(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Starting Pitchers coming series
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM -
Coming Thursday-evening (May 19), the seventh round of 3-game series begins in the Dutch big league.
With that, the first half of the regular season is nearing its end.
The first half ends on Sunday, June 5.
At that moment, all nine teams in the highest league will have played one 3-game series against each other.
After completion of the first half, the top-four continues in their second half of the season, while the bottom-five will do the same.
The teams will take the head-to-head results against the teams they face in the second half with them to these new pools.
The second half of the season opens onThursday, June 16.
The second half is followed by a series of best-of-three Play-Offs to decide which two teams will end up in the Holland Series for the Dutch Championship-title.
The first of these series are the Wild Card Series.
The two teams that finish in first and second place in the Top-4 Pool will not only play in the Wild Card Top Series, but also secure a spot in the Play-Offs that will follow thereafter.
The teams in third and fourth place advance to the Wild Card Bottom Series.
The two best teams from the Bottom-5 Pool will first play a Wild Card Qualifier to decide whom they will meet in the Wild Card Bottom Series.
The two winners of the Wild Card Bottom Series then will advance to the best-of-five Play-Offs to meet the teams from the Wild Card Top Series.
And the winners of the Play-Offs then will face each other in the best-of-seven Holland Series.
But first, three more rounds of 3-game series in the first half of the season are scheduled.
Last Sunday, the first decision fell in the first half, as Quick Amersfoort became the first team to be eliminated for the Top-4 Pool after losing to Curaçao Neptunus.
In the upcoming series, Quick meets DSS/Kinheim.
League-leader HCAW is still unbeaten and now has won 15 games since the start of the season.
However, the team hasn't played yet against the two finalists of last year, reigning champion L&D Amsterdam Pirates and Curaçao Neptunus.
In the coming series, HCAW meets Silicon Storks.
Thereafter, in the final two series of the first half, the Bussum-team plays against Pirates and Neptunus.
Amsterdam Pirates, which had no games scheduled last week, meets Twins Oosterhout in the coming days.
Neptunus will play against RCH Memorie Sieraden.
This round, Hoofddorp Pioniers is the team that will not play due to the odd total of teams in the big league.
In the meantime, several players are returning home after completion of their college-seasons in the USA.
Last weekend, Jelle Bing, Jesse Velders (both DSS/Kinheim) and Aaron de Groot (Neptunus) already played in their first games of the season.
Coming weekend, pitchers Jelle van der Lelie and Scott Prins (both Amsterdam Pirates) will come into action for the first time after returning from the USA.
More players have returned, but haven't played yet.
Others are expected back in the coming days.
Beneath are the announced starters for the games in the upcoming series.
As always, these assignments can change on game-days.
(May 18)
Rosters
Live play-by-play & live-streams
| Roster | L&D AMSTERDAM PIRATES (10-4-1) | vs. |
TWINS OOSTERHOUT (10-7-1) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Pirates | G | # | Starting Pitchers Twins |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 54 | LHP Nelmerson Angela (2-0) | 1 | 11 | RHP Koen Postelmans (2-3) | Th. May 19, 7:30 PM, Amsterdam (1) |
| 29 | RHP Jelle van der Lelie (0-0) | 2 | 10 | LHP Ryan Huntington (3-2) | Sa. May 21, 2:00 PM, Oosterhout (2) |
| 32 | RHP Scott Prins (0-0) | 3 | 6 | RHP Simon Gross (3-1) | Su. May 22, 1:30 PM, Amsterdam (1) |
| (1) - Loek Loevendie Ballpark, Sportpark 'Ookmeer', Amsterdam; (2) - Sportpark 'De Slotbosse Toren', Oosterhout |
| Roster | RCH MEMORIE SIERADEN (8-10) | vs. |
CURAÇAO NEPTUNUS (12-3) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers RCH-Pinguïns | G | # | Starting Pitchers Neptunus |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 41 | RHP Jeremy Young (2-1) | 1 | 15 | RHP Juan Carlos Sulbaran (4-0) | Th. May 19, 7:30 PM, Heemstede (3) |
| | to be decided | 2 | 27 | RHP Kaj Timmermans (3-1) | Sa. May 21, 1:00 PM, Rotterdam (4) |
| | to be decided | 3 | | to be decided | Su. May 22, 2:00 PM, Heemstede (3) |
| (3) - Heemsteedse Sportpark, Heemstede; (4) - Neptunus Familiestadion, Sportpark Abraham van Stolkweg, Rotterdam |
| Roster | SILICON STORKS (2-13) | vs. |
HCAW (15-0) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Storks | G | # | Starting Pitchers HCAW |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 16 | RHP Darryl Jamoena (0-5) | 1 | 45 | LHP Jim Ploeger (3-0) | Th. May 19, 7:30 PM, Rotterdam (5)(*) |
| 25 | RHP Twan Naessens (0-2) | 2 | 39 | RHP Lars Huijer (3-0) | Sa. May 21, 2:00 PM, Bussum (6) |
| 31 | RHP Mike van den Berg (1-3) | 3 | 7 | RHP Dennis Burgersdijk (5-0) | Su. May 22, 2:30 PM, The Hague (7) |
(5) - Neptunus Familiestadion, Sportpark Abraham van Stolkweg, Rotterdam; (6) - Rob Hoffmann Vallei, Sportpark Zanderijweg, Bussum
(7) - Sportpark 'Kijkduin', The Hague |
| (*) - Thursday's home-game of Storks will be played at the site of Neptunus, as there is no light-installation at its home-site in The Hague |
| Roster | QUICK AMERSFOORT (1-13-1) | vs. |
DSS/KINHEIM (7-8) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Quick | G | # | Starting Pitchers DSS/Kinheim |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 70 | RHP Johnaikel Acosta (1-3) | 1 | 27 | RHP Nick Boxelaar (3-1) | Th. May 19, 7:30 PM, Amersfoort (8) |
| 19 | RHP Wally Vrolijk (0-1) | 2 | | to be decided | Sa. May 21, 2:00 PM, Haarlem (9) |
| 14 | RHP Jan-Willem Geerts (0-2) | 3 | | to be decided | Su. May 22, 2:00 PM, Amersfoort (8) |
| (8) - Sportpark 'Dorrestein', Amersfoort; (9) - Pim Mulier Stadion, Pim Mulier Sportpark, Haarlem |
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