HCAW took a 3-0 lead in the second inning, but failed to hold onto it. So far in June, HCAW has lost five of its nine games under a new Head Coach, including three of the last four. HCAW ended the month of May with seven consecutive losses, then a tie game, which eventually led to a change in the coaching. Today, HCAW was led for the second time by fill-in Head Coach Roy Berrevoets, as current Head Coach Patrick Vielvoye was unavailable due to work commitments. In today's game, Bas de Jong returned in the outfield, while Ronald Jaarsma was the DH again. Gino Henson also returned in the line-up and played at first base again.

...Roel Koolen... ...4-for-5, Homerun... ...3 Runs, 4 RBI's... (Photo: Marco Stoovelaar)

In the second inning, a lead-off grounder by Bas de Jong ended in an error by 3B Wouter Heemskerk, followed by a single from Nick Makkinje. The bases were loaded when Kinheim-starter Patrick Beljaards made a fielding error on a sac-bunt by Bart Gabriëls. A force play-grounder by Gino Henson then resulted in a putout at seconed base, but De Jong scored the first run. Next, Makkinje scored on a sac-fly by Martijn Meeuwis, who also played again after sitting down two games with an injury. On the fly, Henson moved to third base, then scored when a throwing error followed an infield-hit by Dimitri Leon to make it 3-0.
Kinheim stranded two runners on second base in the first three innings off HCAW-starter Jurjen van Zijl, but then tied the score in the fourth at bat. Dirk van 't Klooster led off with a single, then scored all the way from first base on a double by Tjerk Smeets, who advanced to third base when Edward Illidge followed with a single. Smeets then scored on a single by Roel Koolen. After Illidge was forced out at third base and Wouter Heemskerk flied out, Koolen scored the tying run on a single by Denny Beljaards.
In the sixth inning, Kinheim took a 4-3 lead when Quincy Bernardus singled with one out and scored on a double by Wouter Heemskerk. But in the home sixth, HCAW came alongside immediately. With one out, Bas de Jong singled and scored on a 2-out single by Bart Gabriëls. In the previous two innings, Kinheim-starter Patrick Beljaards saw the lead-off hitter reached base both times, but then was supported twice with a double play.

In the eighth inning, Kinheim scored twice to take a 6-4 lead. Roel Koolen led off with a single, after which Jurjen van Zijl was relieved by rookie Joep de Wit. Koolen advanced on a sac-bunt, but remained at second on a grounder. He then scored when Denny Beljaards drove the ball into centerfield for a triple. De Wit was replaced by Kenny Berkenbosch, who was greeted with an RBI-single by Danny Rombley which made it 6-4.
In the ninth inning, Kinheim continued to hit Berkenbosch well. Tjerk Smeets and Edward Illidge led off with singles, then Roel Koolen followed with a 3-run homerun to increase the lead to 9-4. Koolen was 4-for-5, scored three runs and had four RBI's, making him responsible for six of today's nine runs. Berkenbosch would give up two more hits, but these runners were left behind.

HCAW got two runners on in the eighth inning when new pitcher Jimmy van der Veldt walked Sidney de Jong (with one out) and Nick Makkinje (with two outs), but the inning then ended when Bart Gabriëls grounded out off Duko Jansen, who was brought in as reliever. In the ninth inning, Jansen also was supported with a double play and earned his first save of the season.
Kinheim had 20 basehits today, including not only four by Roel Koolen, but also three by Dirk van 't Klooster and Tjerk Smeets. All nine players in the Kinheim batting order had at least one basehit.
(June 24)

Last Thursday-evening, Sparta/Feyenoord led 5-0 and 6-1, but eventually lost 7-6 vs. Instant Holland Almere '90, which scored the winning runs in the home ninth. Today, Sparta/Feyenoord again led a tough loss. Depite leading only 1-0, that lone run might have been enough. But in the end their opponent turned the game around (again) and won. Sparta/Feyenoord's very small bullpen (pitchers Marcel Aerts and Guy Hermans are out for the season with injuries) forces Head Coach Wim Martinus to go as long as possible with his starter (it leads the league with nine complete games), but it also sometimes results in long innings for some of the pitchers.
This afternoon, Daan Baecke threw seven solid innings. The young righthander, who recently recovered from a back injury, started five game before in which he threw a total of 16 innings. Today's outing was his longest of the season and he gave up only three basehits, while allowing only two runners in scoring position in the first seven successful innings. But he returned in the eighth and there things went wrong. Baecke must have been tiring, as he walked four batters and gave up three hits in this at bat, before he was relieved after delivering 135 pitches.

...Fausto Álvarez... ...game-winning... ...3-run double... (Photo: Marco Stoovelaar)

Sparta/Feyenoord had taken a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning of this game, which was boring for the most part, to be honest. With one out, Jeffrey Sprott walked and stole second base. With two outs, he scored when second baseman Björn Henrichs made a fielding error on a grounder by former teammate Sjoerd Hermans (who played for Pirates in 2004 and 2005).
In the fifth inning, the Rotterdam-club had runners on first and second with one out, but then two flyouts followed. In the sixth, Jeroen Hermans (also a former Pirates) singled and was on third base with two outs, but then Pirate-starter Robert van der Pol struckout Rutger Veugelers to end the inning. In the seventh inning, Raban Schalm took over for Van der Pol and gave up an one-out triple to rookie Dwayne Kemp, but again two flyouts ended this chance.

After having had only six baserunners in the first seven innings, Pirates took command of the game with a 6-run rally in the home eighth. Daan Baecke started with a strikeout for Bas Nooij, but then gave up a double to Derick Francisca in short rightfield. Moments later, he scored the tying run when Roderick Simon singled through the middle and advanced on the throw to home. Tyson Arishenkoff then drilled the ball into deep rightfield for an apparent homerun, but the ball went just foul. It was decided then to walk Arishenkoff intentionally, but a normal walk then followed for Boudewijn van Elswijk. Next, Fausto Álvarez doubled down the rightfield-line to clear the bases and give Pirates a 4-1 lead. Baecke then couldn't regain his control and Home Plate Umpire Henri van Heijningen (who had a good outing behind the plate) couldn't do much else than to judge his pitches as balls, resulting in walks for next batters Ralph Lagas and Kevin Gerard. Hereafter, Baecke was relieved by Rudy Seebus. With the bases loaded, the rookie struckout Mark Kan, but then second baseman Dwayne Kemp made an error on a hard hit ball by Bas Nooij, resulting in two more runs and a 6-1 lead for Pirates. A grounder finally ended the at bat.
In the ninth inning, Sparta/Feyenoord saw pinch-hitter Marwin Kleinmoedig walk with two outs, but then the game ended with a force play. It made a winning pitcher out of Maarten Mulder, who had taken over for Raban Schalm in the previous inning.
(June 24)

...Johnny Balentina... ...600 games... (Photo: Marco Stoovelaar)

After former Neptunian ace Rob Cordemans retired five of the first six batters he faced (the other was caught stealing), the righthander gave up four unearned runs in the third at bat. Cordemans first walked Evert-Jan 't Hoen, who returned to the line-up quicker as expected. Earlier this week, it was reported that he had sustained a hamstring-injury during last weeks European Cup-tournament, but today he played at third base. 't Hoen reached second base when a throwing error was made on a force play-grounder by Jeffrey Arends, after which Cordemans struckout Jeroen Sluijter, who had moved from third base to short stop defensively. A single by next batter Johnny Balentina was then followed by a throwing error from leftfield which gave Neptunus its first run. Next, Arends scored on an infield-hit by Benjamin Dille. Raily Legito then struckout, but another throwing error followed after an infield-hit by Yuji Nerei, which enabled Balentina to score. Moments later, Dille made it 4-0 when he scored on a single by Lennart Koster.

ADO came back immediately by scoring three runs in the fourth inning, which also were all unearned! Shurty Tremus and Harvey Monte led off with singles, then a flyout followed. A force play-grounder by Kalian Sams then seems to end in an out at third base, but there Evert-Jan 't Hoen made an error and the bases were loaded. A single by Berry van Driel resulted in ADO's first run and hereafter a foul-out accounted for the second out in the at bat. But then, a basesloaded walk for James Rutherford and an infield-hit by Maikel Benner gave ADO two more runs and narrowed the deficit to 4-3.

Neptunus reacted with four runs in the home of the fourth with two outs and decided the game there. Jeffrey Arends (double) was on second base with two outs when Johnny Balentina reached on an infield-hit, which was followed by a runscoring throwing error. Balentina stole second and advanced on the sixth throwing error by ADO. He then scored on a single by Benjamin Dille. After Raily Legito walked, Yuji Nerei followed with a 2-run triple to make it 8-3.
In the seventh inning, Neptunus added another run when Raily Legito led off with a homerun off rookie Dennis Burgersdijk, who had just come on in relief of Rob Cordemans.

With Neptunus leading 8-3, things suddenly heated up a little in the top of the fifth inning. In the first four innings, nothing had happened that could have set this up. Whatever the reason, with one out, Harvey Monte was the batter for ADO when two high pitches by Neptunus-starter Gregory Gustina triggered not only an arguement, but even cleared the dug-outs. After the brawl ended, Home Plate Umpire Fred van Groningen Schinkel ejected ADO first baseman Percy Isenia, who was in the on-deck circle, and Neptunus-pitcher Diegomar Markwell (who didn't play in the game), as well as coaches Paul van den Oever (Neptunus) and Mike Crouwel (ADO). When the game resumed, Monte was still batting and reached on a basehit. Michel Korzeniewski, who pinch-hit for the ejected Percy Isenia, also singled, but then a flyout and a strikeout followed.
Moments later, Van Groningen Schinkel had to eject another player in a non-related situation. In the home fifth, Neptunus-leftfielder Jurriaan Korff argued balls and strikes when he got a called strikeout and was ejected by the veteran umpire.
Almost a month ago, on May 27, ADO and Neptunus also were involved in a bench-clearing brawl, resulting in ejections of two players and two coaches.

Neptunus-starter Gregory Gustina threw six innings and struckout three batters. In the sixth, ADO also had two runners on with one out, but again a flyout and a strikeout ended the at bat.
Martijn Nijhoff took over in the seventh inning, threw three innings and earned his third save of the season.
(June 24)

Almere, which had three remarkable comebacks in the last two innings in its last five game to win, tonight was unable to turn the game in its favor against Pioniers. The team from Hoofddorp scored three runs in the first inning and that margin was big enough to hold onto it for the entire game.
Almere tonight again played without regular leftfielder Eugene Kingsale, who returned to the line-up last Thursday-evening after having sitting out last weekend's games with an injury. Kingsale was recovered completely yet and out of precaution he didn't played tonight.

In the opening at bat, Pioniers scored its three runs with two outs off veteran pitcher René Rijst. After two grounders, Glenn Romney and Dè Flanegin singled. An infield-hit by Mark Duursma then resulted in the first run, followed by a 2-run double by Glennsig Polonius.
Pioniers scored its fourth run in the eighth inning. With one out, Michael Duursma reached on an infield-hit, was awarded second base on a balk by reliever Erik Remmerswaal, then scored on a 2-out single by Glenn Romney.
Between the first and the eighth at bat, Pioniers reached base frequently, but stranded ten runners, including seven in scoring position.
In the second inning, the team had runners on first and third with two outs. In the third, a runner was left at second base. In the fourth, Pioniers got its first two batters on base, but a double play and a force play ended the opportunity. In the fifth and sixth inning, again a runner was left at second. In the seventh, the Hoofddorp-squad got the bases loaded with one out, resulting in a pitching change. Erik Remmerswaal took over for starter René Rijst and ended the inning with an infield-fly and a groundout.

Almere had far less scoring opportunities, before scoring their lone run in the ninth inning. In the first inning, Randy Daal led off with a single and stole second base, but stranded there. In the second at bat, Jason Halman singled with one out. But then Ferd van Stekelenburg struckout, while Halman was stealing second base. However, Halman was called out, as Van Stekelenburg had interfered with catcher Mark Duursma, so the inning ended with this rare double play. In the fourth inning, Sidney Ensermo led off with a double and moved to third on a grounder. Ensermo then tried to score on a grounder to first base by Bryan Engelhardt, but was thrown out at the plate. Pioniers-starter Roger Kops then retired the next eight batters in a row, before Almere stranded two runners in the seventh inning.
Finally, in the ninth at bat, Almere scored a run. Sidney Ensermo walked and advanced to third base on a one-out single by Bryan Engelhardt, then scored on a sac-fly by Giovanni Samboe.
(June 24)

Thank you for visiting this site. See you soon!

Mail suggestions and questions to stoov@wxs.nl