The game started at 1 PM, but took more than four hours to complete.
It was a game with some weird moments to be handled by the umpiring crew, which was an almost entire rookie-crew.
Home Plate Umpire Edson Louisa made his debut in the Ducth big league early this season, 1B Umpire Paul Timmermans made his debut late last season and 3B Umpire Marwin Kleinmoedig made his debut in the highest league a few weeks ago.
It all resulted in 26 minutes of on-field delays in what already was a slowpaced game.
Oh, it also was a game with ten pitchers, including seven who took the mound for Pioniers.
In the first five innings not that much happened.
Initially, it was Hoofddorp Pioniers that opened the score in the first inning, but Twins Oosterhout scored three runs in the third.
With Twins leading 3-1, all kinds of things happened from the sixth inning on.
In these final four at bats, there were two long delays, an ejection and also thirteen runs were scored.
Pioniers scored the first run in the bottom of the first inning off of Twins-starter Ryan Huntington, who last season played for Pioniers.
With one out, the lefthander gave up an infield-hit to Michael Dumitrescu (who advanced on a wild pitch), then a runscoring double to Oliver van der Wijst Severino.
Huntington recovered and struckout next batters Reangelo Willems and Denzel Brooks.
In the next four at bats, Huntington got only one baserunner, who stranded on first base.
He retired the side in the third, fourth and fifth inning.
Koen van 't Klooster started well for Pioniers.
He saw a Twins-runner strand on first base in both the first and second inning, but the righthander struckout five of the eight batters he faced in these first two at bats.
...Jason Halman...
...3 hits, 2 doubles, 6 RBI's, 1 run scored...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
But Twins then struck with a 3-run rally in the top of the third inning.
With one out, Rayshelon Carolina and Mick Vos both walked.
Tyriq Kemp (one-run) and Jason Halman (2-run) followed with back-to-back RBI-doubles.
Van 't Klooster then struckout his sixth batter and a flyout ended the at bat, but Twins had turned the game around.
Van 't Klooster retired the side in the fourth.
With two outs in the fifth, he gave up a triple to Tyriq Kemp, but he was left behind on third base.
And then, the sixth inning began.
Urving Kemp led off with a single and stole second base.
Next batter Shurman Marlin followed with a pop-fly which appeared to be caught by third baseman Denzel Brooks, but the ball landed besides him on the ground, which was ruled an infield-hit.
With runners on first and second base, next batter Railison Bentura turned for a bunt on the first pitch of Koen van 't Klooster, but he pulled his bat back.
Catcher Pim Vijfvinkel then made a pick-off attempt at first base.
As first baseman Jorrit Penseel had come in because of the bunt-attempt, it was second baseman Duco Nuijten who took over first base for the throw from Vijfvinkel.
Marlin ran back to first base and collided with Nuijten, who was hit on his head, while the ball ended up in rightfield.
At the moment, Nuijten was hit on his head, 1B Umpire Paul Timmermans called a time-out.
At the same time, Kemp took off from second base to advance on the throwing error.
When Timmermans called time-out, Kemp had just left second base.
But as time-out was called, the action now stopped.
An injury-delay followed, as Nuijten was attended.
In the meantime, catcher Pim Vijfvinkel and Pioniers Hitting Coach Dirk van 't Klooster (who pointed to second base) had a brief talk with Home Plate Umpire Edson Louisa.
A talk between the three umpires followed.
Nuijten returned to the field after two minutes and after having discussed the situation, the umpires allowed Urving Kemp to stay at third base.
The injury-delay then became an on-field delay, as Pioniers Head Coach Mervin Gario came out for a lenghty discussion with the Home Plate Umpire.
A new meeting between the umpires followed.
While the umpires talked with each other, Twins Head Coach Adonis Kemp walked towards them and so, Gario also joined them.
This discussion lasted some two minutes.
Thereafter, the three umpires left the field to check the rule-book.
With that, the players also left the field.
In their dressing room, the umpires were joined by veteran Technical Commissioner and longtime former (international) umpire Fred van Groningen Schinkel.
After nine minutes, the umpires returned to the field, called both Kemp and Gario with them and now placed the runner back on second base.
As the delay had taken awhile, Pioniers-pitcher Koen van 't Klooster was given some addional warm-up pitches.
After a 20-minute (!) delay, the game resumed.
Railison Bentura returned in the batter's box with an 1-0 count and fouled off the next pitch.
He then singled to bring in Kemp from second base.
Moments later, Marlin was picked off second base by Van 't Klooster.
Now with one out, the righthander gave up a single to Luuk Visser and was relieved by Lars Broersen.
He got a flyout from Jarreau Martina, but then gave up a runscoring single to Rayshelon Carolina, which lifted the lead to 5-1.
...Winning pitcher Ryan Huntington...
...This year, the lefthander made his...
...debut in the Netherlands Team...
...during the Baseball Week Haarlem...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the bottom of the sixth, Pioniers got one run back.
With two outs, Ryan Huntington walked Oliver van der Wijst Severino, who scored on a triple by Reangelo Willems.
He stranded on third base.
In the top of the seventh, three pitchers took the mound for Pioniers.
When Mick Vos led off with a single, Daniël Vos relieved Lars Broersen.
He got a force play-grounder from Tyriq Kemp, which eliminated Vos.
After Kemp had stolen second base and moved to third on a wild pitch, next batter Jason Halman was walked intentionally.
After a flyout accounted for the second out, Lucca van der Schouw took over the pitching for Pioniers.
He got an inning-ending force play grounder.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Pioniers got its first two batters on base.
Duco Nuijten walked and Jorrit Penseel reached on a bunt-single near the first base foul-line.
Hereafter, it was Bodhi de Vreede, who placed a bunt.
The ball was bunted into the air just in front of the home plate-area.
What followed was almost a triple play, but also an ejection.
Pitcher Ryan Huntington raced from the mound to make the catch.
Penseel was halfway first and second base and continued to second base, as it appeared that the ball dropped to the ground.
Home Plate Umpire Edson Louisa looked into the play, a catch was ruled, Huntington turned around on the ground and threw the ball to first base, where second baseman Tyriq Kemp had taken over first base and touched it to eliminate Penseel, who of course was unable to return in time.
Kemp then threw the ball to short stop Mick Vos, who tagged the approaching Penseel, but also Nuijten, who touched second base just in time, otherwise it would have been a triple play.
While leaving the field, Penseel said something and was ejected by Home Plate Umpire Edson Louisa.
Another discussion between Louisa and Pioniers Head Coach Mervin Gario followed.
The catch was upheld and so, there were two outs.
A grounder ended the at bat and Nuijten stranded on second base.
With a 5-2 lead in the top of the eighth inning, Twins decided the game with a 5-run rally.
All runs were (team-)unearned due to three errors, but one of them became earned for a relief pitcher.
Lead-off hitter Railison Bentura reached when pitcher Lucca van der Schouw dropped a pop-fly behind the mound.
With one out, Twins got another baserunner when a grounder by Jarreau Martina was misplayed by short stop Oliver van der Wijst Severino, which could have been the third out.
Instead, there were runners on first and second base with only one out.
A following walk for Rayshelon Carolina loaded the bases and led to the next pitching change.
Yassir Lachkar, who was the announced starter for the (if needed) third game, took over from Van der Schouw.
Lachkar walked Mick Vos, which brought in a run.
Tyriq Kemp followed with a sacrifice fly and Jason Halman added a 2-run double.
Hereafter, Urving Kemp reached on an infield-hit to short, which brought Halman to third base.
After receiving the wide throw from short stop Oliver van der Wijst Severino, first baseman Duco Nuijten made an uncessary throw to third base, where Halman already had reached.
The ball ended up in foul territory and on this throwing error, Halman scored.
Nuijten had taken over the first base-position in the top of the eighth inning after the ejection of Jorrit Penseel.
Another pitching change followed.
Anthony Marlin took over and he got an inning-ending grounder from his namesake Shurman Marlin.
Twins now had a 10-2 lead.
In the bottom of the eighth, Twins also made a pitching-change.
Pastor Enrique Martínez Chevez took over from Ryan Huntington.
He gave up an one-out single to Michael Dumitrescu, but struckout the next two batters.
...Rayshelon Carolina scored 3 runs...
...This year, he played for Curaçao during...
...the Baseball Week Haarlem...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Another rare moment then followed in the top of the ninth inning in which Twins added three more runs.
Railison Bentura led off with a walk, then Luuk Visser was hit by a pitch.
With these two runners on base, Nick Winkel became the seventh pitcher this afternoon for Pioniers, taking over from Anthony Marlin.
Winkel was greeted with a runscoring single from Rayshelon Carolina, then got the bases loaded when he walked Mick Vos.
Winkel then got to a full count on next batter Tyriq Kemp.
On his next pitch, the lefthanded hitting Kemp made a check-swing.
Home Plate Umpire Edson Louisa ruled it a ball and put four fingers up to signal the walk for Kemp, which led to some reactions from Pioniers-infielders.
Kemp started to jog towards first base, while the other runners also came into motion.
At the same time, Pioniers-catcher Pim Vijfvinkel asked Louisa to check the call.
He did and 1B Umpire Paul Timmermans ruled that Kemp had made a swing and thus struckout.
Louisa then also gave the strike-signal and Kemp was out.
Vijfvinkel then went after the approaching Luuk Visser, the runner from third base, and tagged him, which made it an inning-ending double play.
With that, the Pioniers-players started to leave the field, but it also started a 6-minute on-field delay, as more discussions followed.
On-deck hitter Jason Halman and Twins Head Coach Adonis Kemp argued regarding the ball or strike decision.
The three umpires came together, the swing and thus the strikeout were upheld, but Visser was allowed to return back to third base.
That of course brought out Pioniers Head Coach Mervin Gario to argue this decision.
But in the end, only Kemp was ruled out (strikeout), the runner was back on third base and so, Twins still had the bases loaded, but now with two outs.
After a few extra warm-up pitches for Winkel, the game resumed.
Halman connected for a 2-run single which increased the lead to 13-2.
Halman was 3-for-5 with two doubles, batted in six runs and scored once.
In the two games against Pioniers, Halman batted .625 (5-for-8) and batted in nine runs.
In the bottom of the ninth, Simon Gross pitched for Twins.
He was announced as the possible starter for Sunday's if needed Game 3.
Pioniers scored twice off of the German righthander.
He got the bases loaded quickly when he gave up a lead-off double to Denzel Brooks, hit Duco Nuijten with a pitch and walked Stijn Goedee.
Brooks then scored on a double play-grounder by Bodhi de Vreede and Nuijten went on to score on a single by Pim Vijfvinkel.
Gross closed the inning with a strikeout.
And that ended a long afternoon in Hoofddorp, which had some rare moments in what was a slowpaced game.
A game that surely will be talk about for awhile, as it underscored that everyone can be confronted with weird moments in each game.
With the win, Twins Oosterhout completed a 2-game sweep and advances to the best-of-five Play-Offs.
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Twins Oosterhout advances to Play-Offs after winning weird game vs. Hoofddorp Pioniers
HOOFDDORP (Neth.) -
Twins Oosterhout won 13-4 on Saturday (August 13) in Game 2 of the best-of-three Wild Card Bottom Series against Hoofddorp Pioniers.
With that, Twins won the series 2-0 to advance to the best-of-five Play-Offs against the winner of the Wild Card Top Series between L&D Amsterdam Pirates and Curaçao Neptunus.
Sometimes, you have 'one of those games'.
Sometimes, you have 'one of those days'.
Today was 'one of those days', as there was a lot of going in the three Wild Card-games that were played today.
2-minute injury-delay in top 6th inning after collission between 2B Duco Nuijten (Hoofddorp Pioniers) and runner Shurman Marlin (Twins Oosterhout).