(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
  Dutch Men in Top-6 Pool European Championship
Nederlands
 MONTEGRANARO (Italy) -
The Netherlands Men Softball Team has reached the Top-6 Pool of the European Men Softball Championship, which is currently underway in Italy and opened last Monday.
The event takes place in beautiful Montegranaro, where also two Women Softball European Cup-tournaments have been hosted in the past three years.
The Orange-men opened the preliminary round of the event in Pool B, but didn't do that well, losing two of its four games.
Despite that, the team finished in third place to qualify for the Top-6 Pool, which is the pool that will decide the championship.
Two years ago, the Netherlands won the bronze medal on the previous European Championship.
The Dutch Team opened on Monday with a big 11-1 win against Germany.
The team scored five runs in the first and four in the third at bat.
There were eight Orange basehits, including three by Eldrick Dijkhoff and two by Jeff Delfina.
Both also homered.
Pitchers Niek Nieuwenhuizen and Kevin Christiani combined on a No-Hitter.
On Tuesday, the Dutch Team lost 7-2 to the Czech Republic, which is the reigning European champion.
The Czechs broke an 1-1 tie in the fourth inning and from there took more distance.
In this game, Dijkhoff registered two hits, as did Randy Reiph.
On Wednesday, the Dutch Team suffered a 6-3 loss against Belgium>
The Orange led 3-1 after three innings, but Belgium then rallied for four runs in the fourth at bat.
The Dutch Team produced only two basehits, one of them being hit again by Dijkhoff, the other by Anthony Beaumont.
On Wednesday-evening, the Orange squad registered a convincing 12-4 victory against Italy in what was a must-win game to secure its spot in the Championship Pool.
The Dutch Team rallied for nine runs in the first inning.
In this game, Eldrick Dijkhoff again was productive, as he hit three of the eleven Dutch hits.
Anthony Beaumont homered.
On Thursday (July 14), the Dutch Team played its first two games in the Championship Pool, winning one and losing one.
First, the Dutch played a strong game against Denmark, which was decided in the tenth inning!
The Dutch Team took a 3-1 lead in the first inning on a 3-run homerun by Eldrick Dijkhoff, but Denmark came alongside by scoring in the third and sixth at bat.
With a 3-3 score, the game went into extra innings.
Denmark then appeared to take a decisive lead in the eighth inning by scoring three runs.
However, the Orange came alongside in its eighth thanks to a double by Eldrick Dijkhoff and singles by Revin Brooks and Randy Lo-A-Tjong.
Denmark then did decide the game by scoring four runs in the top of the tenth inning.
This time, the Dutch Team responded with only one run and lost 10-7, despite outhitting Denmark 10-8.
In this game, Dijkhoff added four more basehits, including two doubles and a homerun, while batting in four runs.
Later on Thursday, the Dutch Team shutout Israel 10-0 on nine basehits, including two by Anthony Hosé.
In this game, Dijkhoff produced only one basehit, but he scored twice and batted in one run.
As the Czechs and Belgians also qualified for this Pool, the Dutch Team opened with an 0-2 record and is now 1-3.
The Orange squad closes the Championship Pool on Friday with an early morning game against Great Britain.
This is a must-win for the Dutch.
A win means the team will finish in fourth place and then will face the number three of this pool in the first semi-final.
The winner of that game moves to the backdoor-final.
A loss against the British means the Dutch will play for fifth and sixth place on Saturday.
(July 14)
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