(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Robert Bos)
    Neptunus & Parma in Final Baseball Champions League Final Four
Nederlands
 BRNO (Czechia) -
Curaçao Neptunus will play in the Championship Game of the inaugural edition of the Baseball Champions League Europe.
On Saturday-evening (September 26), Neptunus recorded a convincing 10-0 mercy-rule win (one-hitter) in the Semi-Final against Draci Brno (Czechia), which is the host of the Final Four-weekend.
A dominating Koen Postelmans was supported with nine hits, including three doubles, and Dwayne Kemp batted in three runs.
In the Final on Sunday-evening, Neptunus will meet 1949 ParmaClima BC (Italy), which nipped Marlins de Puerto Cruz Tenerife (Spain) 5-4 in the first Semi-Final on Saturday-afternoon.
Tenerife Marlins and Draci Brno will play in the Bronze Medal Game on Sunday-afternoon.
In May, the Final Four Qualifiers were played in Rotterdam (Netherlands) and Regensburg (Germany).
In those 3-day events, Neptunus and Parma also were the winners.
In Rotterdam, home-playing Curaçao Neptunus remained undefeated, winning against Tenerife Marlins (15-8), Heidenheim Heideköpfe (Germany, 6-0) and Nettuno BC 1945 (Italy, 3-0).
Tenerife finished in second place to also advance to the Final Four.
In Regensburg, ParmaClima won its three games against Draci Brno (12-2), Oosterhout Twins (Netherlands, 6-2) and Guggenberger Legionäre Regensburg (Germany, 18-5).
Draci Brno became the second team to qualify for the Final Round.
Shortly after the Qualifiers, the organization of the Baseball Champions League Europe Final Four was awarded to Draci Brno, the most successful Czech team.
In Brno-jih-Komárov, the games are played in the Městský baseballový stadion in the Komarov district in Brno and the home-stadium of Draci Brno.
Neptunus struck early against Brno.
After starter Koen Postelmans had retired the side in the top of the first inning (two strikeouts), his teammates rallied for five runs in the home-half of the at bat to decide the game early.
Lead-off hitter Marnix Ruben reached second base on an error, then moved to third on a following grounder Tyriq Kemp, who made his first appearance of the season in the Neptunus-team.
This year, Kemp played in his second professional Minor League-season in the Kansas City Royals-organization.
Kemp was signed in July 2025 and then appeared in 16 games in Single-A.
This season, the infielder played in 114 games for Quad Cities River Bandits (High Single-A) and finished his first full professional season (which ended September 5) with a .230 batting average (87-for-378) with 13 homeruns, 55 RBI's, 64 runs scored and 33 stolen bases.
In April, Kemp played in one Spring Training-game for Kansas City and was 0-for-2, but batted in one run.
With one out, five consecutive basehits were recorded.
First, Ruben scored the first run on a single by Stijn van der Meer, then Christian Diaz also singled and veteran Dwayne Kemp (who is always productive with runners on base) and Darryl Collins followed with runscoring singles.
Hereafter, Junior Martina added a 2-run double.
Martina began the 2026 season on the roster of Amsterdam Pirates, but didn't play for the team.
Instead, in May-June, he played in 12 games (15-for-48, .313) for Unipol Bologna in the Italian Serie A.
Martina also played for Bologna in 2024 and 2025.
In half July, Martina briefly was on the roster of Neptunus, but was removed again after a few days, as he was not eligible to play for the Rotterdam-team, due to his earlier membership of Pirates.
In the second inning, Postelmans got three flyouts, then was supported two more runs.
Marnix Ruben led off with a walk and Tyriq Kemp reached on an error.
They advanced on a sac-bunt by Stijn van der Meer and both scored on a single by Christian Diaz, the Most Valuable Player of both the regular Dutch season and Holland Series.
That lifted the lead to 7-0 and led to a pitching-change.
Starter Aliangel Lopez was relieved by Kender Villegas, who held Neptunus scoreless and hitless in the next 2 2/3 inning and allowed only one batter to reach base.
Both Lopez and Villegas are professional pitchers from Venezuela.
Lopez played in the Minor Leagues for Texas Rangers (2011-2017) and Milwaukee Brewers (2017) and plays in the Venezuelan Winter League since 2016.
He also played in Italy (2019, 2021-2023).
Villegas played in the Minors for St. Louis Cardinals (2010-2015), Milwaukee Brewers (2016) and Toronto Blue Jays (2017)
He plays in the Venezuelan Winter League since 2011 and also has played in Mexico.
In the meantime, Postelmans got his first two baserunners in the third inning.
He began with a walk, but struckout the next two batters.
A wild pitch and walk led to runners at the corners, but Postelmans closed with another strikeout and retired the side again in the fourth and fifth inning.
His No-Hitter ended in the sixth, when he gave up a lead-off single to veteran Jakub Hajtmar.
With one out, Postelmans hit Milan Prokop and with two outs, a wild pitch, then a walk for José Colina loaded the bases.
Postelmans closed by striking out Martin Červinka, his eighth in the game.
...Koen Postelmans dominated for Neptunus...
(© Photo: Robert Bos) |
In the seventh, guest-player Jelle van der Lelie took over the pitching from Postelmans and retired the side.
Van der Lelie, who plays for Amsterdam Pirates, is a so-called pick-up player, an additional player from another club from either the club's own national league or from abroad.
Junior Martina also is a pick-up player.
The pick-up rule is already in use for many years in softball for European Cup Tournaments.
In the fifth inning, Jan Vašourek took over the Brno-pitching.
He initially also silenced the Neptunian offense and retired the first seven batters he faced.
But with one out in the bottom of the seventh, Vašourek gave up a double to Tyriq Kemp and walked Stijn van der Meer.
Vašourek followed by striking out Christian Diaz.
But with two outs, he was replaced by Filip Čapka.
Moments later, the game ended via the mercy-rule, as Neptunus staged a 2-out, 3-run rally.
First, Čapka gave up a 2-run double to Dwayne Kemp, then a walk-off, RBI-single to Darryl Collins, as his hit made it a 10-0 score.
In the afternoon, Dominican Edison Valerio hit three solo-homeruns for Tenerife Marlins against ParmaClima.
His first two homeruns gave Tenerife the lead in the first (1-0) and third (3-2) inning.
His third homerun in the eighth narrowed the lead of Parma to 5-4.
Trailing 1-0, Parma took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first when Venezuelan Anthony Concepcion Hernandez hit a 2-run homerun.
This season, Concepcion played for Hotsand Macerata Angels in the Italian Serie A.
Tenerife came alongside in the second on a single by Dominican Edgar Rondon Del Rosario, then re-took the on Valerio's second homerun.
Parma tied the score (3-3) in the sixth when Cuban Noel González homered and scored twice in the next at bat on a 2-run single by Venezuelan Ericson Leonora.
The first edition of the BCL Europe follows the launch of the BCL in 2023.
,,The BCL is a new concept for baseball, it's an international tournament of champions with teams around the world representing their club, their city and their fans on the world stage'', said WBSC-President Riccardo Fraccari on the website of the World Baseball Softball Confederation.
The first BCL Americas (in September 2023) was won by Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks (USA).
This tournament served as a model for what the WBSC planned for other continents and leagues in the future as part of a global Baseball Champions League.
In 2025, there was a six-team BCL Americas-edition, won by Diablos Rojos (Mexico).
In March of this year, the Mexican Baseball League and Diablos Rojos hosted a five-team Baseball Champions League in Mexico City, which featured four teams from the Americas and CTBC Brothers from Taiwan.
This tournament was won by Kane County Cougars (USA).
(September 26)
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Semi-Final 2 Baseball Champions League Europe Final Four 2026.