(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Zottegem Bebops)
  Second team Hoofddorp Pioniers wins tournament in Belgium
Nederlands
 ZOTTEGEM (Belgium) -
Omron Pioniers, the second team of big league-club Hoofddorp Pioniers, has won an one-day international tournament in Belgium on Sunday (March 27), which was played under fine weather conditions.
In the weekend, the Pioniers-team stayed in Zottegem, which is located some 26 km southeast of Ghent, for what was a teambuilding-weekend, as well as the final preparations for the upcoming season.
Coming Saturday (April 2), the regular season opens in the First Division and Pioniers begins against Euro Stars (Saturday away in Capelle a/d IJssel, Sunday at home in Hoofddorp).
At the site of Zottegem Bebops, the Pioniers-team had a practice-session on Saturday.
That also became a well-visited clinic for the youth players of this Belgian club.
The tournament in Zottegem was a 2-day event.
On Saturday, there were two youth baseball-tournaments.
The tournament in the Under-12 categorie was won by Gent Knights from Belgium.
The Cadets-tournament (Under-15) was won by Amsterdam Pirates from the Netherlands.
On Sunday, there was a tournament for both baseball and softball.
As mentioned, Hoofddorp Pioniers was the winner in the baseball-tournament.
Rotterdam Rascals from the Netherlands won the softball-tournament.
...The winning team of Omron Pioniers posed with...
...organizing club Zottegem Bebops...
(© Photo: Zottegem Bebops) |
Pioniers, which is led by Head Coach Ronald Stoovelaar, played three games on Sunday, all with a time-limit of one hour.
Pioniers played three fine games and recorded three shutouts.
In the first game, Pioniers won 7-0 against Odiz Frogs from Zaandam (Netherlands).
Thereafter, the Hoofddorp-team won 5-0 against host Zottegem Bebops.
Later in the afternoon, Pioniers won 3-0 against Braine Black Rickers, which has several players with a Venezuelan background.
This team comes from Braine-le-Château, which is located in Wallonia, south of Brussels.
In Dutch, the name of the city is Kasteelbrakel.
And so, Pioniers finished in first place, followed by Zottegem Bebops, Odiz Frogs and Braine Black Rickers.
Some history of Zottegem:
The historic municipality (more than 26.000 inhabitants) is located in East Flanders, near Ghent and is part of the Flemish Ardennes.
The city has ten different beer breweries.
The eldest mentioning of the name (Sotengem) dates from 1083.
Zottegem is known for its ties with Lamoral, Count of Egmont (1522-1568), who is buried in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-Hemelvaartkerk.
The castle of Egmont is located in Zottegem, as are two statues.
Lamoral, Count of Egmont, was a leading Netherlandic nobleman, general and statesman in the Spanish Netherlands just before the start of the Eighty Years' War.
(March 27)
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