The opener of the 33rd Holland Series was a close one and was decided by a costly error.
Terrasvogels faced hardthrowing righthander Alyson Spinas-Valainis, who was 12-1 in the regular season with a 2.13 ERA, striking out 90 batters in 88 2/3 inning.
Terrasvogels had good contact off of Spinas, got into scoring position in both the first and the second inning, then opened the score in the third at bat.
After stranding another runner in scoring position in the fourth, Olympia Haarlem took the lead moments later.
In the final three innings, Spinas allowed only one more batter to reach base and held Terrasvogels both hitless and scoreless.
In the top of the first inning, Katharina Szalay led off for Terrasvogels and reached on an error.
She advanced on a grounder by next hitter Noa Brand, but stranded on second base.
The second at bat began with a line drive off the bat of Lisa Waasdorp, but that was caught by 1B Mariëlle Vleugels.
With two outs, Lizzie Clarijs doubled, but also was left behind on second base.
In the third inning, Terrasvogels opened the score, but the inning also ended with a strange situation.
Ella Krommendijk led off with a single and was moved into scoring position via a sacrifice bunt by Katharina Szalay.
With two outs, she scored on a single by Dervisa Mutic, who herself ended up on second base on the throw to the plate.
Terrasvogels got runners at the corners when Karin Tuk reached on an error.
After reaching first base, (catcher) Tuk was replaced by Noa Brand, who was inserted via the Temporary Runner-rule.
Hereafter, something must have gone wrong in the communication or signals between the runners and the coaching as a weird situation followed.
On the first pitch to next hitter Lisa Waasdorp, Brand took off towards second base.
Olympia Haarlem-catcher Dinet Oosting threw the ball to short stop Rachel van Veen, who came in and caught the ball in front of second base.
A play at the plate was expected, but that never came, as Mutic returned to third base on the throw.
Van Veen then turned and tagged out the walking Brand, which ended the inning and an opportunity to take some more distance.
Olympia Haarlem faced righthander Dani Bonnet.
Due to study reasons, she wasn't available the entire season for Terrasvogels, but returned to the plate towards the end of the regular season.
She also saw her opponent get into scoring position in the first two innings, but avoided giving up runs.
In the bottom of the first inning, Jessie van Aalst led off for Olympia Haarlem with a walk.
With one out, Mariëlle Vleugels also walked and the two runners advanced on a grounder by Virginie Anneveld, but were left behind.
With two outs in the second inning, Emma Wójcik singled and moved on a wild pitch, but stranded on second base.
Trailing 1-0 halfway the fourth inning, it appeared at that moment that Terrasvogels was slightly the better of the two teams.
But the home team then turned the game its way.
Brenda Beers opened the fourth Olympia-at bat with a single.
Hereafter, Rachel van Veen singled down the leftfield-line, which probably would have led to runners on first and second base only.
However, after leftfielder Lisa Waasdorp fielded the ball in foul territory, it jumped away from her back into fair territory and rolled all the way towards the outfield-fence.
The error not only enabled Beers to score the tying run, but also enabled Van Veen to continue running around the bases to score the go-ahead run.
In the remainder of the game, the Terrasvogels-defense showed some nice plays and held Olympia Haarlem scoreless.
But as the team was unable to add runs itself, it ended up empty-handed.
With one out in the fourth and now leading 2-1, Emma Wójcik doubled for Olympia Haarlem and moved on a grounder by pinch-hitter Rosanne de Vries, but was left behind.
In the fifth inning, Olympia Haarlem got five baserunners, but didn't score.
Dinet Oosting and Mariëlle Vleugels singled and Virginie Anneveld reached on an error to load the bases.
Hereafter, both Brenda Beers and Rachel van Veen grounded towards second base.
There, Jessica Waasdorp made two nice plays and forced out the runners at the plate.
Another grounder ended the at bat, leaving three runners behind.
In the sixth inning, with two outs, Jessie van Aalst walked.
The at bat ended with a nice running catch by centerfielder Dervisa Mutic.
In the top of the seventh inning, Alyson Spinas retired the side to complete the come-from-behind victory.
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Olympia Haarlem nips Terrasvogels in Holland Series-opener
HAARLEM (Neth.) -
Reigning champion FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem opened the best-of-three Holland Series on Saturday (October 13) with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory against Terrasvogels.
Game 2 will be played on Sunday, followed by the third game when needed.
Game 1, best-of-three Holland Series; Olympia Haarlem leads 1-0.