(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Robert Bos)
 Diegomar Markwell wins 150th game, as Neptunus nips Hoofddorp Pioniers
Nederlands
 ROTTERDAM (Neth.) -
Veteran lefthander Diegomar Markwell won the 150th game in his career on Thursday-evening (May 27), pitching seven solid innings for Curaçao Neptunus.
Playing at home, Neptunus nipped Hoofddorp Pioniers 3-2 in the quick-paced opening game of their 3-game series.
...Diegomar Markwell...
...150 wins...
(© Photo: Robert Bos) |
For Markwell, winning his 150th game was one of two milestones he could accomplish tonight.
The other one was striking out his 1,000th batter in a regular season-game.
Markwell needed eight strikeouts to record his 1,000th, but he struckout only two batters.
With that, he has to wait some longer to reach that mark.
By winning his 150th game, Markwell now shares second place on the all-time list with Bart Volkerijk.
The former pitcher of ADO was the longtime record-holder with his 150 wins, but that was broken in 2012 by veteran righthander Rob Cordemans of L&D Amsterdam Pirates.
Last year, on September 4 in what was his last start of the season, Cordemans became the first pitcher with 200 regular season-wins.
Cordemans also became the first pitcher in history with not only 200 wins, but also 2,000 strikeouts and 2,000 innings pitched.
This season, Cordemans threw only one inning so far.
Diegomar Markwell made his debut in the Dutch big league in 2004 when he played for Sparta-Feyenoord.
In his first season, the lefthander was 3-3 and struckout 39 batters.
After the 2004 season, Markwell transfered to Neptunus for whom he now has been the winning pitcher in 147 games.
In tonight's game, Markwell retired the first twelve batters he faced.
His Perfect Game and No-Hitter was then broken in the top of the fifth when Denzel Brooks led off with a double.
Moments later, Brooks tried to score on a following single by Jair Bogaerts, but was eliminated at the plate.
Neptunus opened the score in the bottom of the fourth on a 2-run single by Stijn van der Meer.
The team added a run in the fifth on a single by Roger Bernadina.
In the top of the sixth, Markwell struckout his two batters, but also almost lost the lead, as Pioniers scored twice.
With two outs, he got the bases loaded, then gave up a 2-run single to Denzel Brooks.
However, on the throw from the outfield to third base, Brooks tried to advance to second base, only to found runner Randolph Oduber there.
Brooks was eliminated and that ended the at bat.
In the next three innings, Neptunus hold onto the minimal lead.
Misja Harcksen and Kevin Kelly threw the eighth and ninth inning to secure the historic win for Markwell.
(May 27)
(more later)
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Diegomar Markwell (Neptunus) wins the 150th regular season-game in his career.