There were not that much chances to score in this game, but HCAW got the most. However, the deciding basehits didn't come (again). HCAW reached base nine times and left seven runners, including four in scoring position. Kinheim reached base seven times and stranded six, including only two in scoring position.
Kinheim reached base once off starter Nick Stuifbergen, who threw the first two innings, but didn't return after the 58-minute delay before the third inning. Jurjen van Zijl took over and pitched the remaining seven innings. He gave up a single in the third with two outs, then another one with one out in the fourth. In that at bat, Dirk van 't Klooster, who singled, advanced to second when Quincy Bernardus walked with two outs, but a foul-out followed. With this, Van Zijl retired 12 batters in a row, before giving up an infield-hit to Denny Beljaards in the eighth, who reached third base when Danny Rombley with a single, but nothing happened thereafter.

HCAW reached base eight times in four innings off Kinheim's rookie starter Jean-Paul Gulinck, who made his big league-debut. In the first inning, Ronald Jaarsma led off with a walk, but was then caught stealing. Next, Martijn Meeuwis struckout, but Gino Henson reached on an infield-hit. Gulinck then handed Sidney de Jong only his third strikeout in more than 60 plate appearances to end the inning.
In the second inning, Gulinck started by striking out Kenny Berkenbosch. With two outs, the lefthander loaded the bases on a single and two walks, but then Ronald Jaarsma grounded out, leaving three runners behind.
In the third inning, Martijn Meeuwis and Gino Henson led off with walks, but again no runs were scored. Sidney de Jong and Kenny Berkenbosch flied out and the inning ended with a strikeout for Bas de Jong.
In the fourth, Nick Fridsma walked with one out, but now the inning ended when Dimiti Leon grounded into a double play.
In the next five innings, only one HCAW-player reached base. In the fifth inning, Jimmy van der Veldt took over the pitching for Kinheim. He faced 13 batters in the four innings he pitched and allowed only one to reach base, being Bas de Jong with a walk in the sixth.
In the ninth inning, Michiel van Kampen retired the side, meaning the game ended in a 0-0 tie.
(May 30)

So, let's first go to that peculiar situation in which three different rules appeared to come together, but in the end wasn't so difficult at all. The score at the moment is not that important, but this is what happened. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Ferd van Stekelenburg was on first base for Almere. Next batter Sidney Ensermo grounded towards short where short stop Michael Duursma fielded the ball and threw its to second baseman Glennsig Polonius to retire Van Stekelenburg. However, Polonius wasn't in contact with the base when he received the ball, therefore Field Umpire Jos van der Lelie made the safe signal. Trying to complete a double play, Polonius threw the ball to first base, where Ensermo was about to arrive. The ball went passed first base and ended up in the first base dug-out. In the meantime, it appeared that Van Stekelenburg was thinking he was out at second (or was he misled by Polonius?) and was on his way back towards the dug-out. At the same time, some of the Pionier-infielders argued with Umpire Van der Lelie about the safe-call. Therefore, Van der Lelie was unable to see that Polonius' throw towards first base ended in an overthrow. By the way, there were only two umpires in this game.
It gets more stranger, because batter and now runner Ensermo was send to second base by the first base coach on the throwing error. On his way to second base and close to the second base-area, Ensermo passed Van Stekelenburg, who was coming back. At that moment, it appeared that an out-signal was made for Ensermo passing the preceeding runner. Van Stekelenburg then returned to second base, where both runners ended up.
Confused? Don't be, as it becomes very clearly soon. Let's go back to Ensermo, who is running towards first base. Before he reaches first base, the throw from Polonius goes by and ends up in the dug-out. At that moment, Home Plate Umpire Henk Meerleveld gives the signal that the ball is dead, because of the overthrow, meaning everything else is not important anymore. That Ensermo moments later passes Van Stekelenburg happens after the overthrow and is not of any influence.
,,At the end, it wasn't that exciting at all'', explains veteran umpire Henk Meerleveld. ,,As soon as the overthrow is called, the ball is dead and no plays are possible. It's that simple.''
Also important in a case like this is where the batter and runners are at the time of the overthrow. Since the batter hadn't reached first base yet, the awarding of the bases is based on the moment of throw by the infielder. In this case, the batter was awarded second base, while the runner from first base was awarded third base.
During the argument about the call at second base, Pioniers' short stop Michael Duursma went too far and was ejected. Whatever happened, it really should have been a double play, as the Pionier-defense had made no errors.
Fifteen minutes later, when the game continued, Almere had runners on secònd and third, but nothing happened thereafter. Two outs followed, the bases were loaded with an intentional walk and the inning ended with a force out. Pioniers also was unable to add more runs in the ninth, meaning the game ended with a 7-3 victory for Almere.

OK, now let's go back to the beginning and see how Almere won tonight.
Almere took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Bryan Engelhardt led off with a double and scored when Jason Halman followed with a single.
The second run was added in the fourth inningh when Bryan Engelhardt scored again, this time by hitting his second homerun of the season.
The lead was increased to 3-0 in the fifth at bat. Sidney Ensermo led off with a double, moved on a sac-bunt and scored on a 2-out single by Eugene Kingsale.
Two runs were then scored in the sixth inning. Ivanon Coffie led off with a double, after which Pionier-starter Erik Jan Lind was relieved by Daniël Overbeek, who walked next batter Bryan Engelhardt. Overbeek also was relieved and Tommy van Limburg took over. His first batter, >Jason Halman hit a force play-grounder on which Coffie was eliminated. Pinch-hitter Ferd van Stekelenburg and Sidney Ensermo then followed with an RBI-single to make it 5-0. Because of the fielder's choice grounder by Halman, the run he scored was credited to Lind.

Pioniers left nine runners behind in its first six innings off starter René Rijst, who gave up only four hits, but walked five batters. In the second inning, Pioniers had the bases loaded with one out, but a strikeout and groundout followed. In the fifth, the bases were loaded with two outs when a foul-fly ended the at bat. In the sixth, Mark-Jan Moorman was on second base and Lars Koehorst on first with two outs when Jefferson Muzo singled. The inning ended when Moorman tried to score on this single, but was thrown out at the plate.
In the seventh inning, Nick Veltkamp took over for Almere and threw the remaining three innings. He didn't do that good, however, as he walked four batters, gave up three hits and three runs, allowed ten batters to reach base and therefore wasn't credited with a save. In the seventh, Veltkamp was greeted by a single by Michael Duursma, then a double by Norbert Lokhorst. With runners on second and third and one out, >Dè Flanegin walked to load the bases. A grounder by Glennsig Polonius then resulted in a force out, a run and an error that gave Pioniers another run.
In the eighth inning, Veltkamp walked Lars Koehorst, who later also would score on an error.
Almere got two runs back in the home seventh on a 2-run single by Bryan Engelhardt, who was 3-for-3, scored three runs and had three RBI's.
In the home eighth, Almere got its first two runners in scoring position, but was a complete other story (as you can read above), but no additional runs were scored.
(May 30)

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