Baseball
	European Championships 2005

Compiled and Copyright © 1997-2005 by Marco Stoovelaar

Dutch shutout Czech in final opener
Nederlands | Box Score | Play-by-Play
PRAGUE (Czech Republic) - The Dutch team opened the final phase of the European Championships on Thursday-evening with a 3-0 shutout vs. host Czech Republic.
In other final round games, Italy won big vs. France, 11-1 and Spain also remained unbeaten by winning 10-2 vs. Germany.
The Dutch team scored twice in the third inning and added a run in the fourth. Both the Dutch and Czech had six hits.
Dutch starter Rob Cordemans struckout seven and was helped by a triple play in the seventh inning.
Dutch DH Percy Isenia played in his 100th official game for the national team.

In the first and second inning, the Dutch reached base, but two Czech double plays ended the at bats. In the third, Evert-Jan 't Hoen and Danny Rombley singled with one out. Both stole second base and were at second and third when Michael Duursma singled in a run. Next, the second run was scored on a fielder's choice grounder by Harvey Monte.

In the fourth inning, Sidney de Jong led off with a walk, which led to a pitching change. The bases were loaded when Percy Isenia and Raily Legito singled, but only one run was added when Dirk van 't Klooster reached on an error. Evert-Jan 't Hoen's grounder to third then resulted in a force play at home, followed by a double play.
In the next three innings, the Dutch reached base only two times (both on a walk), but no more runs were added.

Dutch starter Rob Cordemans dominated. He struckout seven and gave up only six hits. But in the seventh inning, the Czech were close to a run. Michan Bren and Jan Drábek led off with singles. Karel Hrusovský then hit the ball (hit-and-run) towards first baseman Evert-Jan 't Hoen, who started a triple play. He caught Hrusovsky's fly, stepped on first to eliminate Drábek and threw the ball to short stop Raily Legito to complete the triple play. Bren was so far off base, that 't Hoen even might have a chance to eliminate himself on second base and register an unassisted triple play. A triple play in the Dutch team is so uncommon, that no one could remember the last time it had happened.

The Czech team reached third base only once and that happened in the ninth inning off of Dave Draijer, who relieved Gregory Gustina with a 1 ball, 0 strikes count. Gustina had come on the previous inning to replace Cordemans. In the ninth, Michal Müller was hit by a pitch, advanced on a grounder and a wild pitch, but was left there when Draijer struckout Michal Bren to end the game.
(July 14)