Baseball Recap Netherlands vs. Univ. of Tampa February 28, 2006

Compiled and Copyright © 1997-2006 by Marco Stoovelaar

Exhibition loss for Dutch team
Nederlands
CLEARWATER, Florida (USA) - After a few lesser days concerning the weather, it was another beautiful and sunny day in Florida on Tuesday. Another day to play ball. And that the Dutch National Baseball Team did, playing its third of four exhibition games before traveling to Puerto Rico for the World Baseball Classic early next week.
On Tuesday-evening, the Dutch team lost against the Spartans, the team of The University of Tampa. Tampa trailed 6-4 in the ninth, but then came back with three runs to win 7-6. The game was played in Jack Russell Stadium, the former Spring Training-home of the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Dutch team will close its exhibition series next Sunday at Lake Buena Vista against a split-squad of the Major League Atlanta Braves. In that game, the Braves will do without its regular centerfielder Andruw Jones, as he will be on the Dutch roster for that game. The Dutch team will play that game for the first time with its official 30-man roster, as the deadline for submitting the final roster to the organisors of the World Baseball Classic is Friday, March 3 at noon.
Meanwhile, the first decison towards the compilation of that final 30-man roster has already been made. Pitcher Simon Pantophlet, who was scheduled to join the team last week from St. Martin, was unable to travel to Florida due to visa-problems. Therefore, it was decided that he was dropped off the roster. Before Thursday, three more players will be cut, as there are currently 33 players on the roster, including the four Major League-players, who will join the team on Thursday.

On Monday, Puerto Rico announced its 30-man roster for the WBC. Puerto Rico will be the first opponent for the Dutch squad on March 8. The day before, Puerto Rico will play its first game against Panama. The Dutch, and the other oppponents, will face a tough Puerto Rican squad, which has 27 players on its roster with Major League (and World Series)-experience, including stars Ivan Rodriguez (catcher, Detroit Tigers), Carlos Beltran (outfielder, New York Mets) and Carlos Delgado (first base, New York Mets).
Other big league-players on the roster are 1B/C Javy Lopez, C Yadier Molina, 2B Alex Cora, OF Jose Cruz, Jr., OF Ricky Ledee and OF Bernie Williams, who is a former teammate of both Dutch Manager Robert Eenhoorn (1994-1996) and Dutch Coach Hensley Meulens (1991-1993) with the New York Yankees.

At Tokyo (Japan), final preparations are underway to open the WBC in Pool A, which will start on Friday. Two of the four participating teams lost exhibition games on Tuesday.
In the afternoon, Taiwan was beaten 6-3 by the Chiba Lotte Marines, while in the afternoon, China was shutout 17-0 by the Yomiuri Giants. China, managed by former Major Leaguer Jim Lefebvre, trailed 7-0 when Yomiuri scored ten runs in the ninth inning, including four on a grand slam by Kenji Yano.

The Dutch team used six pitchers in its game against Tampa. Lefthander Diegomar Markwell started for Manager Robert Eenhoorn and threw three innings. He was followed by Shairon Martis, who made his Dutch team-debut and pitched two innings. Gregory Gustina, David Bergman, Michiel van Kampen and Dave Draijer then pitched all one inning each to complete the game.
The Dutch team opened the score early and was leading 6-2 after five innings in the game, which appeared to be over in just over two hours, but eventual lasted 2:40 hrs, just as the previous two. The Dutch team was unable to add more runs, but the Spartans did. After adding two runs in the eighth inning to make it 6-4, they scored three runs with two outs in the ninth to win 7-6. All these five runs were unearned!
It wasn't a good night for the middle infielders, as all five errors made in this game, were registered there, including four by the short stops. Both Tampa-short stops made an error, while Dutch short stop Hainley Statia made two. But these were expensive, as they led to the five unearned runs. The fifth error was made by Dutch second baseman Michael Duursma in the first inning, but that didn't harm the team.
Offensively, the Dutch team was better than its American opponent, outhitting them 16-9. Rightfielder Harvey Monte had a good outing, going 4-for-5 with two RBI's, while short stop Raily Legito went 3-for-3 and scored twice. The Dutch team reached base frequently, but stranded 16 runners!

...Raily Legito... ...3-for-3, 2 Runs... (Photo: Marco Stoovelaar)

The evening started well for the Dutch squad, which took a 3-0 lead in the first and second inning. In the opening at bat, lead-off batter Michael Duursma was hit by a pitch, then moved to third base on a one-out double by Randall Simon. Next, Duursma opened the score when Ivanon Coffie singled and brought Simon to third base. Simon then scored the second run when Sharnol Adriana grounded into a force play.
In the second inning, a run was added when Raily Legito led off with a single, moved on a single by Harvey Monte and a force play-grounder by Michael Duursma, then scored on a single by Eugene Kingsale. However, in this at bat, two runners were left behind in scoring position. In the next inning, the bases were left behind loaded.
Dutch starter Diegomar Markwell gave up two runs in the third inning. With one out and a runner on first base (fielder's choice), Tampa-leftfielder Lee Cruz hit a towering homerun over the centerfield wall to make it 3-2. Tampa then also stranded two runners in scoringposition in the fourth inning off of rookie Shairon Martis, who made his Dutch team debut and struckout three batters in the two innings he pitched.

...Harvey Monte... ...4-for-5, 2 RBI's... (Photo: Marco Stoovelaar)

In the fifth inning, the Dutch team added three runs to increase its lead to 6-2. Sharnol Adriana led off with a single and moved on a wild pitch. With one out, Dirk van 't Klooster walked, then the bases were loaded when Raily Legito delivered his third single of the evening. Next, Harvey Monte did the same, but his single accounted for two runs. A grounder by Michael Duursma produced the third run in the at bat and gave the Dutch a 6-2 lead.
But that was to be the last Dutch run. In the last four innings, eight runners were left behind, including five in scoring position.
Despite that, it appeared to go the right way for the Dutch team, as pitchers Shairon Martis (4th and 5th), Gregory Gustina (6th) and David Bergman (7th) retired 12 batters in a row after Martis started the fourth with giving up a single and walking the next batter.

But then, in the eighth inning, things started to turn Tampa's way. Michiel van Kampen took over the pitching in the eighth inning and saw the lead-off hitter reach base when short stop Hainley Statia made an error. Statia had taken over for Raily Legito in the sixth. After a wild pitch moved the runner, a single put runners on first and third base. The bases were loaded when the next batter walked. A run was then scored on a double play-grounder, then another runner passed the plate on a following single.
Still leading 6-4, the Duth was en route to close the game in the ninth and was only one out away from its third win in a row. Dave Draijer was the new Dutch pitcher in this at bat and started with two quick outs: a strikeout and a groundout. But then, an apparent game-ending grounder to short stop Hainley Statia ended in a throwing error. Next batter Lee Cruz, who earlier homered, now hit a double to put runners on second and third base. With a 3-2 count, Kurt Baxley followed with a 2-run single to tie the score. After Baxley was replaced by pinch-runner Peter Reeves, next batter José Jimenez also doubled to bring in Reeves with the go-ahead run. A grounder to Statia finally ended the at bat, but the damage was done.
In the home ninth (the Dutch were the home team in this game), there was a chance of at least tying the score, as the Dutch team got the bases loaded with two outs. Hainley Statia led off with a single, but then, after delivering four singles in his previous at bats, Harvey Monte now grounded into a double play. The bases got loaded when Michael Duursma and Danny Rombley singled and Maikel Benner walked. But the game ended when Vince Rooi struckout for the second time since entering the game in the seventh inning.

Regarding to the first two games, there were some minor changes in the Dutch squad.
Seven of the eight position players who started the first and second game also started this game. There was one difference with those games. Today, Harvey Monte made his first start, playing in rightfield. In the batting order, he replaced Danny Rombley, who had started the previous two games in leftfield.
Remained the batting order for the first two games intact (only Percy Isenia started and batted in Sharnol Adriana's slot as the DH in Game Two), this time the middle three batters had changed slots. Sidney de Jong dropped from fourth to sixth place, while Ivanon Coffie (5th) and Sharnol Adriana (6th) moved up one spot. Also, Raily Legito, who batted in ninth place the first two games, moved up to eighth, while Monte now batted ninth. Eenhoorn used his third starting DH. After Adriana and Isenia, today's DH was Randall Simon, who started at first base the first two games. Coincidentally, Adriana and Isenia also are first basemen.

The Dutch now will play one more game before traveling to Puerto Rico. On Sunday, they will meet the Major League Atlanta Braves. As righthander Calvin Maduro is the only pitcher who hasn't thrown yet, he will be the probable starter in that game.
(February 28-March 1)

Box Score
Complete Play-by-Play Game Three The University of Tampa vs. Netherlands