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(Story & Photos by Marco Stoovelaar)
   Orange Under-19 closes Preliminary Round World Championship with win
Nederlands
 CLEARWATER, Florida (USA) -
The Netherlands Under-19 Softball Team closed the Preliminary Round of the World Junior Championship in Clearwater (Florida, USA) on Thursday (July 27) with an important 5-2 win against Peru.
The Orange-squad had won its first two games of the event on Wednesday, recording shutouts against Israel (22-0) and the Bahamas (4-0).
The Netherlands opened on Monday with a tough loss against Brazil.
It led 3-0 in the bottom of the seventh inning, but lost 4-3.
In the evening, the Netherlands was shutout 3-0 by Australia.
On Tuesday, the Netherlands lost 8-1 to Japan, which two years ago won the Silver Medal.
The win against Peru was important and the Netherlands played a good game.
Afterwards, the team had to wait for the result of Peru against Brazil.
A win for Peru would have created a 3-way tie with Brazil and the Netherlands.
As the head-to-head results also would result in a tie, the runs would become decisive.
Peru led 5-4 against Brazil, which then scored three runs in the sixth to win 7-5 and finish in third place, while Peru ended up in fifth place in the pool.
With the win on Thursday, the Netherlands closed Pool B in the Preliminary Round with a 3-3 record to finish in fourth place.
With that, the team now will play in the Pool for 9th through 16th place, starting on Friday, but can then be eliminated with a loss.
Even when the Netherlands would have won its game against Brazil, it would end up in this Pool.
With a win against Brazil, the Orange would have finished in third place, but would have secured at least two more games in the Second Round.
Only the two best teams of the four groups advances to the Championship Pool.
In Pool B,Japan remained unbeaten, winning all its six games played.
Australia finished in second place with a 5-1 record.
Two years ago, Japan won the Silver Medal, Australia then finished seventh.
The Netherlands didn't participate two years ago.
Six of the eight teams that formed the Championship Pool two years ago, also qualified this time.
Reigning champion USA and Chinese Taipei were the best in Pool A.
Puerto Rico (Pool C) and Canada (Pool D) also qualified.
They were joined by the Czech Republic (Pool C) and China (Pool D).
The Czechs finished 11th two years ago, China then was 12th.
The Czech-squad was 4-1 and finished in second place behind Puerto Rico in Pool D, which was one of the two pools with six teams.
The Netherlands played in one of the two 7-team pools.
Mexico (5th in 2015) and New Zealand (6th) didn't reach the top-8 this time.
With this, the Czech Republic wil be the highest finishing European country in this World Championship.
The Netherlands is the highest ranked European country on the World Ranking List of the WBSC with eighth place, followed by Italy (12th), the Czech Republic (13th) and Great Britain (14th).
The Netherlands will gain more points for the ranking, as it won the European title this year with the Seniors and the Under-16.
In the Pool for 9th-16th place, the Netherlands meets Great Britain on Friday.
The loser of that game will be eliminated with its tournament ending.
The winner of the game meets the loser of the game between the Dominican Republic and the Philippines on Saturday.
Great Britain was 2-3 and finished fourth in Pool D.
Italy also plays in this pool and meets New Zealand on Friday in an elimination-game.
Italy finished fourth in Pool A with a 3-3 record.
The 12th edition of the global event is the biggest ever, as 26 countries participate.
Eight countries participate for the first time in a World Junior Championship, being the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, India, Ireland, Israel, Peru and Turkey.
The Dominican squad qualified for the 9-16 pool, while the others will play for 17th through 26th place.
They will be joined by Argentina, South Africa and South Korea.
(July 27)
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Netherlands vs. Peru
The game against Peru remained scoreless for four innings.
The Netherlands then scored twice, but Peru came alongside, resulting in the seventh inning beginning with a 2-2 score.
An important pinch-hit single then gave the Orange a renewed lead and two more runs were added en route to the 5-2 win.
In the first four innings, the Netherlands got only one runner into scoring position off of Peruvian pitcher Michelle Iparraguirre, who went the distance.
Only two batters reached base.
Rhowan Stuart led off the second inning with a single, but stranded on first base.
In the third, Tammie Lijbers led off with a single after a great at bat.
With a 2-2 count, she fouled off seven of the next eight pitches, then reached on a single on the ninth pitch (and 13th in her at bat)!
She moved on a grounder by Rose Mwaro, but then also was left behind.
Peru got a big scoring opportunity in the bottom of the first inning when it got the bases loaded off of starter Roos-Marijn Kramer.
She gave up a lead-off single to Thais Uyema, then walked Michelle Iparraguirre with one out.
The two moved on a passed ball and a force play was then created by walking Natalie Alegria intentionally.
Kramer followed with a strikeout, then the inning ended when short stop Feline Poot caught a line drive.
In the next four innings, Kramer allowed only two more batters to reach base and struckout five batters.
She struckout seven in the six innings she pitched.
The Netherlands opened the score in the top of the fifth inning.
Ismay Poot led off with a single, moved on a sacrifice bunt by Nina Oomes and scored on a double by Tammie Lijbers.
Hereafter, an error followed on a sacrifice bunt by Rose Mwaro, who later moved on a wild pitch, but the runners were left on second and third base.
...Charlotte Drijvers...
...pinch-hit RBI-single...
(© Ph: Marco Stoovelaar) |
A second run was added in the sixth.
This time, it was Feline Poot who led off with a single.
She got into scoring position via a sacrifice bunt by Rhowan Stuart, moved when Uchenna Jong Loy reached on an error and scored on a grounder from her sister Ismay Poot.
...Tammie Lijbers...
...3-for-3, double, RBI...
(© Ph: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Peru came alongside in the bottom of the sixth.
Roos-Marijn Kramer had allowed only one basehit in the previous five innings, but now gave up two.
With runners on second and third base and one out, Emma Medina delivered a 2-run single.
She was then caught stealing and Peru left another runner behind on first base.
A loss would have meant that the Netherlands was eliminated for the 9-16 Pool and had to play in the group for 17th through 26th place.
In the top of the seventh inning, the Netherlands re-took the lead on some good hitting.
Tammie Lijbers (who was 3-for-3) led off with a single, then her pinch-runner Isa Smit advanced on a grounder by Rose Mwaro.
Smit then scored on another important pinch-hit basehit by Charlotte Drijvers.
On Wednesday, she hit a pinch-hit RBI-double that gave the Dutch an insurance run against the Bahamas.
Now, she hit a runscoring single to give the Orange a renewed lead.
After reaching first base, Driijvers was replaced by pinch-runner Onaisha Franka (who re-entered), but she was forced out on a grounder by Yindi Beekveldt.
With two outs, Feline Poot singled, then Rhowan Stuart followed with a runscoring double.
Stuart leads the team with nine basehits.
Moments later, another run was added when Uchenna Jong Loy reached on an error to make it a 5-2 score.
In the bottom of the seventh, Nicole van Eijl took over the Orange-pitching.
She walked a batter with two outs, but a grounder then ended the game.
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| R | H | E |
| Netherlands | 000 | 011 | 3 | - | 5 | 9 | 2 |
| Peru | 000 | 002 | 0 | - | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| pitchers Netherlands | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Roos-Marijn Kramer, W (1-1) | 6 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
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| Nicole van Eijl, SV (1) | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - |
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| pitcher Peru | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Michelle Iparraguirre, L (1-1) | 7 | 8 | - | 9 | 5 | 3 |
Umpires: HP-????, 1B-????, 2B-????, 3B-????.
Official Scorers-???? (USA).
Technical Commissioner-????.
Starting Time-11:30 AM.
Time Played-2:15 hrs.
Site-Field #1, Eddie C. Moore Softball Complex, Clearwater, Florida (USA).
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