(Story & Photo by Marco Stoovelaar)
 First exhibition-activities by Dutch big league-teams
Nederlands
 HOOFDDORP (Neth.) -
Last weekend (April 3-4), most of the eight teams in the Dutch Major League Baseball came into action to prepare for the start of the new season, but only one of them faced an opposing team.
...The first exhibition games of the 2021 season...
...were played at the site of Hoofddorp Pioniers...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Hoofddorp Pioniers played an exhibition game on both Saturday and Sunday against its second team, which was done in full correspondence with all protocols and measures against the coronavirus (COVID-19).
The main-squad won 12-4 on Saturday and 8-4 on Sunday.
Both games were used not only to create game-situations, but also to get more time to practice as a team.
During the games, the players switched between both teams.
Reigning champion L&D Amsterdam Pirates played an intersquad game on Saturday, as did Curaçao Neptunus on both Saturday and Sunday.
DSS/Kinheim and Quick Amersfoort both played intersquad games on Sunday.
HCAW, Silicon Storks and Twins Oosterhout conducted practice sessions.
Last season, the best-of-seven Holland Series between Amsterdam Pirates and Neptunus was halted after the first two games due to stricter corona-measures.
Those games were both won by Amsterdam Pirates.
A few days later, it was announced that there will be no champion for the 2020 season.
That means that Amsterdam Pirates still will be the reigning champion this year.
In 2019, the team lost its first three games in the Championship Finala against Neptunus, but then wrote history by becoming the first team to win the next four games to turn the Holland Series around and capture the title.
Coming weekend (April 10-11), six exhibition games will be played.
Originally, these games were regular season-games, but when the start was postponed, the games were change into exhibition games.
The regular season-games will be played on another date.
L&D Amsterdam Pirates will play against Twins Oosterhout, Saturday at home and Sunday in Oosterhout.
Quick Amersfoort will play at home on Saturday against Hoofddorp Pioniers, which will be the host on Sunday.
Silicon Storks and DSS/Kinheim will play against each other on Saturday in The Hague and on Sunday in Haarlem.
All games will begin at 2 PM, except the home-game at Pioniers, which begins at 1 PM.
Curaçao Neptunus and HCAW will play intersquad-games coming weekend.
Last weekend, the 39th edition of the annual In Memoriam Charles Urbanus, Sr. Tournament was scheduled to be played at the site of HCAW in Bussum, but that was cancelled.
The games have been re-scheduled for April 22, 24 and 25, but will not be played on one site, as tournaments are not allowed yet.
Instead, all teams will now play a game at their home-site.
Six of the eight teams in the Women's Softball Major League also will play their first exhibition games coming Saturday (April 10).
Hoofddorp Pioniers then will play a double-header at home against reigning champion Roef!.
Quick Amersfoort hosts Sparks Haarlem for a double-header.
In Haarlem, Onze Gezellen is the home-team in a double-header against Olympia Haarlem.
In the highest league, Onze Gezellen takes the place of Terrasvogels, which merged with the club after last season.
The first two double-headers begin at 1 PM, the Haarlem double-header begins at 3 PM.
Amsterdam Pirates and Tex Town Tigers will not play yet.
Last weekend, the 37th annual international J.C.J. Mastenbroek Tournament (baseball and softball) was scheduled at the site of Tex Town Tigers, but the club cancelled the event on February 17.
Coming weekend, the 34th edition of the annual international Jan de Wit Tournament (softball) was to be held at the site of Olympia Haarlem, but that has also been cancelled.
Last weekend, it was confirmed by the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB) that the Major League Baseball indeed will open on Thursday, April 29, while the Major League Women's Softball begins on Saturday, May 1.
In the big league-baseball, the schedule has been announced through July 18.
The remainder of the schedule will be accounced after completion of the Final Baseball Olympic Qualifier, which will be held in June in Taiwan.
The Netherlands National Baseball Team is one of the participating teams in this event which will decide the final spot in the baseball-tournament of the Olympic Games, which are scheduled for July in Japan.
(April 5)
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