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(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen) Starting Pitchers coming postseason-series Nederlands AMSTERDAM - Coming Thursday-evening (August 11), the big league-season enters its deciding phase. On that day, the three best-of-three Wild Card Series will go underway, which will lead up to which two teams will face each other in the all-deciding best-of-seven Holland Series. Last Sunday, the final games were played in the regular season with the conclusion of the Top-4 Pool. Reigning champion L&D Amsterdam Pirates claimed first place last Thursday to become the first team to qualify for both the Wild Card Top Series and the Play-Offs. On Saturday, Curaçao Neptunus became the second team to reach these two series. These two teams now will meet in the best-of-three Top Series, which opens on Thursday in Amsterdam. HCAW and Twins Oosterhout finished in third and fourth place respectively and so, they will play in the Wild Card Bottom Series. These three best-of-three Wild Card Series (August 11-14) form the second round of this years postseason. Two weeks ago, the teams in the Bottom-5 Pool played their last regular season-games. The first round of the postseason then started a week ago for Hoofddorp Pioniers and DSS/Kinheim, the top-2 teams from this Pool. They faced each other in the best-of-three Wild Card Qualifier to decide who would play against who in the best-of-three Wild Card Bottom Series. Pioniers swept DSS/Kinheim in two games and now will meet Twins in the upcoming Bottom Series, while DSS/Kinheim will play against HCAW. Twins and HCAW will open these series on Thursday at home in respectively Oosterhout and Bussum. By qualifying for the Wild Card Top Series, both Amsterdam Pirates and Neptunus also will advance to the best-of-five Play-Offs, whether they win or loose this series. But the outcome of course will decide whom they will face in the Play-Offs (August 18-28), the second round of the postseason. The winner of the Top Series will meet the winner of the Bottom Series between Twins and Pioniers. The loser of the Top Series meets the winner of the Bottom Series between HCAW and DSS/Kinheim. The two losing teams of the Wild Card Bottom Series will play a best-of-five Play-Off (August 18-28) for fifth and sixth place. ...The Road to the Holland Series has begun... (© Photo: Henk Seppen) The winners of the Play-Offs will advance to the best-of-seven Holland Series, which opens on September 8. The winner of this Championship Final will be the Dutch Champion and will qualify for next years European Champions Cup-tournament. By finishing in first place in the Top-4 Pool last Thursday, Amsterdam Pirates became the first team to qualify for this event. In the Bottom-5 Pool, Hoofddorp Pioniers and DSS/Kinheim ended up in first and second place to qualify for the above-mentioned Wild Card Qualifier and Wild Card Bottom Series. But the season also isn't over yet for RCH Memorie Sieraden, Quick Amersfoort and Silicon Storks, the teams that finished in third, fourth and fifth place in the Bottom-5 Pool. They will continue their season in a new Pool and also will meet UVV, Twins Oosterhout-2 and Sparks Haarlem, who respectively finished in first, second and third place in the Top-6 Pool of the First Division. The six teams will meet each other in 3-games series and play a 15-game schedule. The first games in this Pool will be played on Thursday, August 18. RCH-Pinguïns played its last regular season-game on August 2 and Quick Amersfoort on July 31. Storks played its last game even longer ago, on July 24, as the team was off in the final weekend of the Bottom-5 Pool due to the odd total of teams. Before the start of the season, it was announced in the Competition Regulations for this year that this new 6-team Big League/First Division Pool will be played in a pilot-format. It reads that with that, the experiences and results of this part of the season can be evaluated in order to create a definitive format for the 2023 season. Neptunus Tridents, Euro Stars and Omron Pioniers, the teams that finished fourth, fifth and sixth place in the First Division Top-6 Pool also will continue in a postseason-pool. They will face each other four times in their remainder of the season, which starts on August 19/20. However, it is not really clear what the reward will be for the winners of these two additional pools after completion. Beneath are the announced starters for the games in the upcoming series. As always, these assignments can change on game-days. Also listed are the assigned game-officials for these postseason-series. (August 10) Rosters Live play-by-play & live-streams

WILD CARD TOP SERIES (BEST-OF-THREE) Roster L&D AMSTERDAM PIRATES (0-0) vs. CURAÇAO NEPTUNUS (0-0) Roster Game-info # Starting Pitchers Pirates G # Starting Pitchers Neptunus Date, Time & Site 32 RHP Scott Prins (0-0) 1 15 RHP Juan Carlos Sulbaran (0-0) Th. Aug. 11, 7:30 PM, Amsterdam (1) 64 RHP Shairon Martis (0-0) 2 36 RHP Aaron de Groot (0-0) Sa. Aug. 13, 2:00 PM, Rotterdam (2) 54 LHP Nelmerson Angela (0-0) 3 27 RHP Kaj Timmermans (0-0) Su. Aug. 14, 2:00 PM, Amsterdam (1)(*) (1) - Loek Loevendie Ballpark, Sportpark 'Ookmeer', Amsterdam; (2) - Neptunus Familiestadion, Sportpark Abraham van Stolkweg, Rotterdam; (*) - if needed G Umpires (Roster) Official Scorers (Roster) Commissioner 1 HP-Aad Otsen, 1B-Edson Louisa, 3B-Bernard Flohr Karin Pieneman, Marco Stoovelaar Fred van Groningen Schinkel 2 HP-Efrem Silvania, 1B-Aad Otsen, 3B-Olav Steijger Feiko Drost, Maaike Houtkamp René Ras 3 HP-Niek Elshof, 1B-Ric Zwanenberg, 3B-Paul Timmermans Linda Steijger, Sten Wessel None

WILD CARD BOTTOM SERIES 1 (BEST-OF-THREE) Roster HCAW (0-0) vs. DSS/KINHEIM (0-0) Roster Game-info # Starting Pitchers HCAW G # Starting Pitchers DSS/Kinheim Date, Time & Site 39 RHP Lars Huijer (0-0) 1 33 RHP Milan van der Breggen (0-0) Th. Aug. 11, 7:30 PM, Bussum (3) 7 RHP Dennis Burgersdijk (0-0) 2 to be decided Sa. Aug. 13, 2:00 PM, Haarlem (4) to be decided 3 to be decided Su. Aug. 14, 2:00 PM, Bussum (3)(*) (3) - Rob Hoffmann Vallei, Sportpark Zanderijweg, Bussum; (4) - Pim Mulier Stadion, Pim Mulier Sportpark, Haarlem; (*) - if needed G Umpires (Roster) Official Scorers (Roster) Commissioner 1 HP-Niek Elshof, 1B-Ric Zwanenberg, 3B-Marwin Kleinmoedig Huub Nelissen, Feiko Drost Henny Jansen 2 HP-Jeffrey Bentsnijder, 1B-Richard Wessel, 3B-Ric Zwanenberg Marco Stoovelaar, Brigitta Zaal None 3 HP-Bernard Flohr, 1B-Aad Otsen, 3B-Efrem Silvania Ronald van Langen, Dieks Bannink None

WILD CARD BOTTOM SERIES 2 (BEST-OF-THREE) Roster TWINS OOSTERHOUT (0-0) vs. HOOFDDORP PIONIERS (0-0) Roster Game-info # Starting Pitchers Twins G # Starting Pitchers Pioniers Date, Time & Site 11 RHP Koen Postelmans (0-0) 1 35 RHP T'sean Martina (0-0) Th. Aug. 11, 7:30 PM, Oosterhout (5) 10 LHP Ryan Huntington (0-0) 2 38 RHP Koen van 't Klooster (0-0) Sa. Aug. 13, 1:00 PM, Hoofddorp (6) 6 RHP Simon Gross (0-0) 3 6 RHP Yassir Lachkar (0-0) Su. Aug. 14, 2:30 PM, Oosterhout (5)(*) (5) - Sportpark 'De Slotbosse Toren', Oosterhout; (6) - ETO Ballpark, Sportpark Pioniers, Park21, Hoofddorp; (*) - if needed G Umpires (Roster) Official Scorers (Roster) Commissioner 1 HP-Richard Wessel, 1B-Jeffrey Bentsnijder, 3B-Jacques Krutzen Sten Wessel, Linda Steijger None 2 HP-Edson Louisa, 1B-Paul Timmermans, 3B-Marwin Kleinmoedig Jeanette van Drunen, Rob Schuurman Fred van Groningen Schinkel 3 HP-Richard Wessel, 1B-Jeffrey Bentsnijder, 3B-Edwin Louisa Maaike Houtkamp, Huub Nelissen Peter Brink

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