(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Starting Pitchers Opening Series
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
It's time for a new season, it's time for Opening Night and Opening Weekend is around the corner.
And with that, it's time again for the announcement of the (probable) Opening Series Starting Pitchers.
As always, Grand Slam * Stats & News will publish the starting pitchers for a new 3-games series again on Wednesday.
This season, there are seven teams in the highest league, as RCH-Pinguïns withdrew after last season and now will play in the First Division this year.
In the Opening Series of the 105th season in the highest Dutch baseball-league, reigning champion Curaçao Neptunus meets Oosterhout Twins.
In the previous two seasons, the two teams also faced each other in the Opening Series.
Last season, in the best-of-seven Holland Series, Neptunus defeated HCAW 4-2 to capture its 21st Championship-title.
As in each season, there are several new faces and names amongst the players, coaches and staff-members of the seven big league-teams.
This season, two teams have a new Head Coach, who both will make their big league-debut in this role.
Chad Abernathy is the new Head Coach of UVV and René Baltus will lead HCAW for the first time.
Last season, Baltus was HCAW's 1B Coach in the staff of then-Head Coach Gino Henson.
Returning Head Coaches are Mervin Gario (Amsterdam Pirates), Milan Lammerts (Kinheim), Greg Muller (Neptunus) and Robert Ushy (Oosterhout Twins).
Worldwide Pharma Logistics Hoofddorp Pioniers will work this season without a Head Coach.
Pioniers has no games scheduled in the upcoming Opening Series.
The playing-format will be different this season.
In the past seasons, the games in the 3-game series were played on Thursday-evening, Saturday-afternoon and Sunday-afternoon.
Friday-evening, Monday-evening and Tuesday-evening were generally used for make-up games.
This season, the 3-game series still will open with a game on Thursday-evening.
The second and third games now will be played in a double-header on Saturday.
The first game will begin at 12 PM, the second game begins at 2:30 PM.
Make-up games will only be scheduled on Tuesday-evening.
As of now, Sunday-afternoon, Friday-evening and Monday-evening will not be used for big league-games.
Not using these days of course can be tricky and could lead to re-scheduling (available dates) problems of make-up games in case of multiple cancellations.
The double-header has a peculiar format.
Game 1 will be a 7-inning game and Game 2 will be a 9-inning game.
However, when Game 1 is tied after 7 innings, that game will become the 9-inning game to be followed by the tie-break formula from the 10th inning on in case of a tie.
In this scenario, Game 2 will become the 7-inning game to be followed by the tie-break from the 8th inning on in case of a tie.
Both games of the double-header will have separate 2-man umpire-crews.
In most double-headers, two official scorers will be assigned, but they will change positions after Game 1, switching from lead-scorer to play-by-play scorer (data entry) duties.
The new schedule set-up was created after discussions between the Competition Affairs section of the KNBSB and the Players Council of the highest league.
With the Opening Series approaching, it's time for the coaches to set their rotations.
Beneath are the announced starting pitchers for the first 3-game series of the new 2026 season that opens on Thursday-evening, April 9.
As always, these pitching assignments can change on game-days.
(April 8)
Rosters
Live play-by-play & live-streams
| Roster | OOSTERHOUT TWINS (0-0) | vs. |
CURAÇAO NEPTUNUS (0-0) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Twins | G | # | Starting Pitchers Neptunus |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 21 | RHP Jurgen Zwitzer (0-0) | 1 | 39 | RHP Shairon Martis (0-0) | Th. April 9, 7:30 PM, Oosterhout (1) |
| | LHP Nelmerson Angela (0-0) | 2 | 88 | RHP Juan Carlos Sulbarán (0-0) | Sa. April 11, 12:00 PM, Rotterdam (2) |
| 19 | RHP Misja Harcksen (0-0) | 3 | 30 | RHP Koen Postelmans (0-0) | Sa. April 11, 2:30 PM, Rotterdam (2) |
| (1) - Sportpark 'De Slotbosse Toren', Oosterhout; (2) - Neptunus Familiestadion, Sportpark Abraham van Stolkweg, Rotterdam |
| Roster | HCAW (0-0) | vs. |
UVV (0-0) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers HCAW | G | # | Starting Pitchers UVV |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 16 | RHP Kaj Timmermans (0-0) | 1 | 11 | LHP Aaron Isenia (0-0) | Th. April 9, 7:30 PM, Bussum (3) |
| 74 | RHP Kimi Verkruijssen (0-0) | 2 | 13 | RHP Jurjen van Zijl (0-0) | Sa. April 11, 12:00 PM, Vleuten (4) |
| 21 | LHP Maxwell Cornelissen (0-0) | 3 | 15 | RHP Jack Wagner (0-0) | Sa. April 11, 2:30 PM, Vleuten (4) |
| (3) - Rob Hoffmann Vallei, Sportpark 'De Sportvallei', Bussum; (4) - Sportpark 'De Paperclip', Vleuten |
| Roster | AMSTERDAM PIRATES (0-0) | vs. |
KINHEIM (0-0) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Pirates | G | # | Starting Pitchers Kinheim |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 3 | RHP Martijn Schoonderwoerd (0-0) | 1 | 55 | LHP Rick Rizvić (0-0) | Th. April 9, 7:30 PM, Amsterdam (5) |
| 39 | RHP Lars Huijer (0-0) | 2 | 13 | RHP Noah Zavolas (0-0) | Sa. April 11, 12:00 PM, Haarlem (6) |
| 7 | RHP Dennis Burgersdijk (0-0) | 3 | 34 | RHP Daniel Vos (0-0) | Sa. April 11, 2:30 PM, Haarlem (6) |
| (5) - Loek Loevendie Ballpark, Sportpark 'Ookmeer', Amsterdam; (6) - Pim Mulier Stadium, Pim Mulier Sportpark, Haarlem |
|
