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(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen) Round 8 in Dutch big league would end this weekend, followed by international break Nederlands HOOFDDORP / HAARLEM / BUSSUM / AMERSFOORT / THE HAGUE / OOSTERHOUT (Neth.) - This weekend (Saturday/Sunday, June 6-7), the eighth 3-game series of the 2020 regular season in the Dutch big league would be completed and an international interruption would then follow. But as you know, the baseball-season is currently on hold, as all regular season-games have been annuled through June 30 because of measures taken against the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. New dates have not yet been announced. (© Photo: Henk Seppen) From March 12 on, the Government of the Netherlands regularly announced several (strict) measures due to the coronavirus. In a following update on May 6, a little more freedom was announced, but it was also said that official games and competitions remain prohibited through September 1. From June 1 on, some of the measures were loosened up somewhat, including opening (parts of) restaurants, terraces, cinemas, theaters and schools. From July 1, some indoor sports-activities also will be permitted again. The lastest update was on Wednesday-evening (June 3). On May 12, the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB) announced that it has annuled all official regular season games in all baseball/softball leagues through Tuesday, June 30. The KNBSB is in talks with the NOC*NSF (Netherlands Olympic Committee/Netherlands Sports Federations) regarding options how to continue, as it is hoped a new season can still be played this year. On Saturday and Sunday, six of the eight big league-teams would play. Dutch reigning champion L&D Amsterdam Pirates and Holland Series-loser Curaçao Neptunus were scheduled to close the European Champions Cup-Tournament in Ostrava (Czech Republic) on Saturday, then return home on Sunday. The event was cancelled on April 1 by the European Baseball Confederation (CEB) due to the coronavirus. After this weekend, the regular season was to be interrupted, as the Netherlands National Baseball Team was to travel to Taiwan for participation in the WBSC Final Baseball Qualifier. The winner of this event was to become the sixth and final participant in the Olympic Games in Japan. The Qualifier was originally scheduled for April 1-5, but was postponed to June 17-21 on March 2 due to the coronavirus. A month earlier, the Americas Qualifier, to be played in Arizona (USA), was cancelled. The teams finishing in second and third place in that tournament also were to play in the Qualifier in Taiwan, where the games would be played in Taichung City and Douliu City. However, on March 24, it was announced that the Olympic Games in Japan were postponed to next year. Following that decision, the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) announced shortly thereafter that the Final Qualifier also was postponed to next year. By doing that, it will be easier to re-schedule the Americas Qualier and Final Qualifier ahead of the Olympic Games. In the original schedule for the Dutch big league, regular season games were planned to be played in the next two weeks. These games were re-scheduled when the Qualifer was moved from April to this month. With that, the big league-season would have opened April 16 instead of April 23. When the Qualifier was postponed to next year, these two weeks probably would have been used again for games when it had been possible to open the season. Originally, an international break was scheduled after Sunday, June 21, as the Netherlands Team was to participate in the 30th Baseball Week Haarlem (June 26-July 5). Besides the Netherlands, respresentative teams from Chinese Taipei, Cuba Germany and Japan also were to participate. The bi-annual international tournament was cancelled on March 24 after stricter measures were announced regarding the coronavirus. The thirtieth edition now will be held in 2022. When these two events would have been played, the next regular season-games in the Dutch big league were scheduled for Thursday, July 9. In the meantime, games in the second highest league ('Overgangsklasse') were scheduled for the upcoming weeks while the big league was interrupted for the international break. The Overgangsklasse was scheduled to open on April 3, but the start of the season was postponed on March 15. After a rainy Thurday-evening, the weather conditions also weren't that comfortable in the weekend. It was cloudy, chilly with a strong southwestern wind on Saturday, but the three scheduled games could have been played. There was rain on some locations on Sunday, which probably would have resulted in rainouts in Amersfoort and The Hague, as it rained steadily in the morning and early afternoon. While some moderate rain was also expected later in the afternoon in Oosterhout, the game there probably would have been played. In was a rare situation this weekend, as all six games were to start on different times. On Saturday, the starting times were 1 PM, 2 PM and 2:30 PM, on Sunday, the games would start at 2 PM, 2:30 PM and 3 PM. In the past, all games started at 2:30 PM when played in the afternoon. Several years ago, it was decided to start all games at 2 PM. However, since a few years, it was allowed to start games at another time. That resulted in Hoofddorp Pioniers to start at 1 PM, HCAW and Storks changing their starting times to 2:30 PM, while Twins Oosterhout starts mosts of its home-games at 3 PM. All other teams begin their home-games at 2 PM. Beneath are the games that were scheduled to be played on Saturday and Sunday with the assignments of the game-officials. On March 23, the opening of the big league-season was postponed (a week earlier the Overgangsklasse-openers already had been postponed). Just before that, game-officials had been assigned for all games through June 14. With that, this marks the final weekend in the big league for which officials had been assigned. We don't know when, but baseball and softball of course will be back in the Netherlands! Of course only when it is safe to do so for everyone involved. Until then, take care and stay safe! (June 6-7)

Games of Saturday, June 6

Hoofddorp Pioniers - Silicon Storks postponed R H E Silicon Storks - 0 0 0 Hoofddorp Pioniers - 0 0 0 pitchers Storks inn. SO BB H R ER - - - - - - pitchers Pioniers inn. SO BB H R ER - - - - - - Standings Scores Schedule Team Rosters Assigned Umpires: HP-John Beltman, 1B-Efrem Silvania, 3B-Jos van Eijsden. Assigned Official Scorer-Maaike Houtkamp. Assigned Play-by-Play Scorer-Rob Schuurman. Public Address Announcer-. Scoreboard Operator-. Scheduled Starting Time-1:30 PM. Time Played-0:00 hrs. Site-ETO Ballpark, Sportpark Hoofddorp Pioniers, Park21, Hoofddorp. Game Notes: Following an announcement by the Dutch Government on April 21 to extend measures against the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the game was cancelled on April 29 by the KNBSB, which on that date annulled all games through June 9 to give the teams a new three-week preparation for an eventual start of the season. No new date has been announced yet. Weather conditions at game time: Partly cloudy, 13,8° C (56,8° F); wind direction southwest; wind speed 40 kmh (24,9 mph); wind force 6 Bft; humidity 52%.

DSS/Kinheim - Quick Amersfoort postponed R H E Quick Amersfoort - 0 0 0 DSS/Kinheim - 0 0 0 pitchers Quick inn. SO BB H R ER - - - - - - pitchers DSS/Kinheim inn. SO BB H R ER - - - - - - Standings Scores Schedule Team Rosters Assigned Umpires: HP-André Ficken, 1B-Peter de Haan, 3B-Edwin Louisa. Assigned Official Scorer-Francis Speters. Assigned Play-by-Play Scorer-Marco Stoovelaar. Public Address Announcer-. Scoreboard Operator-. Scheduled Starting Time-2:00 PM. Time Played-0:00 hrs. Site-Pim Mulier Stadion, Pim Mulier Sportpark, Haarlem. Game Notes: Following an announcement by the Dutch Government on April 21 to extend measures against the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the game was cancelled on April 29 by the KNBSB, which on that date annulled all games through June 9 to give the teams a new three-week preparation for an eventual start of the season. No new date has been announced yet. Weather conditions at game time: Partly cloudy, 14,1° C (57,4° F); wind direction southwest; wind speed 43 kmh (26,7 mph); wind force 6 Bft; humidity 46%.

HCAW - Twins Oosterhout postponed R H E Twins Oosterhout - 0 0 0 HCAW - 0 0 0 pitchers Twins inn. SO BB H R ER - - - - - - pitchers HCAW inn. SO BB H R ER - - - - - - Standings Scores Schedule Team Rosters Assigned Umpires: HP-Rob Has, 1B-not yet assigned, 3B-Jeroen Rekveld. Assigned Official Scorer-Leo van den Brun. Assigned Play-by-Play Scorer-Dennis Duin. Public Address Announcer-. Scoreboard Operator-. Scheduled Starting Time-2:30 PM. Time Played-0:00 hrs. Site-Rob Hoffmann Vallei, Sportpark Zanderijweg, Bussum. Game Notes: Following an announcement by the Dutch Government on April 21 to extend measures against the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the game was cancelled on April 29 by the KNBSB, which on that date annulled all games through June 9 to give the teams a new three-week preparation for an eventual start of the season. No new date has been announced yet. Weather conditions at game time: Partly cloudy, 15,1° C (59,2° F); wind direction southwest; wind speed 35 kmh (21,7 mph); wind force 5 Bft; humidity 49%.

Games of Sunday, June 7

Quick Amersfoort - DSS/Kinheim postponed R H E DSS/Kinheim - 0 0 0 Quick Amersfoort - 0 0 0 pitchers DSS/Kinheim inn. SO BB H R ER - - - - - - pitchers Quick inn. SO BB H R ER - - - - - - Standings Scores Schedule Team Rosters Assigned Umpires: HP-Martijn Bosschaart, 1B-Jos van Eijsden, 3B-Richard Wessel. Assigned Official Scorer-Dieks Bannink. Assigned Play-by-Play Scorer-Huub Nelissen. Public Address Announcer-. Scoreboard Operator-. Scheduled Starting Time-2:00 PM. Time Played-0:00 hrs. Site-XL Lease Park 'Dorrestein', Amersfoort. Game Notes: Following an announcement by the Dutch Government on April 21 to extend measures against the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the game was cancelled on April 29 by the KNBSB, which on that date annulled all games through June 9 to give the teams a new three-week preparation for an eventual start of the season. No new date has been announced yet. Weather conditions at game time: Overcast, light rain, 13,9° C (57° F); wind direction west; wind speed 23 kmh (14,3 mph); wind force 3 Bft; humidity 58%.

Silicon Storks - Hoofddorp Pioniers postponed R H E Hoofddorp Pioniers - 0 0 0 Silicon Storks - 0 0 0 pitchers Pioniers inn. SO BB H R ER - - - - - - pitchers Storks inn. SO BB H R ER - - - - - - Standings Scores Schedule Team Rosters Assigned Umpires: HP-Roy van de Wateringen, 1B-Edwin Louisa, 3B-Peter de Haan. Assigned Official Scorer-Feiko Drost. Assigned Play-by-Play Scorer-Jeanette van Drunen. Public Address Announcer-. Scoreboard Operator-. Scheduled Starting Time-2:30 PM. Time Played-0:00 hrs. Site-Sportpark 'Kijkduin', The Hague. Game Notes: Following an announcement by the Dutch Government on April 21 to extend measures against the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the game was cancelled on April 29 by the KNBSB, which on that date annulled all games through June 9 to give the teams a new three-week preparation for an eventual start of the season. No new date has been announced yet. Weather conditions at game time: Partly cloudy, light rain, 12,8° C (14,3° F); wind direction west; wind speed 23 kmh (14,3 mph); wind force 4 Bft; humidity 71%.

Twins Oosterhout - HCAW postponed R H E HCAW - 0 0 0 Twins Oosterhout - 0 0 0 pitchers HCAW inn. SO BB H R ER - - - - - - pitchers Twins inn. SO BB H R ER - - - - - - Standings Scores Schedule Team Rosters Assigned Umpires: HP-Aad Otsen, 1B-Rudsel Schoobaar, 3B-André Ficken. Assigned Official Scorer-Rienette Hamers. Assigned Play-by-Play Scorer-Richard Wessel. Public Address Announcer-. Scoreboard Operator-. Scheduled Starting Time-3:00 PM. Time Played-0:00 hrs. Site-Sportpark 'De Slotbosse Toren', Oosterhout. Game Notes: Following an announcement by the Dutch Government on April 21 to extend measures against the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the game was cancelled on April 29 by the KNBSB, which on that date annulled all games through June 9 to give the teams a new three-week preparation for an eventual start of the season. No new date has been announced yet. Weather conditions at game time: Overcast, 17,3° C (63,1° F); wind direction west; wind speed 19 kmh (11,8 mph); wind force 3 Bft; humidity 49%.

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