(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
   Netherlands Team opens exhibition-series in Arizona with loss
Nederlands
 SCOTTSDALE, Arizona (USA) -
The Netherlands Team played its first in a series of exhibition-games on Sunday (February 19) to start its preparations for the upcoming World Baseball Classic, which opens on March 8.
On that day, the Netherlands will play the opening game of the global event against Cuba in Taichung (Taiwan).
The players, coaches and supporting staff of the Netherlands Team traveled to Scottsdale (Arizona) on Friday (February 17).
Some of them came from the Netherlands, others traveled to Arizona from Curaçao or Aruba and some already were in the States, as they were in Spring Training to prepare for either the Major League or Minor League-seasons.
The 30-man roster was announced on February 9.
From this roster, pitcher Derek West (Houston Astros), catcher Chadwick Tromp (Atlanta Braves), infielders Xander Bogaerts (San Diego Padres) and Jonathan Schoop (Detroit Tigers) and outfielder Richie Palacios (Cleveland Guardians) were not with the team in Arizona, as they were in Spring Training.
All with a Major League-team, except for West, who was at the Minor League-complex.
For the training-camp in Arizona, nine players are added to the Orange-roster, including three from the so-called Designated Pitching Pool.
Pitchers from this Pool (of eight pitchers) can replace pitchers on the WBC-roster in case of injuries.
The added pitchers are Dennis Burgersdijk, Arij Fransen and Scott Prins.
Also added were catcher Yurdion Martie, infielders John Polonius and Denzel Richardson and outfielders Ademar Rifaela and Jiandido Tromp.
The ninth added player to the roster is Dwayne Kemp.
He already was announced as a back-up player and will be with the team the entire trip, serving as bullpen-catcher.
In case of an injury, he can be added to the active roster during the Classic.
The five players who are in Spring Training will join the team on March 1 when it travels to Taiwan.
In Scottsdale, the Netherlands Team will practice and play at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, the Spring Training-complex of Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks.
This season, Orange-Manager Hensley Meulens will be the Hitting Coach for the first time of the Major League-team of Colorado.
Last year, he was one of the Assistant Hitting Coaches at New York Yankees, where he worked together with Mike Harkey, who was the Bullpen Coach.
In the staff of the Netherlands Team, Harkey will have the same position during the Classic.
In its first exhibition game, the Netherlands played against Hanwha Eagles, one of the teams from the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), the highest professional league in South Korea.
Last year, the team from Daejeon finished in tenth and last place in the KBO League with a 46-96 record.
Today, the Korean team won with a 4-1 score.
The Netherlands faced an early 3-0 deficit in the second inning and trailed 4-0 when it scored its lone run.
The team was unable to turn the game around and recorded only four basehits off of six pitchers.
Remarkable enough, two of these four hits were recorded by two of the added players.
In the first inning, Dutch starter Lars Huijer was supported with a double play, but he then gave up three runs in the second at bat.
Eun-Seong Chae led off with a single, then In-Hwan Kim walked.
After the two had advanced, Chae scored the first run on a grounder by Jin-Young Lee, which was a nice play by second baseman John Polonius.
Moments later, Kim scored on a single through the right-side of the infield by next batter Jin-Hyuk Jang.
Thereafter, Jung-Hyun Park drove the ball into deep leftfield over leftfielder Zander Wiel, who was one of the players who made his National Team-debut.
The ball hit the top of the fence, but initially, the 3B Umpire gave the signal for a homerun.
That call was reversed, but Jang scored the third run in the inning on Park's double.
Huijer was relieved by Mike Bolsenbroek, who threw the third and fourth inning.
The righthander, who pitches in the German 1.Bundesliga for many seasons now, retired the side in the third (one strikeout).
In the fourth, he gave up two basehits, but no runs.
The Orange-offense was silenced in the first four innings by Dong-Ju Moon and Ji-Min Nam, who both threw two innings.
Hardthrowing Moon retired the side in the first inning, striking out Didi Gregorius and Wladimir Balentien.
In the second inning, Roger Bernadina led off with a line drive, but that was caught in rightfield.
Moon again retired the side, as did his successor Nam in the third inning.
The Netherlands got its first baserunners in the bottom of the fourth.
Andrelton Simmons led off with a single and with two outs, Roger Bernadina walked, but a flyout ended the at bat.
...Denzel Richardson had one of the...
...four Orange-basehits today...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Hanwha Eagles added its fourth run in the top of the fifth off of Dennis Burgersdijk, one of the three added pitchers to the roster for the Arizona training-camp.
Lead-off hitter Jung-Hyun Park reached second base on a throwing error by Dwayne Kemp, who had just entered the game as new third baseman, replacing Andrelton Simmons.
Shortly thereafter, Park scored on a single by Eun-Won Jung.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Netherlands got one run back off of new pitcher Seung-Ju Han.
Josh Palacios, who also made his Orange-debut today, led off with a single.
Han then struckout Zander Wiel and Sicnarf Loopstok, but enabled Palacios to move into scoring position via a wild pitch.
He then scored on a single by John Polonius.
This would remain the lone run in today's game for the Netherlands.
After giving the unearned run in the fifth inning, Burgersdijk retired the side in the sixth inning.
In the sixth Dutch at bat, pinch-hitter Denzel Richardson led off with a double, but the next three batters were retired, including strikeouts for Wladimir Balentien and Ray-Patrick Didder.
Kevin Kelly became the fourth Orange-pitcher in the seventh inning and he got runners at second and third base.
Also, Yurdion Martie took over the catching and also made his National Team-debut.
Last season, Martie played in the Dutch big league for RCH Memorie Sieraden.
This year, he will play for Twins Oosterhout.
With one out, Hyun-Bin Moon reached base when Dwayne Kemp made another error.
With two outs, Sang-Bin Yoo walked.
The two executed a double-steal, but a grounder then ended the at bat.
The Netherlands got another baserunner in the bottom of the seventh off of new pitcher Jae-Young Kim.
With one out, pinch-hitter Ademar Rifaela walked, but he was eliminated when Yurdion Martie grounded into a double play.
Kevin Kelly retired the side in the eighth inning, as did Arij Fransen in the ninth.
Fransen, who also was added to the team, struckout the first two batters he faced, then caught a comeback line drive.
The Netherlands was retired in order in the eighth and ninth inning by two relievers.
The following players came into action for the Netherlands:
Andrelton Simmons (3B, 1-for-2), Dwayne Kemp (3B, 0-for-2), Didi Gregorius (1B, 0-for-2), Denzel Richardson (PH/1B, 1-for-2), Wladimir Balentien (DH, 0-for-4), Roger Bernadina (CF, 0-for-1), Jiandido Tromp (CF, 0-for-2), Ray-Patrick Didder (SS, 0-for-3), Josh Palacios (RF, 1-for-3), Zander Wiel (LF, 0-for-2), Ademar Rifaela (PH/LF, 0-for-0), Sicnarf Loopstok (C, 0-for-2), Yurdion Martie (C, 0-for-2), John Polonius (2B, 1-for-3) and pitchers Lars Huijer, Mike Bolsenbroek, Dennis Burgersdijk, Kevin Kelly and Arij Fransen.
(February 19)
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Josh Palacios, Zander Wiel and Yurdion Martie make their debut in the Netherlands National Team.