In today's third game, Curaçao Neptunus was outhit 13-11 by Twins Oosterhout, but nine batters also reached base on walks.
Neptunus took an early lead and got a good pitching-outing from Kevin Kelly, who was inserted into the starting rotation a week ago.
On August 13, in second game of the best-of-three Wild Card Top Series against L&D Amsterdam Pirates, starting pitcher Aaron de Groot left due to an injury in the third inning.
Game 3 starter Kaj Timmermans then completed the game and Kelly started the third game.
In the series against Twins, De Groot didn't pitch.
...Kevin Kelly...
...winning pitcher...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Neptunus opened the score with two runs in the bottom of the first inning off of starter Simon Gross.
The German righthander walked lead-off hitter Stijn van der Meer, who stole second base and advanced to third base on a throwing error.
Gross followed with a strikeout for next batter Jiandido Tromp, but then also walked John Polonius and gave up a runscoring single to Roger Bernadina.
Polonius advanced to third base on Bernadina's single and scored when the latter was forced out on a grounder by Junior Martina.
There was a rare moment in the bottom of the second inning.
After Christian Diaz led off with a walk, next batter Dashenko Ricardo hit a high pop-fly, which appeared to be in foul territory.
However, it turned (blew) back toward the infield.
Catcher Jarreau Martina looked up, walked back to the infield, reached backwards and touched the ball, but it dropped on the ground.
First baseman Shurman Marlin was standing close to Martina, alertly picked up the ball and threw it to short stop Mick Vos to force out Diaz at second base, meaning Ricardo reached first base with a fielder's choice.
Martina got credited with an assist.
Ricardo advanced when Sheadion Jamanika walked, but two flyouts ended the at bat.
Neptunus took more distance via a 3-run rally in the bottom of the third inning to raise the lead to 5-0.
With one out, Roger Bernadina walked.
With two outs, Simon Gross struckout Dwayne Kemp, but he reached on a wild pitch.
Moments later, Bernadina scored on a single by Christian Diaz.
Two more runs were added when Dashenko Ricardo delivered a 2-run double.
The home-team scored two more runs with two outs in the bottom of the fourth.
Stijn van der Meer led off with a walk, but when next batter Jiandido Tromp struckout, he was eliminated in a strikeout-caught-stealing-double play.
Hereafter, John Polonius singled and Roger Bernadina followed with a line drive through the middle.
However, second baseman Railison Bentura dove for the ball and almost made a great diving catch, but was unsuccessful.
But with his dive, he prevented the ball from ending up in the outfield and kept Polonius at second base.
But with two runners on base, Simon Gross uncorked two wild pitches, which enabled Polonius and Bernadina to advance two bases, meaning the first scored.
Junior Martina then walked and Dwayne Kemp followed with a runscoring single.
That ended the afternoon for Gross.
Twins Pitching Coach Elton Koeiman took the mound himself.
The veteran righthander got an inning-ending grounder and held Neptunus scoreless in the next two innings.
Neptunus-starter Kevin Kelly encountered no real problems in his first six innings.
Twins got its first runner in scoring position in the top of the third inning.
Kelly then gave up a lead-off single to Diamond Silberie, who advanced on a grounder by Jarreau Martina and moved to third base when Rayshelon Carolina flied out.
Mick Vos followed with a line drive, but that was caught by Kelly.
With one out in the top of the fourth, Twins had runners on first and second base.
With one out, Jason Halman singled and Shurman Marlin walked.
But the first was forced out and a grounder ended the at bat.
...Greg Muller...
...pinch-hit, 2-run triple...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
With one out in the fifth, Jarreau Martina doubled for Twins, moved on a grounder, but also was left behind.
Trailing 7-0, Twins came back with two outs in the top of the seventh with a 3-run rally off of Kelly.
With one out, Luuk Bun singled, as did Rayshelon Carolina with two outs.
Mick Vos followed with a runscoring single, then Arthur Bonevacia delivered a 2-run double.
With the latter on second base, Kelly hit next batter Jason Halman with a pitch, then closed the at bat by striking out Shurman Marlin.
Neptunus immediately took some more distance in its seventh at bat when it also scored three runs after a pitching change, which increased the lead to 10-3.
Rookie Jeffrey Levenstone took over the pitching from Elton Koeiman, but he was greeted with a lead-off double by Dashenko Ricardo, who moved to third base on a wild pitch.
After next batter Sheadion Jamanika walked, both runners scored on a pinch-hit triple by Greg Muller, who went on to score himself on a sacrifice fly by Jiandido Tromp.
With two outs, Roger Bernadina singled, which brought in another pitcher.
Raf Cocu took the mound and gave up a double to Junior Martina, but Neptunus left runners behing on second and third base when a pop-fly ended the at bat.
Twins got a chance to do some more scoring in the eighth and ninth inning off of new pitcher Kevin Bakker.
He took over from Kevin Kelly, who had thrown seven solid innings in which he struckout nine batters, but also gave up nine basehits.
With one out in the top of the eighth, Railison Bentura and Luuk Bun both singled.
With two outs, the bases got loaded when Rayshelon Carolina walked.
The three runners were left behind, as a force play closed the at bat.
With one out in the ninth, Twins again got two baserunners when Jason Halman and Shurman Marlin singled.
For Halman, this was his final at bat, as he retires after this season and this was the final game of the season fot Twins.
A flyout and force out followed and that ended the game.
With that, Neptunus completed a 3-game sweep and to advance to the Holland Series.
But the team had to wait 2½ weeks for the first game of the Championship Final.
Coming weekend, the other Play-Off will be completed and the following weekend, no games are scheduled.
The Holland Series opens on Thursday, September 8 at the site of Neptunus in Rotterdam.
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Neptunus completes Play-Off sweep vs. Twins Oosterhout to clinch Holland Series
ROTTERDAM (Neth.) -
Curaçao Neptunus won 10-3 against Twins Oosterhout on Sunday (August 21) to complete a 3-game sweep in its best-of-five Play-Off.
On Thursday, the Rotterdam-team opened with a 7-2 victory.
On Saturday, Neptunus won the second game with a small 4-2 score.
In the Holland Series, Neptunus will face either reigning champion L&D Amsterdam Pirates or HCAW, who will complete their Play-Off coming weekend.
Before the game, there is a moment of silence in remembrance of former Rotterdam-Mayor Bram Peper, who passed away on Saturday, August 20.