(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Fred Versluis)
 Birds promotes to Silver League; Almere '90 relegates
Nederlands
 HOOFDDORP (Neth.) -
Birds will play in the Silver League next season, while Almere '90 relegated to the First Division.
On Sunday (September 27), the conclusion was played of the Promotion/Relegation Series for the Silver League and First Division.
Participating in this series were Ban-Topa Future Stars and Almere '90 (the two last-placed teams in the Silver League) and Hoofddorp Pioniers and Birds (the two best teams in the First Division).
After the first round last week at the site of Gryphons in Rosmalen, Ban-Topa Future Stars and Almere '90 led the series.
Today, the remaining three games were played at the site of Hoofddorp Pioniers in Hoofddorp.
When Almere '90 would have won the opener vs. Birds, it all would have been decided, resulting in Ban-Topa and Almere staying in the Silver League.
However, Birds convincingly won 13-6 and then also won its next game vs. Hoofddorp Pioniers, 9-6.
The first game was highligted by an inside-the-park-grand-slam-homerun over first base down the rightfield-line by Anne Keetelaar.
With these wins, and especially by scoring 13 runs, the team from Zoetermeer also surely secured itself of promotion to the Silver League, because of its run-production.
That was in its favor in case of a 3-way tie.
...Birds-coach André Prins...
(© Photo: Fred Versluis) |
In the final game, Almere '90 not only had to win vs. Ban-Topa Future Stars to create a 3-way tie , it also had to win big and not give up too much runs to keep its spot in the Silver League.
For both teams to stay in the Silver League, they both had to score a lot of runs and keep their opposing runs at a low.
But that didn't happen, as this was simply impossible, both scoring a lot of runs and not giving up that much in the same game!
With that, the standings were in favor of Birds.
Almere '90 won 8-5, but ended up empty-handed.
In the 3-way tie between Birds, Ban-Topa Future Stars and Almere '90, the head-to-head resulst created a new tie.
That meant that the Team Quality Balance became the new tie-breaker.
In this, the runs scored are divided by the offensive innings played minus the outcome of the runs given up divided the defensive innings played.
Birds, led by veteran coach André Prins, ended up in first place with a .358 TQB, followed by Ban-Topa with -.071 and Almere with -.286.
With that, Birds promoted to the Silver League, Ban-Topa Future Stars stayed in the Silver League, Almere '90 relegated to the First Division and Hoofddorp Pioniers stayed in the First Division.
Also today (and yesterday) in Hoofddorp was the conclusion of the season in the Golden League with four best-of-one series to decide the championship.
In the Holland Series, defending champion Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem won 3-1 vs. FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem to win the title.
Earlier in the day, Sparks Haarlem had won the best-of-one backdoor-game vs. Terrasvogels, 2-0.
Recap Play-Off 3 (Backdoor): Sparks Haarlem vs. Terrasvogels
Recap Holland Series: Olympia Haarlem vs. Sparks Haarlem
In the new format for this season it had been decided that all these season-ending games were to played at a neutral site.
Yesterday, in Hoofddorp, also saw the conclusion of the best-of-five Promotion/Relegation Play-Off between Twins and Alcmaria Victrix.
Twins won 4-0 and promoted to return to the big league next season after already having won its first two games a week ago at the site of Gryphons in Rosmalen.
Recap Twins vs. Alcmaria Victrix
(September 27)
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