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(Story & Photos by Marco Stoovelaar)
   Olympia Haarlem secures spot in Play-Offs Cup Winners Cup
Nederlands
 OSTRAVA (Czech Rep.) -
FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem qualified for the top-4 of the European Cup Winners Cup on Thursday (August 18) by winning twice on Day 4 of the tournament in the Czech Republic.
Olympia Haarlem opened the day with a 7-4 win against Tempo Praha (Czech Republic).
Later in the day, the Haarlem-squad won 4-1 vs. Mannheim Tornados (Germany).
With this last win, Olympia became the second team to officially qualify for the Play-Offs.
Legnano (Italy) was the first earlier in the day.
Olympia Haarlem will close the second round on Friday against Brasschaat Braves (Belgium), which suffered its first loss today.
A win means that Olympia will play in the second Play-Off game in the late afternoon against Legnano, which will finish in first place, even when it ends up losing against Tempo Praha on Friday.
The winner of the second Play-Off qualifies for the final on Saturday, the loser has to play the backdoor-game.
When Olympia ends up losing against Brasschaat, it can create a 3-way tie with Therwil Flyers (Switzerland) when that team closes with a win against Mannheim Tornados.
In that case, the final score of the Olympia vs. Brasschaat game will be of great importance to create the final ranking.
The teams that finish in third and fourth place will face each other in the first Play-Off game with the winner advancing to the backdoor-game.
Other scores today:
Pool C (Championship Round)
Mannheim Tornados (Germany) vs. Legnano (Italy) 0-9 (5 inn.); Therwil Eagles (Switzerland) vs. Brasschaat Braves (Belgium) 2-0; Therwil Eagles (Switzerland) vs. Tempo Praha (Czech Rep.) 2-0; Legnano (Italy) vs. Brasschaat Braves (Belgium) 1-0.
Pool D (Places 7th-10th)
Amager Vikings (Denmark) vs. Atlético de San Sebastián (Spain) 1-12; Arrows Ostrava (Czech Rep.) vs. BCF de Paris (France) 13-0 (3½ inn.).
Highlights of these games
(August 18)
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Tempo Praha vs. FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem
Just after 9 AM this morning, Olympia Haarlem opened the score when Brenda Beers homered with one out.
In the second inning, Olympia got its first two batters on base when Shareday Christina led off with a single and an error was made on a sacrifice bunt by Rachel van Veen.
But both were forced out at third base.
Olympia-starter Eva Voortman walked the first batter she faced in the first inning, but then followed with three strikeouts.
In the second at bat, the lefthander gave up two basehits.
Katerina Vacková led off with a single, then moved on a sacrifice bunt and a single by Tereza Kovariková.
In a steal-situation, the latter reached second base safely, but Vacková was eliminated in a rundown.
Voortman then closed with another strikeout.
Olympia Haarlem then rallied for four runs in the third inning to take a comfortable 5-0 lead.
Eva Voortman led off with a single, then everyone was safe on a fielder's choice-grounder by Brenda Beers.
Dinet Oosting followed with a runscoring single, then the bases got loaded when Mariëlle Vleugels also singled.
Hereafter, Shareday Christina walked to bring in the next run.
Oosting became the first out when she was forced out at the plate on a comeback-grounder by Rachel van Veen.
With the bases still loaded, a pitching change followed.
Martina Blahová took over, but was greeted with a 2-run single by Kate Gentile, who did the catching today.
That lifted the lead to 5-0.
The bases got loaded again when Sandy Lauwers walked, but then another force at the plate and a groundout followed, meaning three runners were left behind.
...Brenda Beers...
...homerun...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
In the bottom of the third, Tempo Praha got runners on second and third base with two outs, but they were left behind.
In the top of the fourth inning, Olympia Haarlem added two more runs to decide the game, as it was now leading 7-0.
With one out, Dinet Oosting tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Mariëlle Vleugels.
Hereafter, Shareday Christina singled and went on to score on a double by Rachel van Veen.
Mariëlle Vleugels took over the pitching for Olympia in the bottom of the fourth inning and retired the side.
But the righthander then gave up two runs in the fifth.
Both were unearned, as two errors were involved.
The Czech opponent narrowed the deficit to 7-4 by scoring two more runs in the bottom of the seventh and threatened to do some more scoring.
With one out and a runner on second base, Petra Kolkusová reached on an error, resulting in runners at the corners.
A following infield-hit by Natalie Fidrmuncová then led to a run.
The next run was then scored by Kolkusová on a double by Lucie Jurasková.
Fidrmuncová also tried to score, but was eliminated at the plate.
On the throw to the plate, Jurasková advanced to third base, then the bases got loaded when Katerina Vacková and Veronika Vinterlíková both walked.
With the bases loaded and the score now at 7-4, Eva Voortman was re-entered as pitcher.
She got a pop-fly from next batter Jolana Cermaková that ended the inning and the game.
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| Tempo Praha - FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem 4-7 |
| R | H | E |
| FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem | 104 | 200 | 0 | - | 7 | 11 | 3 |
| Tempo Praha (Czech Rep.) | 000 | 020 | 2 | - | 4 | 9 | 2 |
| pitchers Olympia Haarlem | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Eva Voortman | 3 | 5 | 1 | 4 | - | - |
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| Mariëlle Vleugels, W (1-1) | 3.2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 1 |
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| Eva Voortman, SV (1) | 0.1 | - | - | - | - | - |
| pitchers Tempo Praha | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Kristyna Kalinová, L (0-1) | 2.1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
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| Martina Blahová | 4.2 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 2 |
| Homerun: Olympia Haarlem: Brenda Beers (1)(1st,solo,off Kalinová). |
Umpires: HP-Beate Utzig (Austria), 1B-Javier Hernández Fuentes (Switzerland),
3B-Michael Renggli (Switzerland).
Official Scorers-Lenka Richterová (Czech Rep.), Radek Golan (Czech Rep.).
Technical Commissioner-Irene Michielan (Italy).
Starting Time-9:00 AM.
Time-2:10 hr.
Site-Field #1 Arrows Park, Ostrava (Czech Republic).
Game Notes:
Weather conditions at game time: Sunny, 19,1° C (66,4° F); wind direction southwest;
wind speed 12 kmh (7,8 mph); wind force 3 Bft; humidity 48%. |
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Mannheim Tornados vs. FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem
In its second game of the day, Olympia Haarlem won only 4-1 against Mannheim Tornados.
Olympia Haarlem was the better team of the two, but could not take distance and decided the game with two runs in the seventh inning.
Mannheim outhit Olympia, 7-5.
With the victory, Olympia became the second team to officially secure itself of a spot in the Play-Offs.
Olympia Haarlem faced American righthander Lori Spingola, who was a top-pitcher at the University of North Carolina.
There, she had two consecutive seasons (2012-2013) in which she won 30 or more games.
In her college-career, she won 108 games to become the all-time leader at UNC.
She struckout 1,083 batters, which is second best in school-history.
The righthander gave up only five hits against Olympia Haarlem, but also four runs.
However, all runs were unearned due to three errors.
The first three innings remained scoreless, but it was Mannheim that threatened to open the score.
Miriam Kemmer led off the first inning with a triple off of Eva Voortman, who then struckout the next two batters.
A flyout ended the at bat and with that, Kemmer stranded on third base.
In the second inning, Voortman walked the lead-off hitter, but then struckout the next three.
In the third, Kemmer singled with one out, but this time was forced out.
Olympia left a runner behind on first base in the first inning, then was retired in order in the second and third inning.
...Kate Gentile...
...back behind the plate...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Olympia Haarlem then struck with two runs in the fourth.
With one out, Dinet Oosting walked and Mariëlle Vleugels singled.
The bases then got loaded when an error was made on a sacrifice bunt by Shareday Christina.
A strikeout followed, which would have been the third out, but now the inning continued for the German squad.
Lori Spingola then walked Kate Gentile, who again was the catcher in this game for the Haarlem-squad.
With the walk, Oosting scored the first run.
Hereafter, Tyla Morrison grounded to third base, which led to a throw to the plate for the force out, but Vleugels beat the throw and scored the second run.
For the third time in four innings, Mannheim got its lead-off hitter on base in the bottom of the fourth when American Shannon Bustillos doubled.
She advanced to third on a grounder, but then stranded.
Olympia failed to take more distance in the fifth when it got its first two batters on base.
Eva Voortman led off with a single, then Brenda Beers followed with a bunt-single.
But hereafter, a strikeout followed, then Voortman was forced out and a grounder ended the at bat.
A tenseful bottom of the fifth followed.
Ayla Bockelmann and Miriam Kemmer led off for Mannheim with singles, then the bases got loaded when Kacie Patterson (another American on the Mannheim-roster) also singled with one out.
An infield-fly followed, but then the Germans scored a run when next batter Ronja Jung walked.
With the bases still loaded, Voortman closed the inning with a strikeout.
After Mannheim left two more runners in the sixth inning, Olympia added two insurance runs in the top of the seventh.
With one out, both Eva Voortman and Brenda Beers reached on errors.
Dinet Oosting followed with a runscoring single, then Mariëlle Vleugels added a sacrifice fly that lifted the lead to 4-1.
In the bottom of the seventh, Kacie Patterson became the fifth lead-off hitter of Mannheim to reach base when she singled.
A flyout and strikeout followed and that brought Lori Spingola in the batter's box.
She was the last batter in the game, as her line drive was caught by her pitching colleague.
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| Mannheim Tornados - FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem 1-4 |
| R | H | E |
| FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem | 000 | 200 | 2 | - | 4 | 5 | 1 |
| Mannheim Tornados (Germany) | 000 | 010 | 0 | - | 1 | 7 | 3 |
| pitcher Olympia Haarlem | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Eva Voortman, W (2-0) | 7 | 11 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 1 |
| pitcher Mannheim | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Lori Spingola, L (1-3) | 7 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 4 | - |
Umpires: HP-Savatopluk Smysl (Czech Rep.), 1B-Javier Hernández Fuentes (Switzerland),
3B-Beate Utzig (Austria).
Official Scorers-Zdenek Ploskonká (Czech Rep.), Radek Golan (Czech Rep.).
Technical Commissioner-Irene Michielan (Italy).
Starting Time-3:10 PM.
Time-1:45 hr.
Site-Field #1 Arrows Park, Ostrava (Czech Republic).
Game Notes:
Weather conditions at game time: Sunny, 23,3° C (73,9° F); wind direction southwest;
wind speed 16 kmh (9,2 mph); wind force 3 Bft; humidity 43%. |
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Highlights other games
Amager Vikings vs. Atlético de San Sebastián
In the first game for places 7 through 10, Atlético registered a big win, but had to break an 1-1 tie in the fifth inning.
The Spanish team scored seven runs in the seventh inning.
Atlético collected 12 basehits, including three by Rebeca Carrera, who scored twice and batted in four runs.
Mannheim Tornados vs. Legnano
Legnano shutout Mannheim 9-0 in five innings to become the first to officially qualify for the top-4 and thus for the Play-Offs.
Leading 1-0, the Italians rallied for five runs in the fourth inning.
Amongst the seven hits of Legnano was a homerun by Clare Warwick, who scored three runs and also batted in three.
Ilaria Pino produced two hits and batted in two runs.
Greta Cecchetti went the distance for Legnano, struckout eight and gave up only two hits.
...Myrthe Smid...
...productive day...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Therwil Flyers vs. Brasschaat Braves
Therwil scored two runs in the first inning and that was it in this game, which resulted in the first loss of the tournament for Brasschaat.
The inning began with an error, then the Swiss team got the bases loaded off of Dutch pitcher Marjolein Merkx when Kimberley Zehnder walked and Dutch player Myrthe Smid singled.
A following single by American Makenna Weir then led to two runs, one being unearned.
American Jamie Allred was the winning pitcher and gave up only three hits.
Arrows Ostrava vs. BCF de Paris
Arrows recorded a big 13-0 shutout-win on 11 basehits, including three by Tereza Kubicová, who also scored three runs and batted in three.
Eliska Mlynková and Dominika Rampacková also batted in three runs.
The French team managed to hit only one basehit.
Therwil Flyers vs. Tempo Praha
Therwil Flyers had won two games in the preliminary round, but began the Championship Round with no wins.
The Swiss team recorded its wins against teams, who didn't made the top-6 and with that, it appeared that Flyers had a minimal chance of reaching the Play-Offs.
However, earlier today, the team began with a surprise 2-0 win against Brasschaat Braves and now did the same against the Czechs.
And with that, the Swiss squad decided the remaining spots for the Play-Offs.
Because of this win, both Therwil and Brasschaat clinched a spot in the top-4, while Praha was eliminated.
A 3-way tie between these teams was still possible, but both Therwil and Brasschaat have won against Praha.
Therwil scored its runs in the third and fifth inning.
Dutch player Myrthe Smid (who plays for Tex Town Tigers) played a major role in the win.
In the third inning, the first run was scored with two outs when a grounder by Smid ended in an error.
In the fifth, she scored the second run herself after having reached on a single.
Winning pitcher Nicole Nonnemacher went the distance and gave up only three hits.
Legnano vs. Brasschaat Braves
The day closed with a minimal win by Legnano, which scored the lone run in the game in the first inning off of American righthander Mikayla Endicott.
With two outs, Chelsea Cohen singled and scored when Ilaria Pino followed with a double.
In the remainder of the game, the Italians were held scoreless.
Legnano stranded three runners in the fourth inning.
Brasschaat reached base in five of the seven innings, but was unable to score off of American Chelsea Cohen.
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