Today, in Game 2 of the Holland Series, there was good pitching and there were several fine defensive plays.
But there also were some crucial moments on the basepaths.
Two of them by Neptunus, which proved to be very costly.
HCAW had one, which also could have led to an additional run.
...Pitcher Dennis Burgersdijk and catcher...
...Julian Goins embrace each other after the final out...
(© Photo: (Alfred Cop Fotografie) |
Both teams collected only five basehits, all of them singles.
There were eight outfield-outs made by the HCAW-defense, only three by the Neptunus-defense.
The Neptunian infield had 16 assists, the HCAW-infield eight.
Oh, and there also were five double plays, three by HCAW, two by Neptunus.
HCAW got eight baserunners in the first four innings, then was kept off the bases in the remainder of the game.
The Bussum-team got six runners in scoring position and two of them went on to score.
Neptunus got nine baserunners, but only three of them got into scoring position.
All three runners got into scoring position in the second inning.
The Rotterdam-team got only one runner on third base in the entire game.
In its final seven at bats, Neptunus got only one runner in scoring position.
This all underscores how solid pitchers Dennis Burgersdijk (HCAW) and Kaj Timmermans (Neptunus) threw today.
And so, it can be stated that today's game was a pitching-duel from the beginning.
In the end, it was HCAW that turned its scoring opportunities into two runs, while Neptunus failed to score in the few chances it got.
HCAW was first to get a runner into scoring position.
With one out in the bottom of the first inning, Victor Draijer singled, advanced on a grounder, but stranded on second base.
In the top of the second inning, there was a crucial moment.
This was costly for Neptunus, as the team might have opened the score in this at bat and that could have led to another outcome of this game.
Roger Bernadina (Neptunus) and Brendly Martina were involved in all the action, which happened on three consecutive pitches.
Bernadina was the lead-off hitter and on a full-count pitch, he reached when second baseman Martina made an error on his grounder.
On the next pitch to next batter Junior Martina, Bernadina stole second base.
During his sliding, a collission followed, Brendly Martina got injured while putting on the tag, was able to continue, but Neptunus had its first runner in scoring position.
On the next pitch, Junior Martina grounded to his namesake Brendly Martina.
Bernadina took off to third, but Martina reacted fast and instead of throwing the ball to first base, he immediately threw it to third baseman Max Draijer, who tagged out the former Major Leaguer.
Dwayne Kemp followed with a single that enabled Martina to advance to third base.
So, who knows what might have happened in case Bernadina would not have tried to move to third base on the grounder towards second base.
But with runners at the corners, Dennis Burgersdijk struckout Dashenko Ricardo, then the inning ended when Christian Diaz flied out.
And so, Neptunus had three runners in scoring position in this at bat, but was unable to score.
HCAW got another runner on scoring position in the bottom of the second.
Phildrick Llewellyn led off with a single in what was his first Holland Series-at bat.
Llewellyn didn't play in Thursday's opener.
Curaçao-native Llewellyn is one of two players who played in only one game for HCAW in the regular season to make them eligible for the postseason, the other being Canadian pitcher Jared Mortensen.
Both played in Germany this season, Llewellyn for Paderborn Untouchables, Mortensen for Heidenheim Heideköpfe.
Llewellyn moved to second base when Quintin de Cuba walked.
This time, it was HCAW that was unable to do some scoring.
Kaj Timmermans struckout next batter Max Draijer, then Bob van der Meer grounded into an inning-ending double play.
After Neptunus was retired in order in the top of the third, HCAW opened the score in its third at bat.
Julian Goins led off with a walk and moved on a following single by Brendly Martina.
Hereafter, Timmermans struckout Victor Draijer.
But the home-team then executed a successful hit-and-run.
Jeandro Tromp hit the ball through the right-side of the infield for a basehit and Goins scored from second base, while Martina advanced to third base.
With runners on first and third base, Tromp took from first base and got into a rundown.
The speedy Martina then appeared to leave third base somewhat late trying to score and he was eliminated at the plate.
In this situation, Tromp reached second base, but then was left behind.
However, HCAW had taken an 1-0 lead.
From here, HCAW hold onto the minimal lead.
Dennis Burgersdijk retired the side in the fourth inning.
With one out in the fifth, the righthander walked Dashenko Ricardo, but Burgersdijk then started a double play himself on a comeback-grounder by Christian Diaz.
In the meantime, HCAW doubled its lead in the bottom of the fourth.
Lead-off hitter Phildrick Llewellyn reached when his grounder ended in a throwing error by second baseman Dwayne Kemp.
On a following single by next batter Quintin de Cuba, Llewellyn moved to third base.
He then scored HCAW's second run on a sacrifice fly by Max Draijer.
With one out in the top of the sixth, Neptunus got its next baserunner.
Stijn van der Meer hit the ball back to Burgersdijk who was unable to make a play and so, he reached on an infield-hit.
The HCAW-defense then turned another double play on a grounder by Jiandido Tromp.
After having scored its second run in the fourth, HCAW was kept off the bases in the next four at bats by Kaj Timmermans.
The righthander retired the final fourteen batters he faced and threw less than 100 pitches in his nine innings on the mound, 94 to be exact.
In the top of the seventh, Neptunus got its lone runner in scoring position in its last seven at bats.
With two outs, Junior Martina and Dwayne Kemp singled.
They were left behind, as Dennis Burgersdijk closed by striking out Dashenko Ricardo.
Another crucial baserunning-moment for Neptunus followed in the top of the eighth.
Christian Diaz led off with a single.
Hereafter, Sheadion Jamanika hit the ball into rightfield, but not that deep.
Nevertheless, Diaz immediately took off and was close to second base when rightfielder Victor Draijer caught the ball.
Diaz passed second base and with that, he was unable to return in time back to first base.
Draijer threw the ball to first baseman Quintin de Cuba to complete the double play.
Another flyout ended the at bat.
In the top of the ninth, Neptunus got one more baserunner when Jiandido Tromp led off with a walk.
Next batter John Polonius lined the ball into centerfield, but there, Jeandro Tromp made a nice (and important) diving catch.
Hereafter, Roger Bernadina popped out to short for the second out.
With Tromp at first base, Dennis Burgersdijk closed the inning and the game by striking out Junior Martina.
By the way, just as in the opener on Thursday, there were four sets of players in the line-ups with the same family name, being Max Draijer and Victor Draijer (both HCAW), Brendly Martina (HCAW) and Junior Martina (Neptunus), Bob van der Meer (HCAW) and Stijn van der Meer (Neptunus) and Jeandro Tromp (HCAW) and Jiandro Tromp (Neptunus).
There also were several rare accomplishments and/or feats in today's game.
For HCAW, this was its fourth 9-inning shutout-win in the Holland Series, but the first since September 24, 2005 when the team won 1-0 against Neptunus.
However, Dennis Burgersdijk became the first HCAW-pitcher to throw a 9-inning complete game shutout since September 26, 1999.
On that day, it was Jurriaan Lobbezoo who threw all nine innings for the Bussum-team in a 4-0 shutout against Neptunus.
Kaj Timmermans threw only 94 pitches in his eight innings (Burgersdijk threw 113).
Since the number of pitches thrown were first recorded in 2012, the 94 pitches by Timmermans are the lowest total in a complete game in the Holland Series.
The previous low was 99, thrown last year on October 7 by Juan Carlos Sulbaran, who then went the distance for L&D Amsterdam Pirates, which won 3-1 against Neptunus.
Today's game was completed in two hours and 22 minutes, making it the quickest 9-inning game since October 7, 2018.
On that day, the game between Amsterdam Pirates and Neptunus took two hours and 20 minutes in what was a 3-0 win for the Rotterdam-team.
But there was more.
Both teams made no changes in the entire game.
The ten players of both teams in the starting line-ups all played the entire game, which is very rare.
The last time that this happened was thirty years ago!
In 1992, Kinheim and ADO played two Holland Series-games in which no changes were made.
Since the introduction of the play-by-play system in 2010, two Official Scorers are assigned for each game in the regular season and postseason in both baseball and softball.
Through the years, Official Scorers Feiko Drost and Marco Stoovelaar have done many international baseball- and softball-tournaments together.
To name a few, the Haarlem Softball Week, European Cups, European Championships and the 2018 World Softball Championship in Japan.
But today, it was only the first time ever since the introduction of the play-by-play and two scorers per game that the two senior-scorers were assigned to the same game in a Holland Series.
Both Drost and Stoovelaar are in their 46th season as Official Scorer, extending their record, which they share with softball-scorer Ben Goorts.
That means that there was a combined total of 92 years of scoring experience in today's game.
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HCAW shuts out Neptunus to take 2-0 lead in Holland Series
BUSSUM (Neth.) -
HCAW shutout Curaçao Neptunus 2-0 on Saturday-afternoon (September 10) to also win the second game of the 37th Holland Series.
On Thursday-evening, HCAW nipped Neptunus with a 5-4 victory.
In the Holland Series, Neptunus has to do without pitcher Misja Harcksen, who will be out for the remainder of the season and has his left arm in a sling.
Earlier in the week, the righthander sustained two fractures in his left shoulder due to a scooter-accident.
During the season, Harcksen was used both as starter and reliever, meaning he will surely be missed in the team's pitching-staff.
Before the start of the game, the first Individual Awards are handed out to three Best Players of the 2022 regular season: Koen Halderman (DSS/Kinheim, Best Hitter), Brendly Martina (HCAW, Most Stolen Bases) and Lars Huijer (HCAW, Best Pitcher).