(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
  Win and loss for Neptunus in Germany
Nederlands
 BONN (Germany) -
Curaçao Neptunus was in the German city of Bonn this weekend to play against Bonn Capitals.
On Saturday, the Rotterdam-team recorded a big 18-2 victory.
On Sunday, it was Bonn that won 9-5.
So far in the exhibition season, the German squad has played several games against Dutch teams.
In the weekend of March 5-6, Bonn traveled to Hoofddorp, where it played against both the first and second team of Hoofddorp Pioniers.
A week later, Pioniers visited Bonn to play two games in a mini-tournament.
Last weekend, Bonn was in Bussum where it played twice against HCAW.
Bonn Capitals, which already has several foreign players on its roster, added some more in recent days, outfielder John Schultz and pitcher Dovydas Neverauskas.
32-year old American outfielder Schultz played in the Minor Leagues for Miami Marlins, but also in Australia.
29-year old Lithuanian Neverauskas pitched in the Major League for Pittsburgh Pirates, then played in Japan last year.
In a long game that lasted almost 3½ hours on Saturday, Neptunus collected 17 basehits and recorded a convincing victory.
Three Neptunus-pitchers gave up only four basehits, but walked five.
They also threw several pitches into the ground, as catcher Dashenko Ricardo (who caught the entire game) frequently had to dive left to right.
Neptunus opened the score in the second inning.
With one out, Christian Diaz reached on an error, then Dashenko Ricardo homered.
A 4-run rally followed in the third at bat.
With one out, Neptunus got the bases loaded via John Polonius (single), Roger Bernadina (walk) and Dwayne Kemp (walk).
The first two scored when Diaz followed with a single.
Moments later, Kemp scored on a sacrifice fly by Ricardo, then Greg Muller added a runscoring single to lift the lead to 6-0 and bring in a new pitcher.
Bonn Capitals scored what would be its lone two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning after being kept scoreless by starter Juan Carlos Sulbaran in the first four innings.
The righthander walked three batters, but gave up only one basehit.
That came in the fourth when Daniel Lamb-Hunt doubled with one out.
He moved to third base on a wild pitch, but then was left behind.
In the fifth, Misja Harcksen took over the Neptunus-pitching.
With one out, he walked Nick Miceli, who then moved to third base on two wild pitches.
With two outs, he scored when Eric Brenk homered to make it a 6-2 score.
In the top of the sixth, Neptunus took more distance by scoring four runs.
With one out, Raydley Legito was on first base (fielder's choice).
He stole second base, got third on a balk and scored on a single by Jiandido Tromp.
After the latter was forced out on a grounder by Polonius, Bernadina singled, which led to another pitching change.
Jakob Schoch took over, but was greeted with a 3-run homerun by Dwayne Kemp.
Two runs were added in the eighth on an error and double by Diaz.
And in the top of the ninth, a 6-run rally followed, which was highlighted by a 3-run homerun by Jiandido Tromp.
Singles by Diaz (one-run) and Ricardo (2-run) increased the lead to 18-2.
Although there was only one out, it also ended this long at bat.
Kevin Kelly threw the last three innings for Neptunus.
The righthander gave up no basehits and retired the last seven batters he faced.
No details are available on Sunday's game, which was won by Bonn with a 9-5 score.
(March 26-27)
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Exhibition game.