(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Starting Pitchers coming series
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
On Thursday-evening (June 13), the next 3-game series opens in the Dutch big league, followed by games coming Saturday and Sunday.
This will be the first series in the second half of the regular season.
In this second half, the four best teams will continue in the Top-4 Pool, the others in the Bottom-5 Pool.
When the second half opens on Thursday, the teams will begin with the half of the total of points they earned in the first half (a team gets two points for a win, one for a tie, none for a loss).
The final decision in the first fell last Thursday in the opener between HCAW and DSS/Kinheim in Bussum.
Two days earlier, RCH-Pinguïns recorded a surprise win in a make-up game against HCAW to end up in a tie with DSS/Kinheim for fourth place.
In case RCH-Pinguïns had lost, DSS/Kinheim would have finished in fourth place.
In the final series, RCH-Pinguïns had no games scheduled, while DSS/Kinheim faced HCAW.
In case DSS/Kinheim would have lost this series, RCH-Pinguïns would have advanced to the Top-4 Pool.
When the two teams would have finished in a tie for fourth place, the first tie-breaker was to be the head-to-head results.
However, in their 3-game series, both teams won once, while the third game ended in a tie, which was the lone tied game this season before Thursday.
As the first tie-break rule would have created another tie, the second tie-break rule would come into effect.
In this rule, the team with the Best Run Average is awarded the higher place.
The Run Average is determined by dividing the Runs Scored by the Runs Against in their head-to-head series.
This would have been in favor of RCH-Pinguïns, which finished in fourth place last season.
And so, DSS/Kinheim needed one point to qualify for the Top-4 Pool.
And that's exactly what the team did in the opener, as the game ended in a 6-6 tie.
Due to the curfew-rule, the game ended after eight complete innings.
The game could have gone nine innings, however, after five innings, there was a 33-minute delay due to the bright setting sun.
This resulted in a sun-delay for which the home-site of HCAW is famous.
In the second game on Saturday, DSS/Kinheim underscored that it earned fourth place.
At home, the team led 3-1 after seven innings.
HCAW then came alongside in the eighth after a close call at first base didn't result in the third out.
But in the bottom of the ninth, DSS/Kinheim won the game, thanks to a walk-off homerun by Ibrahin Redan.
And so, DSS/Kinheim now will play for the first time in the Top-4 Pool.
After the 2019 season, the team was created thanks to a cooperation between Kinheim and DSS.
The team plays in the highest league since 2020.
The opening-series of the Top-4 Pool will be the same as the final series of the first half.
In that series, Amsterdam Pirates ended the winning streak of Curaçao Neptunus, which had won all 21 games played since the start of the season, which is the longest such streak to open a season.
In the series-opener in Rotterdam, Pirates won 3-1 to end the streak.
The 21-game winning streak was the longest in the highest league since Amsterdam Pirates won 22 consecutive games in 2018 (after having lost the season-opener).
The record for most wins in a row is 23, set by Neptunus in 2010.
In the second game, at home in Amsterdam, Pirates trailed 8-4 halfway the sixth, but came back, turned the game around and won 10-9 on a walk-off triple by Oliver van der Wijst Severino in the bottom of the ninth.
On Sunday, in Rotterdam, Neptunus won 6-2.
Before that game, the uniform-number (#5) of longtime Neptunus-player Jeroen Sluijter was officially retired.
In the Bottom-5 Pool, Oosterhout Twins has no games scheduled in the opening-series.
UVV and Worldwide Pharma Logistics Hoofddorp Pioniers also met in the last series of the first half.
In the second game on Saturday in Vleuten, UVV recorded the highest total of runs by a team in a game by winning 26-8.
Six days earlier, DSS/Kinheim recorded 25 runs against Quick Amersfoort.
The most runs scored by one team in a game since the introduction of the Dutch Major League in 1958 is 28.
This was realized by HCAW in 1998.
Beneath are the announced probable starting pitchers for the tenth 3-game series of the 2024 season that opens on Thursday-evening, June 13.
As always, these pitching assignments can change on game-days.
Listed between the first parentheses is the record in the second half, listed in the second pair of parentheses is the record in the first half of the season.
(June 12, 14)
Scores, Schedule and Standings
Rosters
Live play-by-play & live-streams
| TOP-4 POOL |
| Roster | CURAÇAO NEPTUNUS (0-0) (22-2) | vs. |
AMSTERDAM PIRATES (0-0) (19-5) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Neptunus | G | # | Starting Pitchers Pirates |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 37 | RHP Tom de Blok (4-1) | 1 | 54 | LHP Nelmerson Angela (3-1) | Th. June 13, 7:30 PM, Rotterdam (1) |
| 39 | RHP Shairon Martis (6-0) | 2 | 25 | RHP Pim Vijfvinkel (2-1) | Sa. June 15, 2:00 PM, Amsterdam (2) |
| 28 | RHP Juan Carlos Sulbaran (6-0) | 3 | 3 | RHP Martijn Schoonderwoerd (4-2) | Su. June 16, 2:00 PM, Rotterdam (1) |
| (1) - Neptunus Familiestadion, Sportpark Abraham van Stolkweg, Rotterdam; (2) - Loek Loevendie Ballpark, Sportpark 'Ookmeer', Amsterdam |
| TOP-4 POOL |
| Roster | HCAW (0-0) (16-7-1) | vs. |
DSS/KINHEIM (0-0) (12-10-2) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers HCAW | G | # | Starting Pitchers DSS/Kinheim |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 16 | RHP Kaj Timmermans (5-0) | 1 | 39 | LHP Rick Rizvić (3-2) | Th. June 13, 7:30 PM, Bussum (3) |
| 39 | RHP Lars Huijer (6-1) | 2 | 58 | LHP Jasper Elfrink (3-2) | Sa. June 15, 2:00 PM, Haarlem (4) |
| 7 | RHP Dennis Burgersdijk (3-0) | 3 | 30 | RHP Rick Timmermans (0-0) | Su. June 16, 2:00 PM, Bussum (3) |
| (3) - Rob Hoffmann Vallei, Sportpark 'De Sportvallei', Bussum; (4) - Pim Mulier Stadion, Pim Mulier Sportpark, Haarlem |
| BOTTOM-5 POOL |
| Roster | RCH-PINGUÏNS (0-0) (11-12-1) | vs. |
QUICK AMERSFOORT (0-0) (0-24) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers RCH-Pinguïns | G | # | Starting Pitchers Quick |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 44 | LHP Rik Jalvingh (1-2) | 1 | 52 | LHP Jhan Rifaela (0-8) | Th. June 13, 7:30 PM, Heemstede (5) |
| 29 | RHP T'sean Martina (1-2) | 2 | | to be announced | Sa. June 15, 2:00 PM, Amersfoort (6) |
| 35 | LHP Lucca van der Schouw (1-2) | 3 | | to be announced | Su. June 16, 3:00 PM, Heemstede (5) |
| (5) - Heemsteedse Sportparken, Heemstede; (6) - SportPark 'Dorrestein', Amersfoort |
| BOTTOM-5 POOL |
| Roster | UVV (0-0) (10-13-1) | vs. |
WORLDWIDE PHARMA LOGISTICS HOOFDDORP PIONIERS (0-0) (4-19-1) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers UVV | G | # | Starting Pitchers Pioniers |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 35 | RHP Mike van den Berg (3-2) | 1 | 4 | LHP Maxwell Cornelissen (0-1) | Th. June 13, 7:30 PM, Vleuten (7) |
| 13 | RHP Jurjen van Zijl (4-3) | 2 | 22 | RHP Just van den Ouweelen (1-4) | Sa. June 15, 2:00 PM, Hoofddorp (8) |
| 25 | LHP Colin van Laar (1-2) | 3 | 98 | RHP Arjen Nijkamp (1-4) | Su. June 16, 2:00 PM, Vleuten (7) |
| (7) - Sportpark 'De Paperclip', Vleuten; (8) - ETO Ballpark, Sport Park 21, Hoofddorp |
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