(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Jan Kruijdenberg)
 UVV returns to big league; Storks withdraws team
Nederlands
   VLEUTEN / THE HAGUE / NIEUWEGEIN (Neth.) -
UVV will be back in the Dutch big league coming season, but Silicon Storks has decided to withdraw its team from the highest league.
As a result, there also will be nine teams in the league next year, as was the case this year.
The KNBSB announced the changes in the big league on Friday (October 7).
...On August 20, the baseball-team of UVV was honored...
...for winning the First Division-title...
(© Photo: Jan Kruijdenberg) |
After last season, the clubs and the Dutch Federation KNBSB decided to make the highest league a closed competition.
No team can relegate and new teams can only join after passing judgement by a special Review Committee.
On July 24, the final day of the First Division Top-6 Pool, UVV recorded a 9-3 victory in an away-game at Sparks Haarlem.
With that, the team from Vleuten finished in first place and captured the First Division-title.
In the following Major League/First Division Pilot-Pool, UVV finished in second place.
This new Pool was introduced and tried out this season.
UVV was led by Frank Koene, who was in his third full season as the team's Head Coach.
The former big league-player took over the coaching towards the end of the 2019 season after the club separated with then-Head Coach Orlando Stewart.
Koene was assisted by Marlon Fluonia, another longtime big league-player, and Harold Wout, who also has played in the highest league in the past.
In the first half of this years season in the First Division, UVV was 14-7 and one tie to finish in second place, three points behind Omron Pioniers (which was 16-6), the second team of Hoofddorp Pioniers.
In the Top-6 Pool, the second half of the season, UVV was 5-5 and climbed to the top of the ranking to finish in first place, one point ahead of the second team of Twins Oosterhout.
And with that, UVV grabbed grab the title.
Pitching-ace for the team was veteran righthander Jurjen van Zijl, who played several seasons in the highest league.
Offensively, the team was led by Australian Karl Hosche, Americans Ryan Wheat and Luke Oliphant, but also by Dutch players Malcolm Marlin and Daan Terstall.
Throughout the season, but also in previous years, UVV has frequently voiced its interest to return to the highest league.
Some weeks ago, the club confirmed that it had applied for re-entrance in the league coming season and on September 4, it was confirmed that UVV already had become a provisional member of the highest league.
Thereafter, UVV had to prove that it complied with the requirements and had to be judged by the Review Committee.
On Friday, the KNBSB announced that:
,,In September, UVV was already conditionally admitted to the big league, but a review committee had to determine whether UVV would meet the Minimum Quality Requirements that apply to the big league.
The review committee has now determined that they comply and UVV will therefore return to the highest level in 2023.''
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...Coaches Frank Koene (left) and Marlon Fluonia...
...receive their Championship Medals...
(© Both Photos: Jan Kruijdenberg) |
UVV already announced the decision last Tuesday (October 4) and published the following on its website:
Chairman Merijn van Elsäcker already announced last month that he expected it to be all right.
''Players deserve this place and this will offer us many opportunities to tackle our baseball club even better in collaboration with others.
It offers young players the opportunity to advance to the highest level in the Netherlands and therefore in Utrecht''.
Coach Frank Koene, who has been with UVV for three years, also showed himself ambitious.
''This is a wonderful opportunity for the players to present themselves at the highest level.
We have wanted that for years and that has been underlined this year with the title in the 1st division.
We are going to surprise Utrecht with interesting and exciting baseball.''
UVV last played in the highest league in 2017, but then relegated after a seven-year stay.
Back then, it was Storks that promoted to return to the big league after a 38-year absence.
Regarding the situation of Storks, the KNBSB announced on Friday that:
,,The board of the The Hague-club has decided to withdraw its team from the league.
After several seasons at the bottom of the Dutch big league with a lot of changes in the selection, it was concluded that it was no longer feasible before 2023 to put together a representative team.''
After making its comeback in 2018, Storks played in the highest league through this season.
In these five seasons, the team from The Hague not only had many different players on its rosters, but also finished in last place four times in the regular season.
The lone exception was last year when it finished in second-to-last place.
In 2018 and 2019, Storks had to play in the Promotion/Relegation Play-Off.
Both times, the team secured its stay in the big league by winning against Kinheim and DSS, respectively.
In 2020, the team also finished in last place in the Relegation-Pool.
However, there were no relegations (or promotions) then, as the 2020 season was abbreviated, then halted due to measures against the coronavirus (COVID-19).
But last year, Storks again had to play in the Promotion/Relegation Play-Off and then lost to RCH-Pinguïns.
That initially meant relegation, but the team was then allowed to remain in the big league.
This season, Storks finished in last place in the first half of the regular season, then also in last place in the Bottom-5 Pool.
However, as it was decided that the big league was a closed league, there was no relegation.
Overall, in these five big league-seasons, Storks won only 30 of its 183 regular season-games, two of them ended in a tie.
As mentioned, Storks initially relegated last season, but stayed in the big league for this season.
A year ago, RCH-Pinguïns finished in second place in the First Division behind the second team of Amsterdam Pirates.
As the highest standard-team, RCH-Pinguïns qualified to play in the best-of-three Promotion/Relegation Play-Off against Storks, which had finished in last place in the Relegation-Pool of the big league.
RCH-Pinguïns opened with a convincing 16-6 win.
The next day, the team from Heemstede won 7-3 to win the Play-Off and promote to the big league in which it last had played in 2009.
By losing the Play-Off, Storks relegated to the First Division.
But less than two weeks later, the new structure of the highest league was announced.
At the same time, it was announced that the clubs and the KNBSB had agreed to maintain Storks in the highest league to give the club the opportunity to play in the big league as ninth team in the 2022 season.
However, by having a field of nine teams, it means that one team was off in each playing round when the other teams played a 3-game series.
When the new structure was announced in October last year, it was stated that:
,,The big league-clubs and the KNBSB have agreed on a multi-year development trajectory for the baseball big league.
This should lead to an improvement and professionalization of the entire competition and participating clubs, with the positive result of more attractive games at a high level and an impulse for the sport.
In concrete terms, this means for participating clubs that not only the sportive performance will be decisive for participation in the Baseball Hoofdklasse, but that the club will also be judged on other criteria.
This quality boost requires more and more structural funding for the clubs.
Continuity in the Dutch big league is important for this.
Therefore, the involved clubs and the KNBSB have chosen to close the Baseball Hoofdklasse from 2022 on, which means that there is no promotion/relegation.
However, clubs can enter or leave the Baseball Hoofdklasse on the basis of the minimum quality requirements.''
(October 10)
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