The first game between UVV and RCH-Pinguïns remained scoreless in the first five innings.
In the following at bats, UVV would remain scoreless, but the visitors would score three runs.
With that, debuting Joshua Zara won his first game as Head Coach of RCH-Pinguïns.
Although there have been some roster-changes for the Heemstede-team, all starting players had big league-experience.
Only closer Chris Koeiman made his debut today in the highest league.
On the other hand, UVV had eight players who played in their first big league-game.
UVV's most experience player was today's starting pitcher Jurjen van Zijl.
The righthander pitched in his first big league-game in 2005 when he was with HCAW.
The veteran righthander held RCH-Pinguïns scoreless in the first five innings.
With one out in the top of the first inning, Van Zijl gave up a double to Daan Groenewoud, but he would be left behind on second base.
In the second inning, he gave up an one-out single to Sebastiaan van der Horst, which was followed by a double play.
Van Zijl got two baserunners with two outs in the top of the third.
He then hit Raul Jacobs, who after last season came to Heemstede after having played for Hoofddorp Pioniers.
Jacobs advanced on an infield-hit by Daan Groenewoud.
But Van Zijl then closed by striking out Jeldwin Orman, another newcomer, who last season also played for Pioniers.
After last season, RCH added fifteen new players.
Two more were added in recent weeks.
RCH got its first runner on third base in the fourth at bat.
Aldrich Guzman (last season Euro Stars) led off with a walk and advanced on a grounder by Denzel Brooks (ex-Pioniers).
The team got runners on first and third base when Sebastiaan van der Horst reached on an error.
The latter stole second base, but the two runners were left behind.
RCH-Pinguïns then opened the score in the top of the sixth.
With one out, Denzel Brooks reached on an infield-hit, stole second base and scored on a double by Sebastiaan van der Horst.
After a grounder accounted for the second out, Jurjen van Zijl was relieved by Sam van der Meer.
He enabled Van der Horst to move to third base on a wild pitch, but then closed the at bat with a stikeout.
RCH-Pinguïns got a fine outing from recently added Juan Carlos Sulbaran, who last month pitched for the Netherlands National Team in the World Baseball Classic.
By taking the mound today, the righthander now has played for five different teams in the Dutch big league in six seasons.
Since 2018, Sulbaran played for Storks (2018), DSS (2019), Amsterdam Pirates (2020-2021), Neptunus (2022) and now RCH-Pinguïns.
But his stay in Heemstede will be brief.
Last month, he signed a contract with a team from an independent professional league, where he will open the season later this month.
Today, Sulbaran struckout eight batters and gave up only two basehits in five innings to become the winning pitcher.
Sulbaran struckout the first two batters he faced in the bottom of the first inning, but then gave up two basehits.
First, debuting American Quin Cotton singled in his frst big league at bat.
Thereafter, Jorge Luis Espinal Ventura also singled.
Last season, Espinal played for Quick Amersfoort.
A grounder ended the at bat and Sulbaran would not give up more basehits in the next four innings.
The righthander struckout the side in the second inning.
UVV again got two baserunners in the third.
Lead-off hitter Lucas Bekker reached second base on a throwing error, then Malcolm Marlin walked.
Sulbaran followed with two more strikeouts and a flyout ended this scoring opportunity.
He retired the side again in the fourth and fifth.
With a small 1-0 lead, Jan-Willem Geerts took over the RCH-pitching in the sixth.
Geerts last season played for Quick Amersfoort, but already has played for RCH in the past.
The righthander retired the side, including two strikeouts.
RCH took more distance in the top of the seventh by scoring two more runs with two outs.
Tijani Dunlop led off as pinch-hitter and reached on an infield-hit.
For Dunlop, this was his first game in the highest league since 2018.
Back then, he played for Storks and in that season, he also was a teammate of Juan Carlos Sulbaran and Aldrich Guzman.
Dunlop and Guzman came to RCH after having played for Euro Stars last season.
With Dunlop on first base, next batter Raul Jacobs was hit by a pitch.
As mentioned, Jacobs played for Hoofddorp Pioniers last season.
Jacobs is one of 26 players who left the Hoofddorp-team after last season.
Three of them retired, two decided to play in the second team of Pioniers.
Jacobs also is one of seven players who transfered from Pioniers to RCH-Pinguïns.
The others being pitchers Anthony Marlin, T'sean Martina and Lucca van der Schouw, catcher Jaison Gijsbertha, infielder Denzel Brooks and outfielder Jeldwin Orman.
Two of the former Pioniers-players now play for UVV, being outfielders Reangelo Willems and Roy Winkel.
Back to the at bat.
Dunlop and Jacobs executed a double-steal, then RCH got the bases loaded when Daan Groenewoud walked.
With three runners on base, reliever Sam van der Meer struckout the next two batters.
But with two outs, he walked Denzel Brooks, which led to a run.
The next run was then scored on an infield-hit by Sebastiaan van der Horst.
But three runners were then left behind when a grounder ended the at bat.
In the bottom of the seventh, Jan-Willem Geerts again retired the UVV-side, including two strikeouts.
In the eighth, UVV got its first two batters on base.
After fifteen batters had been retired in order, lead-off hitter Etienne van Tielraden reached on an error.
Hereafter, Lucas Bekker reached on an infield-hit, which was UVV's third (and final) basehit and its first since the first inning.
An attempt to move the runners failed.
Malcolm Marlin bunted the ball up in the air.
That was caught by Geerts, who then also was able to eliminate Bekker at first base in a double play.
Geerts closed with his fifth strikeout.
In the top of the ninth, RCH-Pinguïns got the bases loaded again, but this time, the team was unable to add more runs.
With one out and Jeldwin Orman (fielder's choice, stolen base) on second base, Aldrich Guzman walked.
After a double steal led to runners on second and third base, reliever Sam van der Meer struckout Denzel Brooks.
With first base open, Van der Meer then issued an intentional walk to Sebastiaan van der Horst, who already had three basehits.
The three runners then stranded when Geoffrey Verhoef flied out.
In the bottom of the ninth, Chris Koeiman took the mound for RCH.
He also was added to the team last month.
Last year, Koeiman played for the National Team of Curaçao in the Baseball Week Haarlem.
Koeiman, who made his big league-debut, retired the side (one strikeout) to earn a save.
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RCH-Pinguïns opens new season with shutout at UVV
VLEUTEN (Neth.) -
RCH Memorie Sieraden and UVV finally were able to come into action on Saturday (April 8).
On Thursday-evening, the series-opener in Heemstede rained out and was moved to Friday, but then was cancelled again.
That game has now been re-scheduled for coming Tuesday-evening.
That meant that today's game was the season-opener for both teams.
RCH-Pinguïns recorded a 3-0 shutout-win and its pitchers gave up only three basehits, while striking out fourteen batters.
Opening Weekend 2023 Season.