In the first No-Hitter of his career, Tom de Blok encountered no problems.
Right from the beginning, the righthander had a strong start, as he struckout the side in the bottom of the first inning.
It was the beginning of something special.
De Blok struckout his fourth batter in the second inning and also got two grounders, that were fielded by second baseman Niels van Weert.
In the third inning, De Blok began with his fifth strikeout.
A grounder and flyout followed.
In the fourth, the first two batters of DSS/Kinheim grounded out and De Blok then closed with his sixth strikeout.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, De Blok opened with a strikeout, then got two flyouts.
And with that, he was still throwing not only a No-Hitter, but also a Perfect Game, as he now had retired 15 consecutive batters.
In the top of the sixth inning, Amsterdam Pirates scored three runs in one inning for the fourth time in this game.
That lifted the score to 12-0, meaning De Blok now needed only two more innings to secure his place in history because of the mercy-rule run-difference.
And he succeeded in doing so.
In the sixth, he got three grounders.
The bottom of the seventh began with a foul pop-fly that was caught by third baseman Rashid Gerard.
Hereafter, the next two batters grounded to short stop Mick Vos.
With two outs, the grounder by Jason Jakobus was also fielded flawlessly by Vos, who got the ball in time to rookie first baseman Emilson Haswell, who had entered the game in the fifth.
With that, the game ended and Tom de Blok had thrown the fourth Perfect Game in the history of the highest Dutch league.
Pirates had his first 3-run rally in the top of the first inning off of starter Jelle Bing, without hitting a basehit.
The righthander got the bases loaded quickly, as he walked the first three batters.
He first walked lead-off hitter Roelie Henrique, who then stole second base.
Next batter Jair van Borkulo also walked and double-steal followed.
The bases then got loaded when Denzel Richardson also walked.
A wild pitch followed, which enabled Henrique to score the first run.
With one out, Van Borkulo scored on a grounder by Kenny Berkenbosch.
And with two outs, Richardson stole third base and scored on a following throwing error by the catcher.
Jelle Bing recovered and held Pirates scoreless in the next two innings, but then gave up three more runs in the fourth.
Again, he walked the first three batters.
This time, there were no stolen bases or wild pitches.
Gilmer Lampe, Kenny Berkenbosch and Rashid Gerard received consecutive walks.
The first scored on a sacrifice fly by Mick Vos.
When the bases were reloaded when Luca Pastor hit his first big league-basehit, a pitching change followed.
Ben Neijndorff took over, but he got a sacrifice fly from Niels van Weert and a runscoring single by Roelie Henrique, which made it a 6-0 score.
Three more runs were added in the fifth at bat.
Denzel Richardson led off with a double and Gilmer Lampe singled.
Pinch-hitter Emilson Haswell followed with a runscoring single, then the bases got loaded when Rashid Gerard also singled.
Moments later, Lampe scored on a wild pitch and with one out, Haswell scored the next run on a sacrifice fly by Luca Pastor.
In the top of the sixth, Pirates scored three runs for the fourth time.
This time off of lefthander Bas Timmer, who had entered in the previous at bat and made his first appearance of the season.
He also got the bases loaded quickly, as he gave up lead-off singles to Jair van Borkulo and Denzel Richardson, then walked Gilmer Lampe.
After an infield-fly, the three scored when Timmer walked Rashid Gerard, Mick Vos and Luca Pastor.
That led to another pitching change.
Nick Boxelaar took over and got an inning-ending double play, but Pirates now led 12-0.
In the top of the seventh, Pirates left a runner behind on first base.
Shortly thereafter, Tom de Blok completed his Perfect Game.
Home Plate Umpire Edwin Louisa also was involved in the last No-Hitter, which was the first at the big league-level for Amsterdam Pirates.
On October 2 last year, Louisa was a first base when three pitchers threw a combined No-Hitter for Pirates.
For 3B Umpire Niek Elshof, this was his second No-Hitter.
Eleven years ago, in 2010, he also was at third base when Joey Eijpe threw a No-Hitter for HCAW in the Play-Downs.
Official Scorer Linda Steijger was involved in two No-Hitters in 2016.
She was the Play-by-Play Scorer on June 26 of that year when Elton Koeiman threw a No-Hitter for Twins Oosterhout.
Thirteen days later, she was the Official Scorer in the No-Hitter thrown by Chris Pfau for Hoofddorp Pioniers.
This was the first No-Hitter for 1B Umpire Bernard Flohr and the first baseball No-Hitter for Dieks Bannink, who was the Play-by-Play Scorer.
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Tom de Blok throws Perfect Game in Amsterdam Pirates-win vs. DSS/Kinheim
HAARLEM (Neth.) -
Tom de Blok threw a 7-inning Perfect Game on Thursday-afternoon (May 13) in a 12-0 shutout-win for L&D Amsterdam Pirates against DSS/Kinheim.
Tom de Blok (Amsterdam Pirates) throws the fourth Perfect Game in history in the highest Dutch league.