(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
             
Netherlands Juveniles in Semi-Final after win vs. Germany
Nederlands
 BUDAPEST (Hungary) -
The Netherlands Juveniles Team has reached the Semi-Final of the 13th European Championship Juveniles, which ends coming Sunday in Hungarian capital Budapest.
The Orange-squad secured itself of a spot in the top-4 by winning 4-1 on Friday-afternoon (July 6) against Germany.
The game against Germany was crucial, as it would decide who would join Pool-winner Italy to the Semi-Finals.
Italy remained unbeaten in Pool A by winning 15-0 against Austria on Friday.
As Italy defeated Germany 13-3 on Thursday, it set up the key-game for today between the German and Dutch teams to decide second place in Pool A.
In the Semi-Final on Saturday-evening, the Netherlands will face the Czech Republic, which stayed unbeaten and won six games in Pool B.
The Czechs closed the Preliminary Round on Friday-evening with an 11-0 win against Hungary
Dutch umpire Antoine Loock was behind the plate in this game.
Russia finished in second place in this Pool B and will meet Italy in the other Semi-Final on Saturday-afternoon.
The two winners will advance to the Final on Sunday-afternoon.
In its game against Germany, the Netherlands opened the score with one run in the top of the first inning, but failed to take more distance and left three runners behind.
With one out, Otis Ward reached on an infield-hit and Jamie Beerman walked.
After the two had advanced on a wild pitch, the bases got loaded when Junairo Ostiana also walked.
Another wild pitch followed, which enabled Ward to score the first run.
Hereafter, the bases got loaded again when Jayden van Atten was hit by a pitch.
But three runners were left behind when German starter Jack Schuman struckout the next two hitters.
The Orange-squad doubled its lead in the third inning.
Lead-off hitter Otis Ward was hit by a pitch, then scored with one out when an outfield-error followed a single by Junairo Ostiana.
Germany, which left runners behind in scoring position in the first and second inning, got one run back in the third at bat.
Darrion Richards led off with a homerun off of starter Otis Ward.
With one out, Ward walked Kenny Fermin-Giere and was relieved by Jayden van Atten, who then was supported with a double play.
In the fifth inning, the Netherlands got another chance to take some more distance, but again left three runners behind.
The team then added two insurance runs in the top of the seventh, which were both unearned.
Otis Ward led off with a walk, then an error was made on a force play-grounder by Jamie Beerman.
Ward later scored on a grounder by Jayden van Atten, while Beerman went on to score on a wild pitch.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Germany got its lead-off hitter on third base off of reliever Amarensio Franka, but he struckout three hitters to end the game.
(July 6)
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