Sparks Haarlem was the home-team tonight, but as there is no light-installation at its home-site, the game was played at the site of 'neighbor' DSS.
At the same location, DSS/Kinheim played at home in the Pim Mulier Stadium at the other side of the road in the opening-game of the Play-Off for fifth and sixth place against Hoofddorp Pioniers.
Initially, Quick Amersfoort appeared to be en route to a comfortable victory, as the big league-team led 6-1 in the sixth inning.
But then, Sparks Haarlem turned the game around, rallied for nine runs and boldy took a 10-6 lead.
Quick avoided an opening-loss by scoring twice in the eighth and ninth inning to come alongside.
Sparks Haarlem then also avoided a loss when it ended the ninth with a double play.
...Joffrey Heus (Sparks Haarlem)...
...8 innings as starting pitcher...
...3-for-3, 2 walks, 1 run, 2 RBI's...
...On the photo, he plays for DSS in 2015...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Quick Amersfoort opened the score with four runs in the top of the second inning off of Joffrey Heus.
The righthander, who played in the big league for DSS, is not really a pitcher, but an infielder.
However, he is able to throw a solid ball and tonight, he went on to pitch eight-plus innings.
In the top of the second, Heus walked lead-off hitters Rodney Daal and Marvin Jakobus.
After they had advanced on a passed ball, Amar van Zwieten delivered a runscoring single.
With runners at the corners, Van Zwieten stole second base, then Heus got the bases loaded when Alden Stacie also walked.
Hereafter, Quick added another run on a sacrifice fly by Jordy Burger.
Another run was scored on a sacrifice fly by Pascal Zegwaard, then Stacie went on to score on an error in a pick-off attempt to give Quick an early 4-0 lead.
Joffrey Heus recovered and retired the side in the next two innings, but then gave up two more runs in the top of the fifth.
After having retired ten batters in a row, he walked Pascal Zegwaard with one out.
Hereafter, Emeron Lourens and Alex Madera connected for back-to-back, RBI-doubles.
That made it a 6-1 score, as Sparks Haarlem had scored a run in the fourth.
Sparks Haarlem was held scoreless by starting pitcher Jack Wagner in the first three innings.
But it was Sparks Haarlem that got a runner in scoring position first.
In the bottom of the first inning, Jesse van de Berg led off with a single, then reached second base safely on a fielder's choice-grounder by next batter Ruben Hoek.
But a foul-fly and double play ended the opening at bat.
Trailing 4-0, the home-team scored once in the bottom of the fourth inning.
With two outs, Jerry Zonneveld walked and stole second base, then Mitchell Hetem also walked.
Moments later, Zonneveld also stole third base and scored on an error.
Hereafter, Sparks Haarlem got the bases loaded when Joffrey Heus singled and Arno Guntekin walked.
But the three runners were left behind.
With a 6-1 lead, Deef van Leersum took over the Quick-pitching in the fifth.
This time, Sparks left a runner behind on second base.
After Quick also left a runner behind on second base in the top of the sixth, Sparks Haarlem struck with a 9-run rally in the bottom of the sixth off of three pitchers.
The team got the bases loaded via Jerry Zonneveld (single), Mitchell Hetem (single) and Joffrey Heus (walk).
A passed ball then led to a run and thereafter, the bases got loaded again when Arno Guntekin walked.
That led to the first pitching change.
Kenny van Kampen took over, but he also ran into problems.
He walked the first two batters he faced, Wessel Pirovano and Jesse van de Berg, resulting in two runs.
With the bases still loaded, Van Kampen followed with a strikeout, but a wild pitch then accounted for another run.
The righthander then got the bases loaded again when he walked (former Dutch big leaguer) Mitchel Dautzenberg.
Next, the Quick-defense attempted to force out Pirovano at the plate on a grounder by Michael Wernik, but he was safe and so, he scored the tying run.
Sparks Haarlem now had batted around and took the lead via a sacrifice fly by Jerry Zonneveld.
The bases got loaded again when Van Kampen walked Mitchell Hetem and Jasper Popken then became the new pitcher for Quick.
He was greeted with a 2-run single by Joffrey Heus and an error led to the ninth run in this productive at bat.
...Emeron Lourens (Quick Amersfoort)...
...2 doubles, 2 runs scored, RBI...
(© Photo: Robert Bos) |
With that, Sparks Haarlem now suddenly led 10-6 and had a chance to open this Pool with a surprise victory.
Joffrey Heus returned to the mound for Sparks in the seventh and was supported with a double play.
But in the eighth, he gave up two runs.
Heus walked lead-off hitter Marvin Jakobus, then gave up an runscoring triple to Amar van Zwieten, who went on to score himself on an one-out grounder by Jordy Burger.
In the top of the ninth, Quick not only came alongside, but also got the bases loaded with only one out.
However, the Sparks Haarlem-defense avoided giving up runs, which would have resulted in another deficit.
After Emeron Lourens led off with a double and Alex Madera walked, Heus was relieved by Mees de By, who is the announced starter for Sunday's game.
He saw Lourens score on an error during a steal-attempt, then gave up a triple to Jorge Hernandez Morantes that made it a 10-10 score.
After Lars Visser grounded out, Marvin Jakobus walked.
To set up a force play, next batter Amar van Zwieten was walked intentionally.
That worked, as Alden Stacie grounded into an 1-2-3 inning-ending double play.
After the productive sixth at bat, Sparks Haarlem was unable to do some more scoring in the remainder of the game off of Jasper Popken.
He retired the side in the seventh (three strikeouts) and eighth inning (three grounders), then got two baserunners in the ninth.
Joffrey Heus (3-for-3, two walks) led off with a single and moved on a sacrifice bunt by Mees de By.
This time, it was the Quick-coaching that opted to set up a force play by walking Wessel Pirovano intentionally.
Popken followed with a strikeout, then a flyout ended the at bat.
As the 10:30 PM curfew-time had been reached, the game ended after nine complete innings with a 10-10 score.
|
Sparks Haarlem comes close to opening-win in Pilot-Pool against Quick Amersfoort
HAARLEM (Neth.) -
Sparks Haarlem led 10-6 after seven innings in it first game of the Major League/First Divsion Pilot-Pool against Quick Amersfoort on Thurday-evening (August 18).
However, the First Division-team failed to hold onto the lead and saw Quick score twice in the eighth and ninth to come alongside.
As the curfew-rule is in effect in this Pool, it was not possible to go into extra innings and with that, the game ended with a 10-10 score.
But for Sparks Haarlem, this game was good debut in this Pool.
Silicon Storks (nr. 5 Bottom-5 Pool) won 11-3 against Twins Oosterhout-2 (nr. 2 First Division Top-6).
Major League/First Division Pilot Pool.