(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
   Two exhibition-wins Twins Oosterhout; More teams in action
Nederlands
       OOSTERHOUT / BUSSUM / HAARLEM / HOOFDDORP / ROTTERDAM (Neth.) / BONN (Germany) / HOBOKEN (Belgium) -
In the weekend of March 12 and 13, seven of the nine teams that will play in the Dutch big league this year played exhibition games under very pleasant weather accomodations.
A week ago, there was a chilly breeze, but this weekend, it was sunny with some 15 degrees (59 F) and almost no wind.
The lone teams that didn't play yet were Quick Amersfoort and RCH-Pinguïns, which will make its comeback in the highest league this season.
...Mick Vos hit a grand slam...
...for Twins on Saturday...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
As reported on Saturday, reigning champion L&D Amsterdam Pirates opened its exhibition season against HCAW.
In Bussum, the home-team won 8-3.
Game-recap HCAW vs. Pirates
Also on Saturday, Twins Oosterhout played an 8-inning game at home against Hoboken Pioneers from Belgium.
Twins won 7-6 after initially having trailed 5-1, scoring its lone run in the first three innings off of Hoboken-starter (and National Team-pitcher) Thomas De Wolf, who gave up only three hits in the three innings he threw.
However, from the middle innings on, Twins started to turn the game around in its favor.
In the sixth inning, Urving Kemp hit a 2-run homerun to narrow the deficit to 5-3, but Hoboken added a run in the seventh.
Moments later, Mick Vos belted a grand slam homerun to put Twins ahead, 7-5.
Last season, Vos played for Amsterdam Pirates.
Hoboken got one run back in the eighth, but was unable to re-take the lead.
Twins is led for the first time this season by Adonis Kemp, who last year was the 3B Coach in the staff of Jeffrey Arends, whom he succeeded.
Kemp inserted six pitchers in Saturday's game, who all threw on a pitch-count.
Koen Postelmans started and was limited to 35 pitches.
Hereafter, Jeffrey Levenstone, Ruben van de Koppel, Finn Kops, Pastor Enrique Martínez Chavez and Raf Cocu took the mound.
They were all limited to 20 pitches.
Van de Koppel is a newcomer, as he played for Euro Stars last year.
On Sunday, in Belgium, Twins recorded an 8-6 victory in a 7-inning game.
Again, Twins turned a deficit around late in the game.
Hoboken Pioneers opened the score in the first inning with a 2-run homerun off of German starter Simon Gross, who like all other Twins-pitchers threw on a pitch-count.
Trailing 6-3, Twins rallied for five runs in the top of the seventh inning, highlighted by a 3-run homerun by Jason Halman.
Gross, who threw one inning, was succeeded on the mound for Twins by Ruben van de Koppel (two innings), Finn Kops (one inning) and Raf Cocu (two innings).
With an 8-6 lead, veteran righthander Elton Koeiman took the mound for Twins in the bottom of the seventh to close the game and earn a save.
Last season, Koeiman pitched and was the Pitching Coach of Neptunus.
This year, he will do the same for Twins.
Hoofddorp Pioniers was in the German city of Bonn in the weekend.
On Saturday, the team played two games of a Mini-Tournament, hosted by Bonn Capitals, who a week earlier visited Hoofddorp.
Pioniers first played against Bonn, then met Guggenberger Legionäre Regensburg later on Saturday.
On Sunday, Bonn played against Regensburg.
At the Rheinaue Baseball Stadium, Hoofddorp Pioniers ended up short in both games, but that was not important, as the team was able to play two more exhibition games under fine conditions, facing two strong teams.
Pioniers lost 12-3 to Bonn, then 8-4 against Regensburg.
Despite that, Pioniers played two good games and several fine plays were made.
And of course, that's the intention of these games, getting the feeling back with the field and the situations to prepare for the season.
Against Bonn Capitals, Pioniers played a 9-inning game.
Ben Meyer, Lars Broersen and Koen van 't Klooster all threw three innings for Pioniers.
In the late afternoon, Pioniers played an 8-inning game against Regensburg Legionäre.
This time, four pitchers threw for the Hoofddorp-team, being Nick Winkel, Nathan Diaby, Yassir Lachkar and Tsaun Martina.
Winkel threw the first three innings, then Diaby and Lachkar each threw two.
Martina closed the game by pitching the final inning.
For Regensburg, several pitchers threw.
They all were pitching on a 15-pitch limit.
When they had reached that total, the team simply walked off the field.
Four teams faced a second team on Sunday.
DSS/Kinheim played in intersquad-game against its second team and recorded a 6-0 win.
The game was visited by some spectators, who enjoyed sitting in the sun in the stands.
All available players were used in the game, which lasted nine innings.
DSS/Kinheim's Head Coach Michael Crouwel used seven of his pitchers, who pitched for both teams in the game and threw on pitch-counts.
They were newcomer Kaien Oukes, Nick Boxelaar, Rick Rizvić, Ben Neijndorff, Rick Timmermans, Bas Timmer and Jemail Streedel.
Two pitchers of the second team also took the mound in the game.
Oukes is a newcomer in the team, as he last season played in the second team of HCAW.
Streedel also is a rookie, but he already made his big league-debut last year.
Silicon Storks played against Omron Pioniers, the second team of Hoofddorp Pioniers, and won 12-8 in a 10-inning game.
Storks Head Coach Eugene Henson used all available pitchers and also inserted most of his players.
Kevin Bakker, who last season pitched for Neptunus (and Tridents), was the starting pitcher for Storks.
,,The score of these games is not important.
The most important thing is that we can play and prepare'', Henson stated.
With that, Henson underscored what all coaches said of these early exhibition games.
HCAW played an intersquad-game against its second team on Sunday, as they did a week ago.
Pitchers and catchers of the main-team played in the second team and vice versa.
Curaçao Neptunus played an intersquad-game against Neptunus Tridents.
No details of this game are available.
Coming weekend, eight of the nine teams will play exhibition-games (which all will start at 2 PM).
Amsterdam Pirates will play two games at home.
On Friday-evening (7:30 PM), Pirates will first play against its second team.
On Saturday, Hoboken Pioneers (Belgium) will be the opponent of the Dutch champion.
Curaçao Neptunus plays twice against Twins Oosterhout (Saturday in Rotterdam, Sunday in Oosterhout).
DSS/Kinheim meets RCH-Pinguïns (Saturday in Heemstede, Sunday in Haarlem).
HCAW hosts Bonn Capitals (Germany) in Bussum on Saturday and Sunday.
Quick Amersfoort will play against the combined squad of The Herons/Alcmaria Victrix, which will play in the First Division this year.
On Saturday, the first game will be played in Heerhugowaard at the site of The Herons.
On Sunday, Quick plays at home in Amersfoort.
Hoofddorp Pioniers will travel to Germany again.
This time to Cologne, where the team will play against Cologne Cardinals on both Saturday and Sunday.
Silicon Storks has no schedule yet, but might play a game on Saturday.
(March 12-13)
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