(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Holland Series-opener moved from Sunday to Saturday
Nederlands
 NIEUWEGEIN (Neth.) -
The opening-game of the Holland Series has been moved from coming Sunday to coming Saturday (October 2), due to expected inclement weather on Sunday.
The change in the scheduling was officially confirmed on Thursday (September 30).
For the sixth year in a row and seventh time in the last eight years, reigning champion L&D Amsterdam Pirates and Curaçao Neptunus will meet in the best-of-seven Championship Final.
The last days, the move in playing days has been considered when it became clear that rain is predicted for coming Sunday.
Although rain is also predicted for Friday and Saturday, it has been decided to move Sunday's opener to Saturday in Rotterdam.
Diegomar Markwell (Neptunus) and Shairon Martis (Pirates) have been announced as starting pitchers.
As Neptunus finished in first place in the regular season, the Rotterdam-team has the home-advantage in four games.
The Holland Series was initially scheduled to open coming Saturday, but that was moved to Sunday due to 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 was then scheduled to be played on Thursday, October 7, then the third and fourth game are scheduled for the following weekend.
This remains unchanged.
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.
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.
(September 30)
Live play-by-play
Livestreams
| 
