For the third week in a row, Lars Huijer had a fine pitching performance.
In the season's opener, he was the losing pitcher against Curaçao Neptunus, but struckout seven hitters in six innings.
A week ago, he struckout nine hitters in seven innings against DSS and left with a 2-0 lead, but then the bullpen failed to hold onto that and the game ended in a 3-3 tie.
Today, Huijer went the distance for Pioniers.
This time, the righthander struckhout ten hitters, walked none and gave up only six basehits.
In the nine innings that he was on the mound, Huijer needed only 99 pitches.
Pastor Enrique Martínez Chavez started for Twins and got baserunners in five of the six innings he pitched.
However, Pioniers got into scoring position in only two of these at bats.
In the top of the first inning, Leandro Anasagasti singled with one out and moved to second base on a grounder by Ibo Redan, but then was left behind.
In the next inning, Joey de Koning led off with a single, but stranded on first base.
In the third, Mark Smit was hit by a pitch with one out, but the Twins-defense then turned a double play.
Pioniers got into scoring position for the second time in the fourth inning and then also opened the score.
Ibo Redan led off with a single, stole second base and reached third base on a wild pitch.
The bases got loaded hereafter, when Martínez walked Jelle Kroft and Joey de Koning.
Redan then scored on a sacrifice fly by Angelo Wicklert, but Pioniers left two runners behind.
Lars Huijer retired 12 of the first 13 hitters he faced.
After striking out the side in the first inning, he gave up a lead-off single to Dennis De Quint in the second at bat, but then retired the next nine batters in a row.
In the fifth inning, Twins scored the tying run.
Bram Grooten led off with a double and moved to third base with one out on a comeback-grounder by Nick Peels.
He then scored when rookie Max Kops also doubled, but he stranded on second base.
Both teams got several scoring opportunities in the remainder of the game, but only Pioniers managed to score once.
In the final four innings, Pioniers left six runners behind, while Twins stranded four.
Twins got the possible go-ahead run on third base in the sixth inning.
With one out, Ruar Verkerk singled and moved on a grounder and a passed ball, but then was left behind on third base.
Pioniers re-took the lead in the top of the seventh off of new pitcher Jan Evertse.
Glenn Bakker led off with a double and Tyler Boersma walked.
Hereafter, a grounder by Duco Nuijten ended in an error by second baseman Sam Kennelly.
That moved the two runners and Bakker was able to score and put Pioniers ahead, 2-1.
In an attempt to avoid that, Kennelly threw the ball to catcher Jarreau Martina.
After having reached first base, Nuijten was eliminated after all, as Martina threw the ball to first baseman Shurman Marlin, who tagged out the runner.
With one out and Boersma on second base, Mark Smit walked.
The two runners advanced on a wild pitch, then were left behind on second and third base.
In the next inning, Pioniers got a chance to take some more distance, as it got the bases loaded with one out off of new pitcher Thijs Steenwijk.
Jelle Kroft led off with a single, then his pinch-runner Mervin Gario stole second base and Joey de Koning walked.
The two executed a double-steal, but hereafter Angelo Wicklert flied out.
With first base open, Glenn Bakker was then walked intentionally to set up a force play.
Instead, an infield-fly accounted for the second out, then a grounder ended the at bat, leaving three runners behind.
Twins got into scoring position again in the bottom of the eighth.
Pinch-hitter Bob van der Meer reached on an error and advanced on a grounder, but stranded on second base.
Twins got one final chance to erase the deficit in the bottom of the ninth.
With one out, Dennis De Quint reached on an infield-hit, but was forced out on a grounder by Bram Grooten.
The latter got into scoring position when next hitter Shurman Marlin singled, but he was then forced out on third base on a grounder by pinch-hitter Dave Janssen.
And that ended the game.
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Hoofddorp Pioniers nips Twins
OOSTERHOUT (Neth.) -
Hoofddorp Pioniers broke an 1-1 tie in the seventh inning on Thursday-afternoon (May 10) and won only 2-1 against De Glaskoning Twins in the opener of their 3-game series.