(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Season-opener Amsterdam Pirates vs. Hoofddorp Pioniers rains out again
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
The season opening game between reigning champion L&D Amsterdam Pirates and Hoofddorp Pioniers was cancelled for the second day in a row on Friday (April 30).
The game was originally scheduled for Thursday-evening, but then, it was one of three games that were cancelled due to weather conditions.
On Thursday, it had been raining sometimes steadily until the early afternoon in several parts of the country.
From 3 PM on, games in Amsterdam, Bussum and Amersfoort were cancelled and re-scheduled for tonight.
In the lone game that was played on Thursday, Curaçao Neptunus shutout Silicon Storks, 8-0.
On Friday, it was another overcast day with rain in the morning and afternoon, sometimes steady, sometimes drizzling.
With that, the game was cancelled again due to field-conditions and rain.
The game is re-scheduled for Monday-evening, May 3.
The series now will open on Saturday in Hoofddorp at 2 PM.
The next game will be played on Sunday in Amsterdam at 2 PM and will conclude on Monday-evening (7:30 PM).
Amsterdam Pirates Head Coach Michael Duursma confirmed that his announced rotation for starting pitchers will not change.
That means that RHP Tom de Blok, the scheduled starter for the opener, now will pitch on Saturday, followed by RHP Juan Carlos Sulbaran (Sunday) and LHP Nick Veltkamp (Monday).
Hoofddorp Pioniers made a switch in its starters, Pitching Coach Tom van Limburg confirmed.
LHP Ryan Huntington will start on Saturday, as scheduled.
RHP John Michael Halley, who was to be the starter in the opener, will now start on Sunday.
And Sunday's starter RHP Lars Broersen will now start on Monday-evening.
Ric Zwanenberg, one of the umpires that was assigned to both Thursday's and Friday's game, was to make his debut in the Dutch big league.
He can now make his debut on Saturday when is the 3B Umpire in the game between Twins Oosterhout and HCAW in Oosterhout.
The 2021 season was initially scheduled to open on Thursday, April 8, but the start was postponed to today, due to the measures against the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
The 2021 season is the 100th in the highest Dutch baseball-league, since there was a first small competition set-up in 1922.
Back then, Quick Amsterdam captured the first Championship-title.
The team that wins the title this year will be the 99th season.
Last year, after an abbreviated season, Amsterdam Pirates led 2-0 in the Holland Series against Curaçao Neptunus.
Because of new and stricter measures against the coronavirus, the best-of-seven ended abruptly and didn't resume.
It was decided that there would be no champion in 2020.
Therefore, Amsterdam Pirates is still the reigning champion after capturing the title in 2019 when it also faced Neptunus in the Holland Series.
Pirates then became the first team in history to win the final four games after having lost the first three.
(April 30)
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Opening Night 2021 Season.