(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Dutch big league-season opens with productive Opening Night
Nederlands
    AMSTERDAM / OOSTERHOUT / VLEUTEN / HAARLEM (Neth.) -
The 103rd season in the highest Dutch basebal-league went underway on Thursday-evening (April 11) with four games.
And it was a very productive Opening Night with a lot of runs, a lot of basehits and two big shutous.
Defending champion Amsterdam Pirates won 13-4 at home against HCAW in a game that was halted after eight innings, due to the 10:30 PM curfew-rule.
HCAW avoided a 10-run difference, mercy-rule loss by scoring a run in the seventh inning.
In Oosterhout, Curaçao Neptunus recorded a big 15-0 shutout-win in seven innings against Oosterhout Twins.
RCH-Pinguïns also opened with a convincing shutout, winning 13-0 in seven innings in Vleuten at UVV.
In Haarlem, DSS/Kinheim won 6-1 at home against Worldwide Pharma Logistics Hoofddorp Pioniers.
This game was preceeded by a moment of silence in remembrance of Bert Daniels, who passed away last Sunday.
Bert was the former Public Address Announcer of both DSS and the DSS/Kinheim-combination, as well as being the club-secretary of DSS since 1996.
The 52 runs scored tonight were the most scored by eight teams on an Opening Day since 68 were scored in 2008.
In 2022, 53 runs were scored in only two games (four teams) on Opening Night (two games rained out), including 42 in the game between Amsterdam Pirates and RCH-Pinguïns.
In that memorable game, Pirates led 18-1 after six innings, but RCH-Pinguïns then rallied for 23 runs in the seventh inning and won 24-18.
The 68 basehits tonight were the most in a 4-game Opening Day since 73 were recorded in 2016.
And there was more.
For the first time since 2014, there were two shutouts on Opening Day.
And for the first time since 2017, three teams won with double digits.
And there was another remarkable fact.
For the first time since 2020, all four games could be played.
Last year, all four games rained out.
In 2022, two of the four games were cancelled and in 2021, three of the four games could not be played due to the weather-conditions.
The 15-0 shutout-win by Neptunus was its biggest since winning 21-0 on July 3, 2021 against Storks.
For opponent Oosterhout Twins, this was its biggest shutout-loss since April 30, 2017.
Back then, Twins lost 16-0, also against Neptunus.
The 13-0 shutout-win by RCH-Pinguïns was its biggest since making its comeback in the big league in 2022.
The previous high a 12-0 win last season against Hoofddorp Pioniers.
For UVV, the 13-0 loss was its biggest shutout-loss since May 21, 2016 when it lost 22-0 against Neptunus.
For HCAW, the 13 runs it gave up against Amsterdam Pirates are the most in an Opening Game since giving up 12 runs in the opener of the 2015 season against Neptunus.
Besides the 68 basehits that were recorded tonight, there also were 48 walks issued by 25 pitchers.
HCAW and Oosterhout Twins both inserted five pitchers.
Both quintets walked 12 batters.
The first basehit of the season was recorded at 7:30 PM by Brendly Martina, who led off for HCAW in the top of the first inning against Amsterdam Pirates with a single off of Scott Prins.
At 7:37 PM, Dwayne Kemp of Neptunus scored the first run of the 2024 season.
He singled with one out in the top of the first inning (just after Martina) off of Simon Gross and later scored on a single by Arthur Bonevacia, who with that had the first RBI.
Two minutes later, at 7:39 PM, Dwayne's brother Urving Kemp of Amsterdam Pirates hit the first homerun.
In the bottom of the first inning, Tommy van de Sanden led off for Pirates and hit a triple on the first pitch thrown by Sedley Karel.
On his next delivery, Kemp homered.
In tonight's game, Amsterdam Pirates took an early 2-0 lead, thanks to Urving Kemp's homerun.
The team added four runs in the second inning and also scored four in the sixth inning.
Pirates collected 15 basehits, including four by Oliver van der Wijst Severino.
The highlight for HCAW was a 3-run double by Shurman Marlin in the third inning.
Neptunus scored five runs in both the third and seventh inning against Oosterhout Twins.
The team collected ten basehits.
Twins had only four, two of them by debuting rookie Wijnand Ruben.
RCH-Pinguïns led 5-0 when it rallied for six runs in the sixth inning.
The team produced 12 basehits, four of them off of starter and former teammate Mike van den Berg.
Aldrich Guzman homered for the Heemstede-team.
UVV had only two basehits off of three pitchers.
RCH-Pinguïns-starter Rik Jalvingh gave up his first (and lone) basehit with one out in the fifth inning.
For Jalvingh, this was his first big league-game and his first appearance in the highest league since 2021 when he pitched in 10 games as reliever for Quick Amersfoort.
DSS/Kinheim took an early lead against Hoofddorp Pioniers by scoring three runs in the first inning.
The team got a strong outing from starter Rick Rizvić, who struckout ten batters and gave up only three hits in five innings.
Mathijs Oosterbeek then completed the game and earned a 4-inning save.
More detailed and expanded recaps will be added later.
(April 11)<,br>
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Opening Night 2024 Season.