(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Starting Pitchers coming series
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM -
On Thursday-evening (June 2), the final round of 3-game series will open in the Dutch big league.
The final game of this series is scheduled to be play coming Sunday (June 5).
Thereafter, no games are scheduled through Wednesday, June 15, unless of course, some team has to play a make-up game.
The brief interruption has to do with the participation of reigning champion L&D Amsterdam Pirates and Curaçao Neptunus in the European Champions Cup-tournament.
That event will be organized Tuesday, June 7 through Saturday, June 11, at the site of Bonn Capitals in Bonn (Germany).
Because Pirates and Neptunus will leave for Germany on Sunday, they will play their upcoming games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Also, they will played the finale of their series on Saturday-evening instead of Saturday-afternoon.
The second half of the regular season then will open on Thursday, June 16.
Okay, again, beneath is the scenario in the second half.
In the second half, the top-four from the first half will play 18 more games (six games against each other).
The bottom-five teams will continue in their own pool, playing twelve games (three games against each other).
The teams will take the head-to-head results against the teams they face in the second half with them to these new pools.
As of now, HCAW, Curaçao Neptunus and L&D Amsterdam Pirates are the current top-three and have qualified for the Top-4 Pool.
RCH Memorie Sieraden (which has no games scheduled in the upcoming round), Hoofddorp Pioniers, Quick Amersfoort and Silicon Storks all are eliminated for the Top-4 Pool and will continue their season in the Bottom-5 Pool.
One spot has still to be decided.
Who will be the fourth team to join the top-3 in the Top-4 Pool?
Twins Oosterhout, which currently is in fourth place, or DSS/Kinheim, which is now in fifth place?
In the upcoming final series, these two teams will face each other in what will be an exciting and deciding series.
The games that are played in the second half all are part of what is the regular season.
That means that all individual awards that are handed out to the best players of the season will be based on the statistics and accomplishments in the first and second half combined.
The ranking in the second half will determine the pairings of the three best-of-three Wild Card Play-Offs that will follow.
The two best teams of the Top-4 Pool will face each other in the best-of-three Wild Card Top Series (August 11-14) and also secure a spot in the two best-of-five Play-Offs (August 18-28) that will decide which two teams will advance to the Holland Series (first game September 15).
The teams that finish in third and fourth place in the Top-4 Pool will play in one of the two best-of-three Wild Card Bottom Series (August 11-14).
The two best teams from the Bottom-5 Pool will first play a best-of-three Wild Card Qualifier (August 4 -7) to decide whom they will meet in the Wild Card Bottom Series.
The winners of the Wild Card Bottom Series then also advance to the Play-Offs, the losing teams will play a best-of-five Play-Off (August 18-28) for fifth and sixth place.
In the previous series, the long winning streak of league-leader HCAW ended after 19 games.
That happend last Saturday when L&D Amsterdam Pirates won 2-1 in eleven innings on a walk-off homerun by Kalian Sams.
Beneath are the announced starters for the games in the upcoming series.
As always, these assignments can change on game-days.
(June 1)
Rosters
Live play-by-play & live-streams
| Roster | L&D AMSTERDAM PIRATES (14-6-1) | vs. |
HOOFDDORP PIONIERS (7-13-1) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Pirates | G | # | Starting Pitchers Pioniers |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 54 | LHP Nelmerson Angela (3-0) | 1 | 31 | RHP Benjamin Meyer (1-5) | Th. June 2, 7:30 PM, Amsterdam (1) |
| 64 | RHP Shairon Martis (2-0) | 2 | 6 | RHP Yassir Lachkar (1-2) | Fr. June 3, 7:30 PM, Amsterdam (1) |
| 66 | RHP Naut Kragt (0-1) | 3 | 35 | RHP T'sean Martina (2-0) | Sa. June 4, 6:00 PM, Hoofddorp (2) |
| (1) - Loek Loevendie Ballpark, Sportpark 'Ookmeer', Amsterdam; (2) - ETO Ballpark, Sportpark Pioniers, Park21, Hoofddorp |
| Roster | HCAW (20-1) | vs. |
CURAÇAO NEPTUNUS (18-3) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers HCAW | G | # | Starting Pitchers Neptunus |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 45 | LHP Jim Ploeger (4-0) | 1 | 45 | RHP Juan Carlos Sulbaran (6-0) | Th. June 2, 7:30 PM, Bussum (3) |
| 39 | RHP Lars Huijer (4-0) | 2 | 27 | RHP Kaj Timmermans (4-1) | Fr. June 3, 7:30 PM, Bussum (3) |
| 7 | RHP Dennis Burgersdijk (6-0) | 3 | | to be decided | Sa. June 4, 7:30 PM, Rotterdam (4) |
| (3) - Rob Hoffmann Vallei, Sportpark Zanderijweg, Bussum; (4) - Neptunus Familiestadion, Sportpark Abraham van Stolkweg, Rotterdam |
| Roster | TWINS OOSTERHOUT (10-10-1) | vs. |
DSS/KINHEIM (10-11) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Twins | G | # | Starting Pitchers DSS/Kinheim |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 11 | RHP Koen Postelmans (2-4) | 1 | 27 | RHP Nick Boxelaar (3-2) | Th. June 2, 7:30 PM, Oosterhout (5) |
| 10 | LHP Ryan Huntington (3-3) | 2 | | to be decided | Sa. June 4, 2:00 PM, Haarlem (6) |
| 6 | RHP Simon Gross (3-2) | 3 | | to be decided | Su. June 5, 2:30 PM, Oosterhout (5) |
| (5) - Sportpark 'De Slotbosse Toren', Oosterhout; (6) - Pim Mulier Stadion, Pim Mulier Sportpark, Haarlem |
| Roster | SILICON STORKS (2-19) | vs. |
QUICK AMERSFOORT (3-17-1) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Storks | G | # | Starting Pitchers Quick |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 16 | RHP Darryl Jamoena (0-7) | 1 | 52 | LHP Jhan Rifaela (0-0) | Th. June 2, 7:30 PM, Rotterdam (7)(*) |
| 25 | RHP Twan Naessens (0-3) | 2 | 19 | RHP Wally Vrolijk (0-2) | Sa. June 4, 2:00 PM, Amersfoort (8) |
| 31 | RHP Mike van den Berg (1-5) | 3 | 5 | RHP Stijn Bruins Slot (0-6) | Su. June 5, 2:30 PM, The Hague (9) |
(7) - Neptunus Familiestadion, Sportpark Abraham van Stolkweg, Rotterdam; (8) - XL Lease Park 'Dorrestein', Amersfoort
(9) - Sportpark 'Kijkduin', The Hague |
| (*) - Thursday's home-game of Storks will be played at the site of Neptunus, as there is no light-installation at its home-site in The Hague |
|
