scored its third run in the top of the seventh inning.
With two outs, Chris Pfau was relieved by Scott Ronnenbergh.
The lefthander hit Jelle Blaauw with a pitch, enabled him to advance on a throwing error during a pick-off, then walked Bryce Cherry and gave up a runscoring single to Tijmen Takke.
Ronnenbergh closed with a strikeout and added two more strikeouts in the eighth inning.
In the bottom of the seventh, Pioniers scored its final run in the game off of new pitcher Kevin van Veen.
With one out, Mark Smit walked and went on to score on a pinch-hit grounder from rookie Duco Nuijten.
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Pioniers registers comfortable win against UVV
HOOFDDORP (Neth.) -
Hoofddorp Pioniers rallied for three runs in the first and four in the fifth inning to record a comfortable 8-3 win against Pickles UVV.
Pioniers opened the series on Friday with a 4-2 victory in ten innings.
6-minute on-field delay in top of 3rd inning with two outs, runner on 1st base and Pioniers leading 3-1, due to rule-explanation on rare double play-situation.