Playing an away-game on home soil, Amsterdam Pirates set the tone in the top of the first inning by hitting two homeruns to take an early lead.
Japanese righthander Sora Sakashita walked lead-off hitter Roelie Henrique, then gave up back-to-back homeruns to Gilmer Lampe and Denzel Richardson, which made it a 3-0 score.
Hereafter, Sakashita walked Kalian Sams, but retired the next three batters.
Twins Oosterhout got one run back in the bottom of the first inning off of Nick Veltkamp, who was the fill-in starting pitcher for Pirates tonight.
Before the start of the 3-game series, only a starting pitcher was announced for Game 2, being Juan Carlos Sulbaran.
The starters for Game 1 and 3 were not yet announced for several reasons.
A week ago, veteran righthander Rob Cordemans started the opener, but left the game in the fifth inning after being hit on his elbow by a comeback-grounder.
It was hoped that Cordemans could start again tonight, but he was kept sidelined out of precaution.
Besides this, lefthander Jim Ploeger (who last week started Game 2) also is not available for this series, as he just married.
With that, Head Coach Michael Duursma and Pitching Coach Rob Cordemans discussed the possibilities of setting the rotation for this series and named Veltkamp as the starter for tonight's game.
Veltkamp began with a strikeout, but then gave up an infield-hit to Rayshelon Carolina, who advanced on a passed ball.
Hereafter, Jason Halman walked.
With two outs, both scored on a double by Ruendrick Piternella.
Twins narrowed the deficit to 3-2 in the third inning.
Tyriq Kemp led off with a double, moved on a passed ball and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jason Halman.
But Rayshelon Carolina (who walked after Kemp's double) and Shurman Marlin (single with one out) stranded on second and third base, as Veltkamp closed with two strikeouts.
Pirates was retired in order by Sora Sakashita (two strikeouts) in the second inning, but got the bases loaded with one out in the third.
Denzel Richardson (single), Kalian Sams (double) and Kenny Berkenbosch (walk) were on base, but were left behind when a strikeout and groundout followed.
Amsterdam Pirates then rallied for four runs in the fourth to take more distance.
Kit Gijsbers led off with a single and scored on a triple by Max Clarijs, who then scored himself on a wild pitch.
With one out, Gilmer Lampe hit his second homerun of the evening.
Next batter Denzel Richardson singled and Kalian Sams walked, then the bases got loaded again when Rashid Gerard singled.
A run was scored when Niels van Weert also walked, which finally led to a pitching change.
Rookie Finn Kops took over and he got an inning-ending grounder, meaning Pirates again left three runners behind.
In the bottom of fhe fifth, it was Twins that stranded three runners.
Tyriq Kemp led off with his second double in the game, then Rayshelon Carolina was hit by a pitch.
Jason Halman followed with an RBI-single and the bases got loaded when Shurman Marlin also singled.
That ended the evening for Nick Veltkamp, who was replaced by Shairon Martis.
A force play at the plate, a flyout and a strikeout then ended the inning for the Oosterhout-team.
Now leading 6-3, Amsterdam Pirates decided the game by adding ten more runs in the next three at bats.
After Finn Kops had thrown a scoreless fifth inning, his successor Dave Janssen gave up two runs in the sixth.
Janssen, who is one of the catchers on the Twins-roster, walked lead-off hitter Kalian Sams (he walked three times), then gave up a single to Kenny Berkenbosch.
With one out, the two runners scored on a double by Niels van Weert.
With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Twins scored its fourth run when Mick Vos hit a homerun, his first in the big league.
Amsterdam followed with a 4-run rally in the seventh inning.
The bases got loaded thanks to Roelie Henrique (single), Gilmer Lampe (walk) and Denzel Richardson (hit by pitch).
Out of precaution, the latter was replaced by pinch-runner Delano Selassa.
The first run was then scored on a sacrifice fly by Kalian Sams, the next one on a single by rookie Jair van Borkulo.
With two outs, Niels van Weert delivered a 2-run single to lift the lead to 13-4.
Again, Twins Oosterhout answered with a homerun, but again it was a solo-shot.
This time, Ruendrick Piternella homered with one out.
It also led to a pitching change, as Mike Groen took over from Martis.
However, the Amsterdam-lead was never in jeopardy.
The team even added four more runs in the top of the eighth to get a mercy-rule run-difference.
Nick Peels, who is one of the outfielders, was the new pitcher for Twins and he saw the first six batters reach base.
With the bases loaded, Delano Selassa and Kalian Sams connected for runscoring singles, then two more runs were added on a double by Jair van Borkulo.
With Amsterdam now leading 17-5, Mike Groen retired the side in the bottom of the eighth inning and was credited with the win.
|
Amsterdam Pirates wins with double figures vs. Twins Oosterhout
AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
Reigning champion L&D Amsterdam Pirates recorded a big 17-5 victory on Thursday-evening (July 30) in its series-opener against Twins Oosterhout.
The game was played at the site of Pirates in Amsterdam.
The light-installation at the home-site of Twins in Oosterhout is not sufficient enough for the big league.
There, the team played its evening home-games at the site of Gryphons in Rosmalen last year.
This season, Twins will play these games at the site of its opponent.
Game played at the site of Amsterdam Pirates in Amsterdam, due to the insufficient light-installation at the home-site of Twins Oosterhout in Oosterhout.