(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
         
Netherlands Juniors open European Championship with big win
Nederlands
 GROSSETO (Italy) -
The Netherlands Under-18 Team (Juniors) opened the seventh edition of the European Under-18 Championship in Grosseto (Italy) on Monday (July 9) with a big 21-2 win against Great Britain.
On Sunday, the European Under-12 Championship (Juveniles) ended in Hungarian capital Budapest with Italy capturing the title for the second year in a row.
Today, the next Championship went underway in what are busy international months for both baseball and softball.
The first Under-18 European Championship was organized in 2007 in the Dutch city of Rosmalen.
Since then, the event was held every two years through 2015.
The next Championship then followed in 2016 with the tournament switching to even years.
So far, the event was won only by Italy and the Netherlands.
Italy won the title in 2007, 2009, 2013 and 2015.
The Orange-squad captured the title in 2011 and two years ago.
During this years event, the Dutch umpire-corps is represented by Peter Brink, while Jan Kuipers is one of the Technical Commissioners in Italy.
Brink got into action in the evening-game between host Italy and Lithuania.
Italy won with a 13-2 score and used six different pitchers.
In this game, Brink was the 3B Umpire with Glen Poor (Ireland) behind the plate and Sergii Bolilyi (Ukraine) at first base.
Following this European Championship, Peter Brink will travel to Ashbourne in Ireland.
There, he will be one of the umpires during the European Championship C-Pool Qualifier.
In that event, the National Teams of Finland, Greece, Ireland, Norway and Slovenia will participate.
The Netherlands played its opening game at Stadio Roberto Jannella, which is the home of the Grosseto baseball-team that plays in the highest Italian Baseball League.
Against Great Britain, the Netherlands scored a run in the first and second inning.
With that, the team led only 2-0 after two innings, but the squad then rallied for 19 (!) runs in the third at bat.
The Orange-squad collected 15 basehits, including three by Ruendrick Piternella, who scored three runs and batted in four.
Leandro Anasagasti also batted in four runs.
Like Piternella, Tyler Boersma and Shuruengelo Mingeli also scored three runs.
In the regular season, Piternella (Curaçao Neptunus), Anasagasti and Boersma (both MeerLease Pioniers) all made their debut in the Dutch big league.
Last year, Piternella already made an appeatance for Neptunus during the Holland Series.
Sem Robberse, who earlier this season made his big league-debut pitching for HCAW, started for the Netherlands.
The righthander gave up only one basehit in the three innings he pitched.
Hereafter, Scott Prins and Jiorgeny Casimiri both pitched one inning.
Casimiri was credited with the win.
Casimiri (Neptunus) and Prins (DSS) also made their big league-debut this season.
...Ruendrick Piternella...
...3-for-4, triple,...
...3 runs scored, 4 RBI's...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the bottom of the first inning, Tyler Boersma reached second base when two errors were made on his grounder.
He then moved on a single by Darryl Collins and scored the first Dutch run on an infield-hit by Ruendrick Piternella.
The second Orange-run was added in the second inning.
Shuruengelo Mingeli led off with a single, stole second base and scored on an one-out single by Mick Vos.
In the third inning, the Netherlands rallied for 19 runs on only nine basehits.
There were 24 Dutch hitters in this long inning, who faced four different pitchers.
Four players got three plate appearances.
Mingeli received three walks.
There were ten walks in this at bat.
Anasagasti and Piternella contributed with 2-run triples.
Nolan Beugeling hit a 2-run single.
Trailing 21-0, Great Britain scored its two runs with two outs in the top of the fourth inning on three basehits off of new pitcher Scott Prins.
One run was scored on a basesloaded walk, the other was unearned and was scored on an error.
In the Preliminary Round, The Netherlands plays in Pool A with the Czech Republic, France, Great Britain and Ukraine.
The tournament opened today with a 15-0 shutout of France against Ukraine.
On Tuesday, the Netherlands has the day off.
The team plays its next game on Wednesday and then meets the Czechs.
(July 9)
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