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(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen & Robert Bos) Dutch big league-teams complete second round of exhibition-games Nederlands AMSTERDAM / ROTTERDAM / BUSSUM / OOSTERHOUT (Neth.) - On Sunday (July 12), the eight teams in the Dutch big league got into action again and completed their second round of exhibition games. From Thursday-evening on, the final games are scheduled, including those that are part of the annual In Memoriam Charles Urbanus Sr. Tournament. This year, games of this tournament will be played at four different sites. The second part of the exhibition season will close on Sunday. The regular season then will open on Thursday, July 23. (July 12) Standings Exhibition Season Scores Schedule

...Denzel Brooks steals 2nd base for Quick... ...while Giovanny Perez gets the ball... (© Photo: Henk Seppen) At Amsterdam, Dutch champion L&D Amsterdam Pirates took an early lead against Quick Amersfoort and won 6-2 in an 8-inning game. Quick was limited to only three basehits by four pitchers. Roy van de Wateringen and Martijn Bosschaat were the umpires in Amsterdam. In the first at bat, Pirates scored three runs off of Quick-starter Gilian Wernet, who arrived in Amersfoort on Friday. The righthander, who last season made his big league-debut pitching for HCAW, threw three innings. He also gave up Amsterdam's fourth run in the third at bat. In the bottom of the fourth, Wernet was relieved by Jhan Rifaela, who last season won the Dutch championship-title while playing for Amsterdam Pirates. The lefthander threw two innings against his former teammates and gave up a run in the fifth. Quick Amersfoort was held scoreless in its first five innings. Juan Carlos Sulbaran started for Pirates and threw three innings, Tom de Blok then added two scoreless innings. De Blok will be on the active roster this season for the Amsterdam-team, as he got permission to pitch. Initially, the righthander was to play professionally again in the organization of the Detroit Tigers in the Minor League. However, all Minor League-seasons were cancelled recently. Also on the Amsterdam-roster is righthander Donny Breek, who was to pitch this season in the organization of the Minnesota Twins. In the top of the sixth, lefthander Nick Veltkamp took over the Amsterdam-pitching and gave up Quick's two runs in that at bat. He then threw a scoreless seventh inning. Mike Groen closed for Pirates with a scoreless eighth inning. Leading 5-2, Pirates added another run in the bottom of the sixth off of new pitcher Jan-Willem Geerts, who threw two innings. Taylor Clemensia closed the game for Quick in the eighth.

...Juan Carlos Sulbaran (3 innings) and Tom de Blok (2 innings) held Quick Amersfoort scoreless... (© Both Photos: Henk Seppen) ...Gilian Wernet (left) and Jhan Rifaela will play in their first season for Quick Amersfoort from July 23 on... ...Last year, Wernet pitched for HCAW and Rifaela won the Championship with Amsterdam Pirates... (© Both Photos: Henk Seppen) ...Left: Delano Selasso (last years Holland Series MVP) runs the bases for Amsterdam Pirates... ...Right: Veteran powerhitter Bryan Engelhardt (Quick Amersfoort) looks at the signs... (© Both Photos: Henk Seppen) ...Left: Nick Veltkamp pitched in relief for Amsterdam Pirates... ...Right: Niels van Weert played at 2B for the home-team; In the background, the retired numbers of Pirates... (© Both Photos: Henk Seppen) ...Left: Quick Amersfoort Head Coach René de Vries gives signals... ...Right: Pirates Head Coach Michael Duursma (right) and Pitching Coach Rob Cordemans look on from the dug-out... (© Both Photos: Henk Seppen)

...Darryl Collins scored and batted in a run... ...for Neptunus... (© Photo: Robert Bos) At Rotterdam, Curaçao Neptunus again secured a win late in the game. This time, the team broke a 2-2 tie in the eighth inning and won 3-2 against Hoofddorp Pioniers in a 9-inning game. Edwin Louisa and Jos van Eijsden were the umpires. Neptunus opened the score in the bottom of the third inning off of Hoofddorp-starter Scott Prins. Darryl Collins then scored the first run on a double by Quintin De Cuba. Prins was relieved after four innings by Daniël Vos, who gave up the second Neptunian run in the fifth. This time, Jarreau Martina scored when Collins reached on an error. For Neptunus, Orlando Yntema started and threw three scoreless innings. Hereafter, Kevin Kelly held Pioniers scoreless in the fourth and fifth inning. In the top of the sixth, Aaron de Groot became the third pitcher Neptunus. After having thrown a scoreless inning, he gave up two runs in the seventh. Mark Smit then scored the first run on a single by Max Draijer. The latter advanced on a single by Joey Eeman and scored the tying run on a single by Victor Draijer. In the eighth, Jiorgeny Casimiri took over the pitching for Neptunus. He became the winning pitcher, as Neptunus re-took the lead in the bottom of the eighth off of the fourth Pioniers-pitcher. After Sem Lauf had thrown a scoreless sixth inning, Nathan Diaby also gave up no runs in the seventh. But in the eighth, he saw Joran Berkhout score the go-ahead run on a single by Stijn van der Meer. With a 3-2 lead, veteran righthander Elton Koeiman pitched for Neptunus in the top of the ninth and earned a save. Despite having a lead, the bottom of the ninth was also played, but Neptunus was unable to add more runs off of Angelo Wicklert.

...Orlando Yntema and Scott Prins were the starting pitchers... (© Both Photos: Robert Bos) ...Left: Neptunus Head Coach Ronald Jaarsma in the dug-out... ...Right: Darryl Collins dives back to first base... (© Both Photos: Robert Bos) ...Mark Smit (left) and Raul Jacobs slide into second base for Hoofddorp Pioniers... ...Benjamin Dille (left) and Stijn van der Meer cannot prevent that... (© Both Photos: Robert Bos) ...Aaron de Groot, Jiorgeny Casimiri and Nathan Diaby all pitched in relief today... (© All Photos: Robert Bos)

At Bussum, HCAW recorded a convincing 13-2 victory against DSS/Kinheim in an 8½-inning game. Stenar van Groningen Schinkel and Niek Elshof were the umpires in this game. HCAW scored its first run in the first inning off of starter Jelle Bing. With one out, Linoy Croes walked, stole second base and scored on a 2-out single by Rodney Daal. ...Berend Ruben had two doubles,... ...scored two runs and batted in... ...three for HCAW... (© Photo: Henk Seppen) A 4-run rally followed in the bottom of the second inning. Leandro Anasagasti led off with a walk, stole second base and scored when next batter Berend Ruben doubled. With one out, Bob van der Meer reached on an error. A single by Linoy Croes and a wild pitch accounted for two more runs. Hereafter, the next three batters walked, resulting in another run and a 5-0 lead. Bing held HCAW scoreless in the third, then his reliever Moreno Vork gave up three more runs in the fourth. With one out, Vork got the bases loaded via a walk, a basehit and another walk. A run was then scored on a grounder by Arthur Bonevacia and when that was followed by a throwing error, another run was added. With two outs, Leandro Anasagasti added a runscoring single to make it an 8-0 score. Vork retired the side in the sixth, then Kevin Nieveld held the Bussum-squad scoreless in the next two at bats. Dennis Burgersdijk started for HCAW and threw five scoreless innings. He gave up four basehits and was assisted by a nice double play in the third inning. The righthander got the bases loaded with one out. Aidan Finnegan led off with a bunt-single, then Bram Blokker walked. With one out, Jochem Koedijk reached on an error. Hereafter, Jeldwin Orman grounded into an inning-ending double play. Gio de Graauw took over the HCAW-pitching in the sixth and gave up DSS/Kinheim's first run in the seventh. Donny Kuijpers led off with a walk and later scored on a single by Kevin Nieveld, who at that moment was added as tenth batter in the batting order of DSS/Kinheim. In the bottom of the eighth, HCAW rallied for five more runs off of new pitcher Robyn Clara. The rally was hightlighted by a 2-run double by Berend Ruben and a 2-run single by Arthur Lugtmeijer. Trailing 13-1, DSS/Kinheim scored its second run in the ninth off of Johannes Verroen Garcia. Again, it was Donny Kuijpers who scored. He again led off with a walk and this time, he scored on a wild pitch.

...Twins-starter Thomas Roijers... (© Photo: Robert Bos) At Oosterhout, Twins Oosterhout took an early comfortable lead against Silicon Storks. However, Storks came back and the game eventually ended with a 9-9 tie in a 9-inning game. Jeffrey Bentsnijder and Peter de Haan were the umpires. Twins Oosterhout took an early lead off of Storks-starter Diornick Sanchez, who threw five innings. In the sixth, he was relieved by American William Sowers, who threw the next three innings. Jayden Gonesh closed for Storks by pitching the ninth inning. Twins Oosterhout went on to take an 8-3 lead, but that was not enough. Starter Thomas Roijers did well and threw five fine innings, then Raf Cocu threw two innings for Twins. In the top of the eighth, Storks was able to come back into the game off of Marvin Brown, who walked several batters. After 1/3 inning, he was relieved by Nick Peels, who completed the game. Storks scored four runs in the eighth to come alongside. Both Head Coaches confirmed that this was not the best of games. But there were some offensive highlights, as Luuk Visser (Storks) and Dave Janssen (Twins) homered. In the meantime, 26-year old Japanese righthander Sora Sakashita has arrived in Oosterhout. While it was not clear whether or not Twins Oosterhout would have a foreign pitcher on its roster this short season, the team again added a pitcher from Japan. In the past two seasons, Sakashita pitched for Yamagishi Logisters in the Industrial League in Japan. This season, he was to played in an Independent League in the USA, but that fell through due to the coronavirus. Sakashita will make his debut in the upcoming 3-game exhibition series against Quick Amersfoort.

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