(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Neptunus Softball)
    Neptunus wins international tournament in Israel
Nederlands
 EILAT (Israel) -
The softball-team of Neptunus won the 14th edition of the Ayelet International Games on Friday (March 8) after winning against The International Mix from Great Britain 11-10 in the suspenseful final.
The international tournament is held annually in Eilat, the southernmost city of Israel, located at the northern tip of the Red Sea on the Gulf of Aqaba.
On Wednesdat, the team flew to Eilat, where the games were played under sunny weather conditions.
On the same day, the Rotterdam-based team played its first game, facing Misgav Twisters hosting Israel.
Neptunus recorded a big 17-2 victory.
On Thursday, Neptunus played two games.
First, the team faced Checie Mrkve Praha from the Czech Republic.
Initially, Neptunus trailed 6-0 after one bad inning, but then turned the game around and won 9-7.
Later on the day, Neptunus played an exciting game against The International Mix (Great Britain), but won 5-3 to qualify for the Semi-Final.
...The players of Neptunus and Misgav Twisters pose together...
(© Photo: Neptunus Softball) |
On Friday-morning, in the Semi-Final, Neptunus shutout Ayelet Angels (Israel) 13-0 to advance to the Final.
In the afternoon, Neptunus met The International Mix in the Final and again, it was a nail-biter.
Both teams were very equal, resulting in a close game.
In the end, Neptunus won 11-10 thanks to a basesloaded walk for Anouk van den Heuvel.
In 2016, the Neptunus-team promoted to the Silver League.
In both 2017 and last season, Neptunus finished in eighth place in the second highest league.
Gabriel Waage, President of the European Softball Federation (ESF) and Secretary General Ami Baran (who is from Israel) handed out the Awards during the Closing Ceremony on Friday.
The event in Eilat is an open invitation tournament open to all club-teams from Europe, but also to individual players or group of players.
Each team is guaranteed to play at least four games.
This year, eight women-teams participated, as well as 13 men's teams.
Amongst the women-teams was also a team from Hungarian capital Budapest, Reds.
There also was a Dutch participant in the men's tournament, which was DVH from Amstelveen.
Also, for the first time, a Baseball-5 Tournament was hosted in Israel during the event.
The tournament is played under the auspices of
Ayelet - The Federation of Non-Olympic Sport in Israel, which was founded in 1996.
Ayelet has currently 30 sports associations as members.
(March 8)
| 
