(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Pioniers, Quick meet in Men Softball Final
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
Defending champion Hoofddorp Pioniers and BioSilk Quick Amersfoort will meet each other this year in the best-of-three Men Softball Holland Series.
The entire series will be played coming weekend at the site of TIW-Survivors in Diemen.
The series opens on Saturday, October 17 with a double-header, with the first game beginning at 12:00 PM.
If needed, the third game will be played on Sunday, also starting at 12:00 PM.
Both Hoofddorp Pioniers and Quick Amersfoort played in the First Division B-pool this season.
Last weekend, they eliminated the two teams coming from the First Division A-pool in the semi-finals.
In the regular season, Storks won the 5-team A-pool with a 14-2 record, followed by Adegeest, which was 11-5.
In the 10-team B-pool, Quick Amersfoort finished in in first place with a 16-1 record and one tie, followed by Hoofddorp Pioniers, which was 15-2.
Pioniers played one game less, as one of its games against Thamen rained out and will not be re-scheduled again.
There is one game remaining in this league, which is a game between DVH and Almere '90, scheduled to be played on Friday-evening (October 16).
DVH is tied for seventh place, while Almere '90 is in tenth and last place.
Last weekend, both Pioniers and Quick swept their best-of-three Play-Off series.
Quick outscored Adegeest 7-1 at Voorschoten on Saturday, then added a convincingly 14-0 shutout on Sunday at home in Amersfpoort.
Pioniers opened on Saturday at home in Hoofddorp with a big 13-7 win vs. Storks, then won 12-8 the next day at The Hague.
In the regular season, Quick and Pioniers met each other towards the end.
On Wednesday, September 9, Quick Amersfoort won the first meeting with a 9-5 score at home.
Two days later, it was Hoofddorp Pioniers that won its home game with a 3-2 score.
In August of this year, both teams participated in the Super Cup Tournament, which was held in Czech capital Prague.
Hoofddorp Pioniers finished in second place in the final standings for the ESF Cup, while Quick Amersfoort finished in fifth place.
In the final of that event, Pioniers lost 8-6 to Magos de Tenerife of Spain.
A year ago, the roles were reversed in the final for the ESF Cup.
Back then, it was Pioniers that defeated Magos 6-5 in an exciting 10-inning final to win the ESF Cup, which was part of the Super Cup Tournament then held in Amstelveen (Netherlands).
Quick Amersfoort also participated last year and then finished in fourth place in the ESF Cup-pool.
Last season, Pioniers and Quick Amersfoort also were the top-2 teams in their pool.
However, Pioniers then finished in first place, while Nieuwegein Diamonds then won the other pool.
There were no Play-Offs and thus the two pool-winners then met in a best-of-three final.
Pioniers swept Nieuwegein, winning 7-4 and 11-6 to capture the Dutch championship-title.
(October 15)
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