(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Robert Bos)
 Starting Pitchers coming series
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
On Thursday-evening (September 30), the final series of the Relegation Pool begins, coming Sunday (October 3), the best-of-seven Holland Series opens.
On Sunday, reigning champion L&D Amsterdam Pirates and Curaçao Neptunus will meet each other again in the Holland Series.
It will mark the sixth year in a row and seventh time in the last eight years that the two teams will face each other in the Championship Final.
This will be the tenth time that Pirates and Neptunus will play against each other since a best-of series was introduced in 1987 to decide the Championship.
Amsterdam Pirates won the very-first Holland Series in 1987, winning the best-of-three (2-1) against Neptunus.
Pirates then swept Neptunus in three games in the best-of-five 1990.
Since 2010, the Holland Series is a best-of-seven, which it also had been once before that (1989).
The ten Holland Series between Pirates and Neptunus includes last years Series, which was halted after two games due to stricter measures against the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Pirates then won both games.
With that, there was no champion in the 2020 season, meaning Pirates remained the reigning champion this year.
In 2019, Neptunus won the first three games, but Pirates then wrote history to become the first team in history to come back and win the final four games to capture the title.
Before that, Neptunus won the title three years in a row (2016-2018) after also having won in 2010 and 2014.
In 2014, Pirates was one win away from the title (3-1), but then lost the next three games.
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...Diegomar Markwell & Shairon Martis...
...Holland Series Game 1 Starters...
(© All Photos: Robert Bos) |
The Holland Series was initially scheduled to open coming Saturday, but that was delayed one day due the participation of the Netherlands Under-23 Team in the Under-23 World Cup in Mexico.
Both Pirates and Neptunus have players who are part of that team.
Game 2 will now be played on Thursday, October 7, then the third and fourth game are scheduled for the following weekend.
If needed, another 3-game series (Thursday, Saturday, Sunday) then begins on Thursday, October 14.
By finishing in first place in the regular season, Neptunus has the home-advantage in the best-of-seven and will play at home in four games.
The bottom-four teams from the regular season continue their postseason on Thursday and will close it on Sunday.
Weather permitting, as so rain is predicted for coming weekend.
The team in last place will play a best-of-three Promotion/Relegation Play-Off against the champion of the First Division, which will begin on Wednesday, October 13 at the site of the big league-team.
When the champion has no interest in promoting to the highest league, the second or third standard-team becomes eligible, but they have to finish the regular season in the top-three.
The First Division ends on Sunday, October 10.
At the moment, RCH-Pinguïns and Euro Stars share first place.
The third highest standard-team is UVV, which is currently in fourth place.
The two teams that are currently in last place, Silicon Storks and Quick Amersfoort face each other in the coming series.
As there is no light-installation on the home-site of Storks in The Hague, the opening game on Thursday-evening will be played at the site of Hoofddorp Pioniers in Hoofddorp.
This series will be decisive to determine which team will finish in last place.
Also to be determined is the status of the halted game between Quick Amersfoort and Hoofddorp Pioniers, which was played last Saturday.
That game was halted after nine complete innings by the umpiring crew when a bench clearing followed an exchange of words at second base during an inning-ending double play.
At that moment, the score was 1-1 and extra innings were about to begin, but the umpires walked off the field.
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.
(September 29)
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| HOLLAND SERIES (best-of-seven) |
| Roster | CURAÇAO NEPTUNUS (0-0) (34-8) | vs. |
L&D AMSTERDAM PIRATES (0-0) (33-8-1) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Neptunus | G | # | Starting Pitchers Pirates |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 35 | LHP Diegomar Markwell (0-0) (10-0) | 1 | 64 | RHP Shairon Martis (0-0) (4-0) | Su. Oct. 3, 2:00 PM, Rotterdam (1) |
| | to be decided | 2 | | to be decided | Th. Oct. 7, 7:30 PM, Amsterdam (2) |
| | to be decided | 3 | | to be decided | Sa. Oct. 9, 2:00 PM, Rotterdam (1) |
| | to be decided | 4 | | to be decided | Su. Oct. 10, 2:00 PM, Amsterdam (2) |
| | to be decided | 5 | | to be decided | 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 |
| RELEGATION POOL (nr. 5 vs. nr. 6) |
| Roster | DSS/KINHEIM (5-1) (15-27) | vs. |
HOOFDDORP PIONIERS (3-2) (15-27) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers DSS/Kinheim | G | # | Starting Pitchers Pioniers |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 44 | RHP Tom Stuifbergen (1-0) (0-3) | 1 | 8 | LHP Ryan Huntington (2-0) (3-5) | Th. Sep. 30, 7:30 PM, Haarlem (3) |
| 27 | RHP Nick Boxelaar (2-0) (3-1) | 2 | | to be decided | Sa. Oct. 2, 1:00 PM, Hoofddorp (4) |
| 12 | RHP Glenn Wassink (1-1) (4-7) | 3 | | to be decided | Su. Oct. 3, 2:00 PM, Haarlem (3) |
| (3) - Pim Mulier Stadion, Pim Mulier Sportpark, Haarlem; (4) - ETO Ballpark, Sportpark Hoofddorp Pioniers, Park21, Hoofddorp |
| RELEGATION POOL (nr. 7 vs. nr. 8) |
| Roster | SILICON STORKS (2-4) (12-29-1) | vs. |
QUICK AMERSFOORT (1-4) (7-35) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Storks | G | # | Starting Pitchers Quick |
| Date, Time & Site |
| | to be decided | 1 | 5 | RHP Stijn Bruins Slot (0-2) (2-7) | Th. Sep. 30, 7:30 PM, Hoofddorp (5)(*) |
| | to be decided | 2 | 29 | RHP Jakob Syrén (0-1) (1-3) | Sa. Oct. 2, 2:00 PM, Amersfoort (6) |
| | to be decided | 3 | 26 | RHP Giovanni Tensen (0-0) (0-0) | Su. Oct. 3, 2:00 PM, The Hague (7)) |
| (5) - ETO Ballpark, Sportpark Hoofddorp Pioniers, Park21, Hoofddorp; (6) - XL Lease Park 'Dorrestein', Amersfoort; (7) - Sportpark 'Kijkduin', The Hague |
| (*) - Thursday's home-game of Storks will be played at the site of Hoofddorp Pioniers in Hoofddorp |
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