(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Starting Pitchers coming series
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
On Thursday-evening (August 18), the final 3-game series of the regular season opens in the Dutch big league.
One series begins on Friday-evening.
That's the series between Twins Oosterhout and Curaçao Neptunus.
Initially, this series was to open on Thursday-evening in Oosterhout, where a new light-installation was installed recently.
But there is still a piece missing to complete the installation and therefore, Twins will play its home-game at the site of its opponent, as the team has done the entire season during evening-games.
However, on Thursday-evening, the home-site of Neptunus is not available, as it has been rented by a school.
Therefore, the game will be played on Friday.
The non-availability of the site in Rotterdam is also the reason that the opener on Thursday between Silicon Storks and Hoofddorp Pioniers will be played in Hoofddorp instead.
Storks uses the site of Neptunus for its home-games in the evening, as its own home-site in The Hague has no light-installation.
The games in these remaining series will be decisive for six teams.
Because of the results in the previous series, Twins Oosterhout will finish the regular season in fourth place.
And HCAW will finish in third place after last Tuesday's win of L&D Amsterdam Pirates against Curaçao Neptunus.
HCAW and Pirates can end up in a tie, but the head-to-head results are in favor of the Amsterdam-team, which won four of the six games played, losing one and finishing one with a tie.
On Tuesday, Pirates completed a sweep against Neptunus, as it won its 3-game series in which the games were played on three consecutive Tuesday-evenings.
With that, Pirates now trails Neptunus by only one point (½ game), which means that the coming series will decide which team finishes the regular season in first place.
The season-winner will meet Twins Oosterhout in its best-of-five Play-Off.
The team in second place will play against HCAW.
The first game in the Play-Offs is scheduled for Thursday, September 2.
For the bottom-4 teams, the coming series also will be decisive.
Hoofddorp Pioniers and DSS/Kinheim are playing for fifth and sixth place.
For Silicon Storks and Quick Amersfoort, the coming games will decisive who will finish in seventh and eighth place.
The bottom-4 teams will continue its season in the Relegation Pool, also starting on September 2.
The teams will play three 3-game series against each other to decide which team will have to play in the Promotion/Relegation Series.
Two pitchers have a chance to become a 10-game winner this season.
Lefthander Diegomar Markwell is 9-0 and will be the starter for Curaçao Neptunus on Friday-evening.
Righthander Dennis Burgersdijk is 9-1 and will be the start for HCAW on Sunday-afternoon.
Although the coming series are the final ones in the regular season, there is one other game that no official status yet.
There is still no decision announced regarding the status of the game between Hoofddorp Pioniers and Twins Oosterhout which was halted by the umpiring crew on August 8.
The game was halted in the bottom of the fourth inning with Pioniers leading 3-2.
After coming Sunday, no games in the big league are scheduled before September 2.
Instead, HCAW and Neptunus will play two exhibition games on August 28 (Bussum) and August 29 (Rotterdam).
Amsterdam Pirates and DSS/Kinheim will play an exhibition game on August 28 in Amsterdam.
Beneath are the announced starting pitchers for the upcoming series in the big league.
As always, these assignments can change on game-days.
(August 18)
Live play-by-play
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| Roster | L&D AMSTERDAM PIRATES (30-8-1) | vs. |
QUICK AMERSFOORT (7-32) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Pirates | G | # | Starting Pitchers Quick |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 64 | RHP Shairon Martis (3-0) | 1 | 14 | RHP Jan-Willem Geerts (1-8) | Th. Aug. 19, 7:30 PM, Amsterdam (1) |
| 66 | RHP Naut Kragt (4-2) | 2 | 25 | LHP Maverich Lourens (0-4) | Sa. Aug. 21, 2:00 PM, Amersfoort (2) |
| 45 | RHP Juan Carlos Sulbaran (7-2) | 3 | 29 | RHP Jakob Syrén (1-2) | Su. Aug. 22, 2:00 PM, Amsterdam (1) |
| (1) - Loek Loevendie Ballpark, Sportpark 'Ookmeer', Amsterdam; (2) - XL Lease Park 'Dorrestein', Amersfoort |
| Roster | HCAW (27-11-1) | vs. |
DSS/KINHEIM (13-26) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers HCAW | G | # | Starting Pitchers DSS/Kinheim |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 26 | RHP Steven van Groningen (1-2) | 1 | 27 | RHP Nick Boxelaar (2-1) | Th. Aug. 19, 7:30 PM, Bussum (3) |
| 39 | RHP Lars Huijer (8-3) | 2 | 17 | LHP Rick Rizvić (1-4) | Sa. Aug. 21, 2:00 PM, Haarlem (4) |
| 7 | RHP Dennis Burgersdijk (9-1) | 3 | 12 | RHP Glenn Wassink (3-7) | Su. Aug. 22, 2:00 PM, Bussum (3) |
| (3) - Rob Hoffmann Vallei, Sportpark Zanderijweg, Bussum; (4) - Pim Mulier Stadion, Pim Mulier Sportpark, Haarlem |
| Roster | SILICON STORKS (11-27-1) | vs. |
HOOFDDORP PIONIERS (13-25) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Storks | G | # | Starting Pitchers Pioniers |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 20 | RHP Kevin van Veen (3-2) | 1 | 36 | RHP Scott Prins (4-1) | Th. Aug. 19, 7:30 PM, Hoofddorp (5)(*) |
| 25 | RHP Twan Naessens (0-6) | 2 | 55 | RHP Mathijs Oosterbeek (0-0) | Sa. Aug. 21, 1:00 PM, Hoofddorp (5) |
| 5 | LHP Nelmerson Angela (3-5) | 3 | 25 | RHP Lars Broersen (0-3) | Su. Aug. 22, 2:00 PM, The Hague (6) |
| (5) - ETO Ballpark, Sportpark Hoofddorp Pioniers, Park21, Hoofddorp; (6) - Sportpark 'Kijkduin', The Hague |
| (*) - Thursday's home-game of Storks will be played at the site of Hoofddorp Pioniers in Hoofddorp |
| Roster | TWINS OOSTERHOUT (21-16-1) | vs. |
CURAÇAO NEPTUNUS (31-8) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Twins | G | # | Starting Pitchers Neptunus |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 11 | RHP Koen Postelmans (2-2) | 1 | 35 | LHP Diegomar Markwell (9-0) | Fr. Aug. 20, 7:30 PM, Rotterdam (7)(*) |
| 32 | RHP Taisei Nakamura (3-3) | 2 | | to be decided | Sa. Aug. 21, 2:00 PM, Rotterdam (7) |
| 6 | RHP Simon Gross (3-2) | 3 | | to be decided | Su. Aug. 22, 3:00 PM, Oosterhout (8) |
| (7) - Neptunus Familiestadion, Sportpark Abraham van Stolkweg, Rotterdam; (8) - Sportpark 'De Slotbosse Toren', Oosterhout |
| (*) - Friday's home-game of Twins Oosterhout will be played at the site of Neptunus in Rotterdam |
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