| Most Championship-titles, Clubs |
| Titles | Club |
| 15 | Terrasvogels |
| 12 | HHC |
| 11 | Sparks Haarlem |
| 9 | HCAW |
| 7 | DSS |
| 3 | Kinheim |
| 2 | Olympia Haarlem |
| 2 | Tex Town Tigers |
|
Holland Series Stats & Facts
For Roef!, the title is its first in club-history, which was accomplished in only its third season in the Dutch big league.
In 2015, Roef! finishes in third place in the Silver League and qualified for the Promotion Pool, then finished in second place.
The following year, Roef! closed the regular season in the second highest league in second place, then finished in a tie for first place in the Promotion Pool.
After having lost a tie-breaker against UVV, Roef! went on to play in the Golden League/Silver League Promotion/Relegation Play-Off, while UVV qualified for the GL/SL Promotion/Relegation Final.
Roef! won the best-of-one against Twins Oosterhout, then faced UVV in the Final.
With a 7-0 shutout-win, Roef! defeated UVV and promoted to the Golden League.
Roef! made its debut in the highest league in 2017.
In its first season in the Golden League, the team qualified for the Play-Offs, but then was eliminated.
Last year, Roef! again reached the Play-Offs and again was eliminated.
This year, Roef! finished in first place in the regular season to reach the Play-Offs in its third consecutive year.
The team again joined Olympia Haarlem, Sparks Haarlem and Terrasvogels, as they did in the previous two years.
In the following Play-Off Qualification Round to determine the pairings for the Play-Offs, Roef! also ended up in first place.
Roef! then lost its best-of-three, 2-1, against Olympia Haarlem, which therefore moved to the Holland Series.
A week later, Roef! faced Terrasvogels in the best-of-three Backdoor Play-Off.
Roef! trailed in both the first and second game against Terrasvogels, but was able to turn these games around.
Roef! recorded two one-run victories (the second one in ten innings) to reach the Holland Series.
Tonight, Roef! became the 68th softball-champion in history in the Netherlands.
The first champion was crowned in 1952.
Back then, the title was won by Haarlem-based HHC, the predecessor of the current Sparks Haarlem.
The most titles have been won by Terrasvogels (15), but when HHC (12) and Sparks Haarlem (11) are combined, it leads with 23.
Terrasvogels and Sparks Haarlem are the only two clubs in history with 10 or more championships.
| Most Championship-titles, Cities |
| Titles | City |
| 36 |  | Haarlem |
| 15 |  | Santpoort |
| 9 |  | Bussum |
| 2 |  | Enschede |
| 1 |  | Alkmaar |
| 1 |  | Bloemendaal |
| 1 |  | The Hague |
| 1 |  | Heemstede |
| 1 |  | Oosterhout |
| 1 |  | Moergestel |
|
It marks only the second time in history that the Championship-title is won by a team from the province of Noord-Brabant.
The only other team to do so was Twins in 1994.
After 25 years, Roef! is now the second team to win the title.
Roef! is the seventh team from outside the Haarlem-area to be crowned champion.
It is the 15th title won by a team from outside the Haarlem-area, including nine won by Bussum-based HCAW.
The most titles (36) have been won by a Haarlem-based club.
When nearby Santpoort, Bloemendaal and Heemstede are included, the total championships by teams from the Haarlem-area is 53.
With 36th titles, Haarlem is most successful softball-city in the country.
The most successful baseball-city is Amsterdam with 34 titles.
Last month, L&D Amsterdam Pirates dethroned defending champion Curaçao Neptunus, winning the best-of-seven Holland Series, 4-3.
Pirates lost the first three games, then did something no team has done before, winning the next four games.
For Roef!, this was its first participation in a Holland Series.
For Olympia Haarlem, this was its fourth participation in the Championship Series.
Terrasvogels is the recordholder with 22 participations.
In total, eleven different clubs (or nine when HHC/Sparks Haarlem and DSC '74/Olympia Haarlem are combined) participated in a Holland Series.
Roef! Head Coach Jeroen Swers became the first Belgian coach to lead a team to the Dutch Championship-title.
Overall, he became the sixth foreign coach to win the title.
The others are Americans Craig Montvidas (1985-HCAW, 1987-HCAW, 1994-Twins), Darwin Tolzin (2007-Terrasvogels), Monti Van Brunt (2008-Tex Town Tigers) and Kaleo Eldredge (2009-Tex Town Tigers) and New Zealander Stanley Doney (2017-Olympia Haarlem, 2018-Olympia Haarlem).
This was the 34th Holland Series.
In 1982, for the first time, the Championship was decided via a postseason.
Before that, the winner of the regular season also won the Championship-title.
In 1982, the page-system was used.
The two Play-Offs and the Backdoor all were best-of-ones, followed by a best-of-three Holland Series, which was won by Terrasvogels.
A year later, the page-system was used again.
The best-of-one was no success.
To create more suspense, no best-of-ones were played anymore.
Instead, the Play-Offs, Backdoor and Holland Series all became a best-of-three series, as was the case in 1984.
| Most Championship-titles, Head Coaches |
| Titles | Head Coach | Club(s) |
| 6 | Hans Janssen | DSS (3), Terrasvogels (3) |
| 4 | Teun van den Berg | Terrasvogels |
| 4 | Ruud Elfers | HCAW |
| 3 | Juni Francisca | Sparks Haarlem |
| 3 | Johan Kluijskens | Sparks Haarlem |
| 3 | Craig Montvidas | HCAW (2), Twins (1) |
| 3 | Rob Walgien | Terrasvogels (2), DSC '74 (1) |
| 2 | Peter van Dalen | Sparks Haarlem |
| 2 | Stanley Doney | Olympia Haarlem |
| 2 | Ton Hendriks | Sparks Haarlem |
| 2 | Paula van der Mark | HHC |
| 2 | Don Wedman | Terrasvogels |
| 2 | Toon Verzijlberg | DSS |
|
For 1985, it was decided that the season-winner again became the champion.
This also was to be the rule for 1986, but then Terrasvogels and Bloemendaal ended in a tie.
It was opted that these teams were to play a best-of-three to decide the championship and that's what happened, but this is no official Holland Series.
In 1987, the Play-Off/Holland Series-format returned with best-of-three series, as was done in 1988.
There was no postseason in 1989 and in 1990 another new format was introduced.
The season was split in two halves and the winners of these halves met each other in a best-of five Holland Series.
Problem with this format was that when the winner of both halve was the same team that would be the champion and there would have been no Holland Series.
In 1991-1994, the Play-Offs expanded.
There were best-of-three series after completion of the both the first and second half to create more suspense.
Also, the Holland Series was expanded from a best-of-three to a best-of-five from 1992 on, also to create more competitiveness.
It also gave a team the possibility to come back in a series and turn it its way.
In 1995, the Play-Offs returned to be played only after completion of the regular season, which was not split in two halves anymore.
In the new set-up, the season-winner met the number 4 in the ranking, while the other best-of-three Play-Off was played between the numbers 2 and 3 of the season.
The winners then met in a best-of-five Holland Series.
This format was kept in place through 2000, in 1998 it was even expanded with extra best-of-three Play-Offs with a total of eight teams.
The same format was used from 2001 on, but the Play-Offs then also were expanded to a best-of-five, again to create more suspense.
The format of a best-of-five Play-Offs and Holland Series was used through 2011 and that resulted in several very attactive series.
| Most Holland Series-participations |
| HS | Club |
| 22 | Terrasvogels |
| 18 | Sparks Haarlem |
| 9 | HCAW |
| 5 | Twins |
| 4 | Olympia Haarlem |
| 3 | Tex Town Tigers |
| 2 | HHC |
| 1 | Alcmaria Victrix, DSC '74,
DSS, Roef! |
|
In 2012, the page-system returned, the Play-Offs again became a best-of-three, but the Holland Series remained a best-of-five.
And that has been the case since then.
In 2015, it was decided to create a new format.
In this new set-up, all deciding series in the highest division (three Play-Off series and the Holland Series) were limited to a best-of-one only.
Also, all deciding games were to be played in one weekend on a neutral site.
Not everyone was in favor of this set-up.
Not only in reducing the most important moment of a season to only one game, but also to play them at another site, instead of the home-site of a team.
In 2015, the winner of the regular season automatically qualified for the Final-weekend, while the other three had to play an additional Play-Off Round to decide the ranking and with that, the match-ups in the Play-Off Series.
This Play-Off Round also was played at one location, which in 2015 was the site of Almere '90 in Almere.
Also in 2015, the first games of the Promotion/Relegation Series were played at one site, which was the site of Gryphons in Rosmalen.
A year later, the unsuccessful additional Play-Off Round was dropped again, as was the First Round of the Promotion/Relegation Series.
Instead, the top-4 of the regular season in the highest division faced each other once in a Play-Off Series, with the number one reaching the Holland Series and the team in last place being eliminated for the Finals.
The Play-Off Series was played at the sites of the two best teams of the regular season.
The Promotion/Relegation Series were played in its entirety duing the Season Finals.
In 2017 and 2018, the two best teams of the Play-Offs qualify for the Holland Series.
As it was realized that a best-of-one was not a satisfying ending of the season, the Finale became a best-of-three again in 2017.
| Most Postseason-participations |
| PS | Club |
| 32 | Terrasvogels |
| 27 | Sparks Haarlem |
| 16 | Twins |
| 13 | HCAW |
| 8 | Olympia Haarlem |
| 7 | Bloemendaal, Tex Town Tigers |
| 5 | Amsterdam Pirates |
| 4 | DSC '74, DSS, HHC |
| 3 | Alcmaria Victrix, Roef! |
|
This year, despite an unsuccessful introduction in 2015, the top-four had to play an additional Qualification Round after completion of the regular season to determine the pairing of teams for the following Play-Offs.
However, after three weeks of playing, the final standing of the Qualification Round was the same as in the regular season.
The Play-Offs was played again via the page-system this year.
The two best teams met and the winner advanced to the Holland Series.
The losing team then met the winner of the best-of-three between the third and fourth best teams in the backdoor series to determine the second finalist.
Since 1982, a Play-Off Round was on the schedule 33 times.
Terrasvogels participated in 32 of these Play-Offs, which is the record.
Since 1997, the team qualified for the Play-Offs annually after having missed its lone Play-Off in 1996.
Sparks Haarlem reached the postseason annually since 1994 and has now played in 27.
Olympia Haarlem played in the postseason for the eighth time since 2011 and annually since 2013.
Roef! played in its third postseason.
In 2015, Hoofddorp Pioniers hosted the first 'Season Finals Weekend'.
In 2016, all games were played at the site of Sparks Haarlem and in 2017, Roef! was the host of the Finals in Moergestel.
Last year, the games were played at the site of Olympia Haarlem in Haarlem.
This year, Haarlem-based club Onze Gezellen hosted the Season Finals Weekend, which was plagued by bad weather conditions.
The last five Holland Series all ended in a sweep (including two best-of-ones).
The last non-sweep was done Terrasvogels winning an suspenseful best-of-five (3-2) against Sparks Haarlem in 2013.
Tonight was the tenth extra-inning game in Holland Series, but only the second to finish with a run-difference of more than one.
The first to do so was Terrasvogels, which won 9-2 in eight innings against Sparks Haarlem in Game 2 of their best-of-five in 2007.
It was the third extra-inning game in which the winning team won the Championship-title.
The last time was in 2016 when Sparks Haarlem won 1-0 in eight innings against Terrasvogels in what then was only a best-of-one.
Roef! had only one player on its roster with Holland Series-experience, being Cindy van der Zanden, who played in the Final in 2015 and 2016 when she was with Sparks Haarlem.
Twelve players played in the first Holland Series of their career, being Kim Donkers, Céline Janssens, Rachael Knapp, Eva van Knegsel, Wies Ligtvoet, Isa Los, Marjolein Merkx, Logan Moreland, Elizabeth Snow, Amy Udink, Sophie Verdaasdonk (all Roef!) and Sarah Edwards (Olympia Haarlem).
Two umpires also made their Holland Series-debut, being Martin Lemstra (Game 1) and Britt Nielandt (Game 2), who became the first Belgian umpire to officiate in the Holland Series.
Two official scorers also were active in their first Holland Series, being Jeanette van Drunen (Game 1 and 3) and Karin Pieneman (Game 2).
|
Roef! captures first Championship-title; First Brabant-team in 25 years
In the bottom of the eighth, Roef! 2B Cindy van der Zanden made a great game-saving play, making a diving catch on a line drive, then doubled up the tie-break runner.
But with two outs and one strike on next batter Dinet Oosting, the lights suddenly turned black and a delay followed.
Luckily, it didn't take long for the lights to return to full capacity, but when the light failure could not have been solved, everyone had to return on Tuesday-evening for maybe one pitch!
After a 22-minute delay, the game resumed.
Six pitches and two minutes later, the game ended with a groundout.
The best-of-three Golden League/Silver League Promotion/Relegation Play-Off, which also is part of the Season Finals, has been moved to coming weekend.
All games will be played at the site of Onze Gezellen, the host of the Season Finals.
Amsterdam Pirates is one of the teams and awaits the result of the tie-breaker between DSS and Twins Oosterhout, which is scheduled to be played on Tuesday-evening in Bussum at the site of HCAW.
It also was an option to move the third and deciding game of the Holland Series to coming weekend, but both teams opted to play on Monday-evening instead.
It was reported that both teams would be incomplete coming weekend, as most foreign players then would have returned home.
Also, since last weekend was the final of this season, some players also had some vacations planned.
Game 3, best-of-three Holland Series; Roef! wins Series 2-1 and is Dutch champion.