(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
             
Netherlands Juveniles empty-handed vs. Italy in Budapest
Nederlands
 BUDAPEST (Hungary) -
After having recorded three convincing victories, the Netherlands Juveniles Team was left empty-handed on Wednesday (July 4) by Italy on Day 5 of 13th European Championship Juveniles in Hungarian capital Budapest.
The Orange-squad won big against Austria (19-4), Croatia (20-0) and Slovakia (26-2), but today, the team suffered a big loss itself.
Reigning European champion Italy won 18-1 in four innings to remain unbeaten in Pool A.
So far, Italy had not yet allowed an opposing team to score.
Italy won 24-0 vs. Croatia, 27-0 vs. Slovakia and 32-0 vs. Belgium before facing the Netherlands.
Italy shares first place in Pool A with Germany, which also has won four games.
Germany also began with three big shutouts, but then gave up two runs on Tuesday against Croatia in a 40-2 win.
The Netherlands closes the preliminary round against Germany on Friday.
In its fourth game, it was the Netherlands that was at the wrong side of a lopsided game.
Italy opened the score with three runs in the top of the first inning off of starting pitcher Sol Fahrner, who then threw a scoreless second inning.
In the third at bat, Italy rallied for five more runs off of reliever Wouter Mintjes.
In this inning, Mattia Bernardis hit a 2-run homerun.
The Netherlands managed to record only five basehits.
Trailing 3-0, the Netherlands got a runner on third base in the bottom of the first and the second inning, but didn't score.
With one out in the first, Otis Ward walked and moved on two wild pitches, but was left behind.
In the second inning, Mats van het Land singled and advanced on a wild pitch and a grounder, but also stranded.
In the third at bat, the Netherlands got the bases loaded.
With one out, Amarensio Franka reached on an infield-hit, then an error followed on a force play-grounder by Otis Ward.
A single by Jamie Beerman then loaded the bases.
But again, no runs were scored, as a strikeout and line-out ended the inning.
In the top of the fourth inning, Italy struck with ten runs off of pitchers Guido Feldkamp and Tim Scholte.
In this rally, Italy collected seven basehits, including a 2-run homerun by Edoardo Cornelli.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Netherlands was able to score one run.
Lead-off hitter Mats van het Land reached on an error and with one out, Jayden Fraay and Leandro Salazar Mata singled to load the bases.
A grounder by Amarensio Franka then led to the first run given up by the Italian pitching so far.
(July 4)
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