(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Rob Schuurman)
 Play ball! HCAW plays first exhibition game
Nederlands
 BUSSUM (Neth.) -
It was a partly cloudy day with now and then a blue sky, the temperatures averaged 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit), but overall, the weather was favorable enough to play baseball.
And so, the exhibition baseball season opened on Saturday (March 2) with one game.
In Bussum, HCAW played against its second team and won 10-2 in eight innings.
A second game between the two teams was scheduled for Sunday, but that has been cancelled.
...Umpires Winfried Berkvens (left) and...
...Efrem Silvania are ready for action...
(© Photo: Rob Schuurman) |
Not counting this weekend, the clubs have only four weeks to prepare for the new season, which already opens on Thursday, April 4, one of the earliest dates for an Opening Day.
The start of the season has been moved up forward to make room in September, which is an important international month.
First, the European Championship will be hosted in the German cities of Bonn and Solingen on September 7-15.
The five best countries then advance to the Europe/Africa Olympic Qualifying Tournament, which begins on September 18 in Bologna and Parma (Italy) and runs through September 22.
The winner of this event qualifies for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo (Japan).
The team in second place gets another chance to reach Tokyo via a Global Olympic Qualifying Tournament early next year in Taiwan.
Last year, the regular season opened on April 26.
The first exhibition game was then played on Saturday, March 10 after two games had been cancelled a week earlier.
The next games were then played two weeks later, due to renovation works on playing sites and weather conditions.
But today, eight days earlier than last year, at 1:05 PM, Home Plate Umpire Efrem Silvania yelled 'Play Ball' for the first time and the exhibition-season went underway.
Silvania was assisted in the field by Winfried Berkvens and so, these two international umpires have their first game of the year in the books.
The game was played on the partly renovated home-site of HCAW in the Rob Hoffmann Valley.
The past few years, HCAW played on a field with an artificial grass infield, but the areas around the bases were still covered with gravel.
In the off-season, these areas have now also been replaced, meaning the entire infield now has artificial grass, as is the case on the site of L&D Amsterdam Pirates.
In today's game, Dè Flanegin could have been making his debut as Head Coach of HCAW, but he is currently on Aruba and will return in the coming week.
Flanegin was named Head Coach in late November as the successor of Roeland Henrique.
Instead, Flanegin's Assistant Rudy Dirksen led the main-squad.
The goal today was to be outside and get the first playing rhythm.
To create some situations and see the first possibilities of the players, Dirksen and his colleague of the second team, Jerry Frank, exchanged players to each others teams, including pitchers.
As both coaches accomplished what they wanted to do today under good weather conditions, it was decided to drop Sunday's game from the schedule.
Today's game was close for six innings.
The second team initially led 2-0 in the beginning of the game.
The main-squad then came alongside and took more distance in the final two innings.
Next weekend (March 9 and 10), ten games are scheduled, involving seven of the eight big league-teams.
Curaçao Neptunus and L&D Amsterdam Pirates, who faced each other in last years Holland Series, then will meet on Sunday in Rotterdam.
Initially, the two teams also were to face each other on Saturday, but that game has been dropped from the schedule.
Meerlease Pioniers will play against its second team, Omron Pioniers on the same days.
DSS has a double-header scheduled on Sunday, playing against two different teams, RCH-Pinguïns (which plays in the second highest league) and Quick Amersfoort.
On Saturday, Quick will play at home against RCH-Pinguïns.
HCAW and Twins Oosterhout have two international games scheduled.
HCAW will play against Solingen Alligators from Germany, while Twins is playing against Hoboken Pioneers from Belgium.
Silicon Storks has no games scheduled, but will conduct a 2-day trainingcamp on its home-site in The Hague.
Complete Schedules Exhibition Season, Regular Season, International Tournaments and More
Preliminary Rosters Dutch Major League as updated on February 28
(March 2)
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Exhibition Game.