...Winning pitcher Lars Huijer had a good outing...
...complete game win, 11 strikeouts...
(© Photo: (Alfred Cop Fotografie) |
In what was a much-win situation for reigning champion Amsterdam Pirates, the team recorded only four basehits off of Lars Huijer, who went the distance for HCAW.
The righthander had a strong outing, struckout eleven batters and was supported with three double plays.
Although he also walked five batters, Huijer didn't encounter that many problems, except for the third and fourth inning.
But the first time, he was helped by his defense and the second time, he handled things himself.
In the first seven innings, Huijer would give up only two basehits, which were both recorded in the fourth inning.
The Pirates-offense simply was not productive and was limited to only four basehits by the righthander.
HCAW opened the score immediately with a run in the bottom of the first inning off of Pirates-starter Scott Prins.
He was more-or-less a surprise starter, as it generally expected that veteran righthander and former Major Leaguer Shairon Martis would be the starter for the Amsterdam-team.
On the other hand, in case of a win, Martis of course would have been the ace-starter in a fifth game.
With one out in the first inning, Prins gave up singles to Victor Draijer and Jeandro Tromp.
On the first pitch he saw, next batter Kevin Dirksen followed with a hard grounder down the leftfield-line, which became a runscoring double.
With runners on second and third base, Prins recovered and struckout next batters Quintin de Cuba and Jair van Borkulo to end the at bat.
Prins retired the side in the second inning, but gave up another run in the third at bat.
This time, the righthander gave up a lead-off single to Brendly Martina.
The speedy runner then scored all the way from first base on a following double by Victor Draijer to make it a 2-0 score.
Moments later, Draijer was moved to third base via a sacrifice bunt by Jeandro Tromp.
HCAW got another baserunner when Prins hit Kevin Dirksen with a pitch.
But with runners at the corners, a double play followed to end the at bat.
Quintin de Cuba flied out to short stop Sharlon Schoop.
He then threw the ball in time to third baseman Delano Selassa, who tagged out Draijer.
With two outs in the bottom of the fourth, Max Draijer singled for HCAW, which was the sixth basehit off of Scott Prins.
A pitching change followed and Shairon Martis took the mound for Pirates.
He got an inning-ending grounder.
In the next three innings, Martis got only two baserunners.
Both didn't come into scoring position.
After having retired the side in the fifth, Martis gave up a lead-off single to Kevin Dirksen, but he was caught stealing.
With two outs in the seventh, Bob van der Meer reached on an error, but stranded on first base.
Trailing 1-0, Pirates got its first baserunner in the top of the second inning when Denzel Richardson led off with a walk.
Next batter Kalian Sams grounded into a double play.
In the third, the Amsterdam-team again got its lead-off hitter on base when Roelie Henrique walked.
An attempt to bring him in scoring position via a bunt failed.
With an 0-1 count, next batter Rashid Gerard bunted a ball foul twice and thus struckout.
Next batter Nicola Garbella drove the ball into deep leftfield.
Henrique took off and ran to second base, but when leftfielder Kevin Dirksen, he quickly had to return to first base.
Now with two outs, Henrique stole second base, but was left behind.
Now trailing 2-0, Pirates got a chance to do something back in the top of the fourth when Lars Huijer ran into problems and got the bases loaded.
With one out, he gave up singles to Sicnarf Loopstok and Denzel Richardson.
Hereafter, Kalian Sams hit a grounder towards second base and was eliminated at first base.
However, Home Plate Umpire Efrem Silvania annulled the out and awarded Sams first base on catcher's interference, which loaded the bases.
This was the second time in the last two games that HCAW-catcher Jair van Borkulo interfered with the batter.
Next batter Rachid Engelhardt then went after the first pitch he saw from Huijer.
The ball was hit hard into the ground in fair territory in front of the plate, jumped up and continued its flight towards third base very close down the leftfield-line ending in foul territory.
Silvania immediately gave the foul signal, so all runners had to return to their base.
If fair, it almost surely would have tied the score.
On the next pitch, Engelhardt hit a comeback line drive to Lars Huijer.
He was unable to field the ball, but it ended up at short stop Bob van der Meer, who then turned an inning-ending double play and that kept Pirates scoreless.
Pirates cut the deficit in half in the top of the fifth, scoring an unearned run.
Roelie Henrique led off with a walk, stole second base and moved to third on a following grounder by Rashid Gerard.
Herefter, Nicola Garbella also walked.
Moments later, the Italian stole second base and when that was followed by a throwing error, Henrique took off from third base and scored.
With Garbella now in scoring position, Huijer struckout Delano Selassa and Sharlon Schoop.
In the remaining four innings, Pirates got five more baserunners, but none of them got into scoring position.
The team was retired in order in the sixth.
After having retired eight consecutive batters and with two outs in the seventh, Lars Huijer walked Rashid Gerard.
The inning ended when Gerard's pinch-runner Lucas Vos was caught stealing.
In the top of the eighth, Huijer gave up an one-out single to Delano Selassa, which was only the third Amsterdam-basehit in this game and the first since the fourth inning.
Hereafter, Huijer was supported with a double play for the third time.
In the bottom of the eighth, HCAW added a much-needed insurance run when Victor Draijer led off with a homerun.
That not only sealed the win, it also gave the home-team some more breathing space in the top of the ninth.
Sicnarf Loopstok led off with a single, which was only the fourth basehit for the Amsterdam-team.
Huijer followed with a strikeout for Denzel Richardson, which raised his total to eleven.
With one out, Pirates got two more baserunners, but they had no effect.
First, Loopstok was forced out on a grounder by Kalian Sams, who then also was forced out on second base on a grounder by Rachid Engelhardt.
With that, the game ended and the celebrations started for the HCAW-team.
For the first time in seventeen years, the Bussum-team secured itself of a spot in the Holland Series!
For Amsterdam Pirates, the loss meant that it was dethroned as champion and that its 2022 season has come to an end.
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HCAW dethrones Amsterdam Pirates; First Holland Series-clinch in 17 years
BUSSUM (Neth.) -
HCAW scored two early runs and hold onto the small lead en route to a 3-1 victory against L&D Amsterdam Pirates on Saturday (August 27) to win Game 4 of the best-of-five Play-Offs.
With the win, the Bussum-team won the series 3-1 to become the second finalist for this years Holland Series.
By winning this Play-Offs, HCAW dethroned Amsterdam Pirates, which was the reigning champion since 2019.
For HCAW, it marks the first time in seventeen years that it will play in the all-deciding Championship Final.
The last time that the team reached the Holland Series was in 2005.
This will be the eleventh time that HCAW will play in the Final.
In 2019, it was Amsterdam Pirates that dethroned Neptunus in the Holland Series.
Neptunus then won the first three games, but Pirates became the first team in history to erase such a deficit and win the next four games to be crowned champion.
In 2020, Pirates again faced Neptunus in the Holland Series and then won the first two games.
But the Final was then abruptly halted due to new measures against the coronavirus (COVID-19).
With that, Pirates started the 2021 still as reigning champion.
The team then prolonged its title by defeating Neptunus again in seven games in the 2021 Series.
Game 4 best-of-five Play-Offs Series 2.