(Story & Photo by Marco Stoovelaar)
 HCAW opens exhibition season with win
Nederlands
 BUSSUM (Neth.) -
HCAW opened the exhibition season on Saturday-afternoon (March 7) with a game against its second team.
At the Rob Hoffmann Vallei in Bussum, the big league-squad won 4-1 in a 7-inning game.
Twins Oosterhout also had a game scheduled today against its second team.
That game was cancelled, as the home-field in Oosterhout was not yet playable.
...The entrance of the Rob Hoffmann Vallei...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Traditionally, it is HCAW that almost annually opens the exhibition season with a game against its second team in the first weekend in March.
An outdoor practice session is then planned for the two teams with the probability of playing a game.
When practice and playing is possible on Saturday, there is no activity on Sunday.
Is Saturday no option, the team tries again the next day.
But today, the weather conditions were fine (11 degrees Celsius, 51,8 Fahrenheit) and so, it was decided to play a 7-inning game with HCAW's 3B Coach Rudy Dirksen acting as umpire.
The game was played on HCAW's home-site in Bussum, which was named after its former pitcher and club-icon Rob Hoffmann in May 2016.
In its first exhibtion-game, newcomer Nick Keur started for HCAW, which was the visiting team.
After last season, the lefthander came from DSS, where he made a comeback on the mound last year after having been sidelined with an injury, followed by Tommy John-injury.
Today, Keur threw two scoreless innings.
In the third inning, Johannes Verroen took over the pitching and also made his HCAW-debut.
Verroen comes from The Orioles, which last season played in the second highest league.
The righthander gave up an unearned run in the top of the third inning, then added a scoreless fourth.
HCAW was held scoreless in the first four innings by Jack Wagner and Jenseley Keizer, who both pitched two innings.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, HCAW scored two runs off of new pitcher Erik Jalvingh, then added two more in the sixth at bat off of Ruben Dekker.
Hereafter, Jeene Langevoord threw a scoreless seventh inning for the second team.
With HCAW leading 2-1, Gio de Grauw became the team's third pitcher in the fifth inning.
De Grauw, who mainly pitched for the second team in the second highest league last season, threw one inning.
For this season, De Grauw was added to the main-squad.
The final two innings were thrown by second-team pitcher Arjan Nijkamp, who earned a save.
The starting line-up and batting order for HCAW was as follows:
Brennan Nijhoff (centerfield), Bob van der Meer (short stop), Patrick Bok (1st base), Kevin Dirksen (3rd base), Linoy Croes (2nd base), Leandro Anasagasti (catcher), Arhur Lugtmeijer (rightfield) and Pascal Zegwaard (leftfield).
The ninth position in the batting order was shared by second team-players Jerry Zonneveld and Justin Bus.
The first began as designated hitter, then played at first base for the second team in the second half of the game.
He took over that position from Bus, who then became the new DH for the main-team.
The starting line-up and 10-player batting order for the second team was as follows;
Dion Frank (catcher), Kevin Wiegers (3rd base), Jesse Velders (short stop), Brandon Rijnbergen (centerfield), Brandon Noor (rightfield), Justin Bus (1st base), Dalvin Kortstam (designated hitter 1), Mika van Klingeren (leftfield), Daan Verpaalen (2nd base) and Gerwin Maduro (designated hitter 2).
(March 7)
Standings Exhibition Season
Scores Exhibition Season
Schedule Exhbition Season
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