(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Starting Pitchers coming series
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
In a few days, we will know who will be the baseball-champion of the 2021 season.
On Thursday-evening (October 14), the best-of-seven Holland Series between reigning champion L&D Amsterdam Pirates and Curaçao Neptunus continues with Game 5, which will be played in Rotterdam.
The sixth game then follows on Saturday in Amsterdam.
When needed, Game 7 will be played on Sunday in Rotterdam.
Amsterdam Pirates opened the Holland Series with a 2-0 shutout, then also won Game 2 last Thursday with a 3-1 score.
In the weekend, Neptunus came back and won the third and fourth game with scores of respectively 2-0 and 8-2 to not only come alongside, but also force a sixth game.
As was the case in last week's 3-game series, starting pitchers have only been announced for the game on Thursday-evening.
From there, both Head Coaches will look day-by-dayto decide who will be the starter(s) in the weekend.
Also on the schedule coming weekend is the best-of-three Promotion/Relegation Play-Off between Silicon Storks and RCH-Pinguïns.
Last weekend, Quick Amersfoort won its final make-up game against Storks to secure its spot in next years big league.
That meant that Storks finishes in last place of the Relegation Pool.
In the First Division, RCH-Pinguïns became the highest ranked standard-team after nipping Sparks Haarlem 1-0 on Saturday.
With that, the team qualified for the Play-Off against Storks.
RCH-Pinguïns also won on Sunday (2-1).
However, the second team of Amsterdam Pirates came alongside RCH-Pinguïns in first place by not only winning twice vs. UVV (8-6 and 2-0) in the final round of the regular season, but also winning its make-up game last Monday against Neptunus Tridents (5-4).
With that, an one-game tie-breaker needed to be played to decide the championship.
Pirates cannot promote to the highest division, as the club already has its main-squad in that league.
But nevertheless, the additional game has to be played to crown the First Division champion.
That Championship-game was scheduled for Wednesday-evening (October 13).
At the neutral site of Onze Gezellen in Haarlem, Amsterdam Pirates 2 won the tie-breaker against RCH-Pinguïns with a 10-7 score to capture the First Division-title.
Initially, the first game of the best-of-three between Storks and RCH-Pinguïns was scheduled for that evening.
This series now opens coming Saturday in Heemstede, followed by Game 2 on Sunday in The Hague.
When needed, the third game will be played next Wednesday (October 20) in Heemstede.
The winner of this series will play in the Dutch big league next season, the loser will play in the First Division.
The starting pitchers for this Play-Off are not announced yet.
Beneath are the announced starting pitchers for the upcoming series in the big league.
As always, these assignments can change on game-days.
The second record in parentheses is the regular season-record.
(October 13)
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| HOLLAND SERIES (best-of-seven) |
| Roster | CURAÇAO NEPTUNUS (2-2) (34-8) | vs. |
L&D AMSTERDAM PIRATES (2-2) (33-8-1) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Neptunus | G | # | Starting Pitchers Pirates |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 35 | LHP Diegomar Markwell (L) | 1 | 64 | RHP Shairon Martis (W) | Su. Oct. 3, 2:00 PM, Rotterdam (1) |
| 35 | LHP Diegomar Markwell (nd) | 2 | 45 | RHP Juan Carlos Sulbaran (W) | Th. Oct. 7, 7:30 PM, Amsterdam (2) |
| 33 | RHP Kevin Kelly (W) | 3 | 64 | RHP Shairon Martis (L) | Sa. Oct. 9, 2:00 PM, Rotterdam (1) |
| 36 | RHP Aaron de Groot (nd) | 4 | 31 | RHP Gio de Graauw (L) | Su. Oct. 10, 2:00 PM, Amsterdam (2) |
| 35 | LHP Diegomar Markwell (0-1) (10-0) | 5 | 45 | RHP Juan Carlos Sulbaran (1-0) (8-2) | Th. Oct. 14, 7:30 PM, Rotterdam (1) |
| | to be decided | 6 | | to be decided | Sa. Oct. 16, 2:00 PM, Amsterdam (2) |
| | to be decided | 7 | | to be decided | Su. Oct. 17, 2:00 PM, Rotterdam (1) (*) |
(1) - Neptunus Familiestadion, Sportpark Abraham van Stolkweg, Rotterdam; (2) - Loek Loevendie Ballpark, Sportpark 'Ookmeer', Amsterdam
(*) - if needed; (nd) - no-decision |
| PROMOTION/RELEGATION PLAY-OFF |
| Roster | RCH-PINGUÏNS (0-0) (17-4) | vs. |
SILICON STORKS (0-0) (12-29-1) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers RCH-Pinguïns | G | # | Starting Pitchers Storks |
| Date, Time & Site |
| | to be announced | 1 | | to be announced | Sa. Oct. 16, 2:00 PM, Heemstede (3) |
| | to be announced | 2 | | to be announced | Su. Oct. 17, 2:00 PM, The Hague (4) |
| | to be announced | 3 | | to be announced | We. Oct. 20, 7:30 PM, Heemstede (3) (*) |
(3) - Heemsteede Sportparken, Heemstede; (4) - Sportpark 'Kijkduin', The Hague
(*) - if needed |
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