(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Amsterdam Pirates wins season-opener; DSS/Kinheim debuts with walk-off win
Nederlands
    ROTTERDAM / HAARLEM / BUSSUM / AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
Reigning champion L&D Amsterdam Pirates opened the 2020 regular season on Thursday-evening (July 23) with an 8-3 win against Curaçao Neptunus in a game that was highlighted by a grand slam homerun off the bat of Kalian Sams.
DSS/Kinheim made its debut in the highest league with a surprise 4-3 walk-off win against Hoofddorp Pioniers.
That also was the final score of the win for HCAW against Quick Amersfoort.
Twins Oosterhout recorded a big 12-4 on Opening Night against Silicon Storks.
At Rotterdam, the two finalists of last season faced each other in the opening game.
In the best-of-seven Holland Series last year, Neptunus won the first three games, but Amsterdam Pirates then became the first team in history to win the next four games and capture the Championship-title.
...Kalian Sams hit a grand slam homerun...
...in the 8th inning for Amsterdam Pirates...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Tonight, Neptunus took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning, but then was silenced for most of the game.
Pirates came alongside in the fourth, then took a 3-1 lead in the fifth and added a run in the sixth.
The highlight came in the top of the eighth when Kalian Sams hit an one-out grand slam homerun.
That lifted the lead to 8-1.
In the bottom of the eighth, Neptunus got two runs back.
With one out, the team got two baserunners (single-walk-balk) off of rookie reliever Naut Kragt
He had taken over with two outs in the fifth for starter Rob Cordemans, who left after being hit on hit arm by a hard comebacker off the ground (infield-hit) hit by Jarreau Martina.
With two outs, former Major League-pitcher Shairon Martis took over the pitching to make his Dutch big league-debut.
He gave up a 2-run single to Dashenko Ricardo, but that was to be it for Neptunus.
Due to the 10:30 curfew-rule, the game ended after eight complete innings.
In the bottom of the eighth, Raydley Legito made his debut in the highest league, playing second base for Pirates against the team where his father Raily Legito celebrated many successes.
At Haarlem, DSS/Kinheim took a 1-0 lead in the first inning against Hoofddorp Pioniers.
Hereafter, the home-team was held scoreless by starter Chris Pfau, who had a fine outing and gave up only five hits, pitching 7 1/3 inning.
In the seventh, Pioniers scored twice after a pitching change.
DSS/Kinheim came alongside in the eighth, then Pioniers re-took the lead in the ninth on a double by Victor Draijer.
In the bottom of the ninth, also off a reliever, Tommy van de Sanden and Kevin Nieveld led off with singles.
With two outs, both scored on a walk-off, 2-run double by Aidan Finnegan.
At Bussum, HCAW took an 1-0 lead in the third, then opponent Quick Amersfoort came alongside in the fourth.
Then, it was Quick that scored in the seventh, but HCAW answered with three runs in its seventh at bat.
Former HCAW-pitcher Gilian Wernet (who had entered in the sixth) walked Kevin Dirksen and then gave up a double to Linoy Croes.
To set up a force play, an intentional walk was issued to Arthur Bonevacia, which was followed by a pitching change.
A walk for Leandro Anasagasti then tied the score.
Another runscoring walk for Berend Ruben followed, then a passed ball accounted for the third run in the at bat.
Quick got one run back in the ninth, but was unable to re-take the lead in this game, which was briefly halted for an 8-minute sun-delay in the top of the sixth.
At Amsterdam, Twins Oosterhout led 1-0 after three innings, then added eleven runs in the next five innings to record a comfortable win against Silicon Storks.
With that, the team provided enough runs for Japanese starter Sora Sakashita, who struckout seven batters and gave up only three hits, pitching 5 1/3 inning in his debut.
Storks was limited to six hits by five pitchers.
Twins collected 15 basehits, including five by rookie Tyriq Kemp, who was 5-for-5, scored three runs, walked once, stole a base and batted in a run in his first game for his new team.
Last year, he made his big league-debut playing for Curaçao Neptunus, where his older brother Dwayne Kemp plays.
Last season, the younger Kemp was 4-for-22, playing in nine games.
As he didn't play in the required 15 games last year, it means he still has a rookie-status for this season.
Kemp became the first player since April 12, 2008 to hit five basehits in an opening game.
Back then, it was Martijn Meeuwis (Neptunus), who was 5-for-5.
(July 23)
(complete recaps and Line Scores will be added later)
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