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(Story & Photos by Marco Stoovelaar) Olympia Haarlem and Terrasvogels advance to Final Round European Cups Nederlands BOLLATE (Italy) / PRAGUE (Czech Rep.) - FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem and Terrasvogels both advanced to the Final Round of their respective European Cup-tournament. Through the games played on Tuesday, all kinds of combinations, ties and scenarios were still possible with theoretical chances that both teams could still be eliminated. But their spot was secured on Tuesday-evening without playing, as they couldn't miss the Final Round whatever the combination of teams would have been after completion of the final games on Wednesday. On Wednesday (August 21), the two teams completed the Preliminary Round. In Bollate (Italy), Olympia Haarlem shutout Wesseling Vermins (Germany) 7-0 in six innings in the European Premiere Cup-tournament. Olympia clinched a spot in the Final Round when Bollate won 2-1 against Les Comanches (France) on Tuesday-evening. Terrasvogels played two games on Wednesday in the European Cup Winners Cup-tournament in Prague (Czech Rep.). The team started with a convincing 9-1 win in 4½ inning vs. Joudrs Praha (Czech Rep.). In the afternoon, Terrasvogels won 13-0 in five innings against Alligators Sombor (Serbia). Terrasvogels was secured of a spot in the Final Round on Tuesday-afternoon when Joudrs Praha won 10-3 against Alligators. The third day in Prague also saw the longest game of the event, as the game between Rivas (Spain) and Eagles Praha (Czech Rep.) took three hours and 52 minutes to complete. The Czechs won 20-12 in eight innings. (August 21)

FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem vs. Wesseling Vermins Olympia Haarlem was held scoreless in the first three innings by Wesseling Vermins-starter Claudia Volkmann, but then opened the score in the fourth and rallied for four runs in the fifth at bat. ...Brenda Beers... ...single, double,... ...2 runs, 1 RBI... (© Ph: Marco Stoovelaar) Claudia Volkmann pitched in the Dutch Golden League in 2017 and 2018 for Terrasvogels and this season, she pitched for Euro Stars in the Silver League. In the first three innings, the righthander allowed only one Olympia-batter to reach base. With two outs in the second inning, Mariëlle Vleugels doubled, stranded on second base and was the lone baserunner. In the fourth inning, Olympia opened the score with two runs. With one out, Brenda Beers doubled and scored on a single by Cindy van der Zanden. She moved to second on the throw to the plate, then advanced to third base on a sacrifice bunt by Shareday Christina. After an intentional walk for Mariëlle Vleugels, pinch-hitter Jessie van Aalst delivered an RBI-double. Olympia rallied for four runs in the fifth inning. Virginie Anneveld started the rally with a lead-off double, then moved on a single by Eva Voortman, who ended up on second base. Anneveld then scored on a sacrifice fly by Dinet Oosting and Voortman added another run, scoring on a bunt-single by Brenda Beers, who advanced herself on a throwing error. A pitching change followed, as Hannah Held took over. She was greeted with a runscoring single by Cindy van der Zanden. With two outs, Mariëlle Vleugels singled in the fourth run. In the meantime, the German opponent was held scoreless by Alyson Spinas-Valainis. The righthander gave up a lead-off infield-hit to Milena Böttger that started the game in the top of the first inning. She was later forced out at second base to end the inning. Spinas then retired the side in the second and third at bat. In the top of the fourth, Wesseling got close to scoring the first run, as Brittany Barnes hit a triple with one out. A grounder and strikeout followed. With a 2-0 lead, Eva Voortman took over the pitching for Olympia in the top of the fifth. The lefthander struckout the first two batters, but then walked the next two. A flyout ended the German at bat. With two outs in the top of the sixth, Voortman gave up a single to Lisa-Marie Kovačević-Köllner. She plays in the Golden League for Tex Town Tigers, where her husband Robert Kovačević is the Head Coach. He also is in Bollate, as he is the Head Coach of Barracudas Zürich from Switzerland. In the bottom of the sixth, Olympia reached the 7-run difference to end the game. With one out, Eva Voortman reached on an infield-hit and moved on a wild pitch and a grounder by Chelsie Robison. She then scored when pinch-hitter Amber Krijgsman's grounder ended in a throwing error.

FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem - Wesseling Vermins 7-0 (6 inn.) R H E Wesseling Vermins 000 000 - 0 3 2 FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem 000 241 - 7 10 0 (two outs when 7-run difference was reached in the sixth inning) pitchers Wesseling inn. SO BB H R ER Claudia Volkmann, L (0-2) 4.1 - 1 7 5 5 Hannah Held 1.1 - 1 3 2 1 pitchers Olympia Haarlem inn. SO BB H R ER Alyson Spinas-Valainis, W (2-1) 4 5 - 2 - - Eva Voortman, SV (1) 2 2 2 1 - - Umpires: HP-Benjamin Milgrom (France), 1B-Giuseppe Laudani (Italy), 3B-Sabrina Fabrizi (Italy). Official Scorers-Maria Luisa Ruocco (Italy), Vincenzo Amoruso (Italy), Stefano Burlini (Italy). Technical Commissioner-Wout Isbouts (Netherlands). Starting Time-5:56 PM. Time Played-1:54 hrs. Site-Field #1, Centro Sportivo, Bollate (Italy). Game Notes: European Premiere Cup 2019.

Terrasvogels vs. Joudrs Praha Terrasvogels started the day well with a convincing win against Joudrs Praha, which normally is a tough opponent and is one of the best teams in Czech softball-history. Joudrs had won its first three games, but was limited to only one basehit by the Terrasvogels-pitching and faced a big 9-0 deficit after two innings. ...Katharina Szalay... ...2 runs scored... (© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) Terrasvogels struck with three runs in the bottom of the first inning off of starter Adéla Linková. The righthander walked lead-off hitter Katharina Szalay, then got the bases loaded when an error was made on a sacrifice bunt by Nadine Marinus and Lizzie Clarijs also walked. Hereafter, the first runs were scored when Solange Starrenburg and Karin Tuk delivered runscoring singles. With the bases still loaded, Yindi Beekveldt hit the ball into leftfield, where it was caught. Clarijs, the runner on third base, was unable to score, but she then was enabled to score after all when a throwing error towards second base followed. Tuk and Starrenburg stayed at first and second base respectively. When pitcher Adela Linková struckout next batter Desiree Adriaansz and got the ball back from her catcher, she threw it towards second base where an error was made. That enabled Starrenburg to move to third base, but she stranded there, as a grounder ended the at bat. Terrasvogels rallied for six runs in the second inning. This time, Gabi Obia and Katharina Szalay led off with singles. Next, an error on a force play-grounder by Nadine Marinus enabled Obia to score and led to runners on second and third base. Solange Starrenburg (two runs) and Karin Tuk (one run) followed with back-to-back doubles. Yindi Beekveldt was the next baserunner when she reached on an error and Terrasvogels again got runners on second and third base on a grounder by Desiree Adriaansz. Merel Oosterveld followed with a 2-run single to lift the lead to 9-0. In the next two innings, Terrasvogels was retired in order by new pitcher (and National Team-player) Lucie Zappová, but the Czechs were unable to do something back. Terrasvogels-pitcher Hannah Bandimere retired the first nine batters she faced (four strikeouts). Joudrs then got on base and scored its lone run in the fourth inning. Lead-off hitter Tereza Jakešová reached on an error and Adéla Weissová followed with a single, which was the lone one for the Czechs. The two moved on a grounder, then Jakešová scored on a grounder by Julie Coufalová. The inning ended with a grounder by Lorraine Kieft, the Dutch guest-player of Joudrs, who plays for DSS in the Dutch Golden League. Hannah Bandimere struckout the side in the fifth inning to end the game.

Terrasvogels - Joudrs Praha 9-1 (4½ inn.) R H E Joudrs Praha 000 10 - 1 1 4 Terrasvogels 360 0X - 9 7 1 pitchers Joudrs inn. SO BB H R ER Adéla Linková, L (0-1) 2 1 2 7 9 4 Lucie Zappová 2 - - - - - pitcher Terrasvogels inn. SO BB H R ER Hannah Bandimere, W (2-0) 5 7 - 1 1 - Umpires: HP-Beate Utzig (Austria), 1B-Michael Renggli (Switzerland), 3B-David Hurley (Great Britain). Official Scorers-Misa Malá (Czech Rep.), Petra Malá (Czech Rep.). Technical Commissioner-Gabriele Hardinger (Austria). Starting Time-11:00 AM. Time Played-1:05 hrs. Site-Field #1, Eagles Park, Prague (Czech Rep.). Game Notes: European Cup Winners Cup 2019.

Terrasvogels vs. Alligators Sombor The third day of the event began with a change in the game-schedule due to rain on Tuesday-evening. The game between Therwil Flyers and Moscow was halted in the fifth inning and was completed on Wednesday-morning. The game between Rivas and Eagles Praha didn't start on Tuesday and was also re-scheduled for Wednesday-morning. However, this game had a crazy line score. Rivas led 6-1 after six innings, but then Eagles rallied for eleven (!) runs in the top of the seventh to take a 12-6 lead. Then, in the bottom of the seventh, Rivas scored six runs to tie the score and force extra innings. In the top of the eighth, Eagles scored eight more runs to make it a 20-12 score in its favor. Rivas was held scoreless in the bottom of the eighth and the game finally ended after three hours and 52 minutes! ...Karin Tuk... ...4-for-4, 2 doubles... ...1 run, 2 RBI's... (© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) Initially, the remainder of the Therwil vs. Moscow-game was scheduled to begin at 8 AM, while Terrasvogels was to play against Alligators at 9 AM, as scheduled. That all changed, as the first game began at 9:30 and Terrasvogels started at 11 AM. The long game between Rivas and Eagles then disrupted the schedule. Several games need to be moved to another time-slot and even another field. At the big Eagles Park, a third field has to be used. It is on this field that Terrasvogels plays against Alligators. But there is more, due to the re-scheduling of games, some assignments of umpires and official scorers also change. Because of this, there are only two, instead of three, umpires at the Terrasvogels-game. Besides that, initially there is only one instead of two official scorers. However, Karin Pieneman, who is the team-scorer of Terrasvogels, but also is an official scorer in the Dutch baseball- and softball-leagues, filled in as the second scorer. In its second game, Terrasvogels needed five innings to win with a 13-0 score. The team collects 17 basehits, including four by Karin Tuk (4-for-4) with two doubles. Merel Oosterveld and Jessica Waasdorp both have three basehits. Waasdorp bats in three runs. Eight of the nine players score at least one run and eight of them had at least one run batted in. Roos-Marijn Kramer went the distance for Terrasvogels. She struckout twelve batters and gave up only one basehit. After having retired the first eleven batters of the Serbian team, she gave up a 2-out single to Irina Spasojevic in the fourth inning, but followed with a strikeout. It was to be the lone baserunner for Alligators. Terrasvogels opened the score with three runs in the second inning. Jessica Waasdorp led off with a double, advanced on a passed ball and scored the first run on a single by Karin Tuk. The latter moved to third base on two grounders, then scored on a double by Gabi Obia, who then scored the next run on a single by Desiree Adriaansz. Four runs were added with two outs in the fourth at bat. Lead-off hitter Kelsy Pieneman reached on an error. With two outs, she moved to third base on a single by Merel Oosterveld, then Yindi Beekveldt followed with a 2-run double. Beekveldt then stole third base and scored when Nadine Marinus reached on an error. She then scored the fourth run in the inning on a single by Jessica Waasdorp. A ground-rule double by Karin Tuk followed, but two runners were left behind. A 6-run rally then was staged in the top of the fifth on seven basehits. With one out, Gabi Obia singled and Desiree Adriaansz hit a ground-rule double. The two respectively scored on a wild pitch and a single by Merel Oosterveld. Hereafter, the bases got loaded when Yindi Beekveldt reached on an infield-hit and Nadine Marinus walked. Jessica Waasdorp, who is recovering from an injury, then delivered a 2-run single. Moments later, Karin Tuk and Bobbi Scheurkogel added runscoring singles to lift the lead to 13-0.

Alligators Sombor - Terrasvogels 0-13 (5 inn.) R H E Terrasvogels 030 46 - 13 17 0 Alligators Sombor 000 00 - 0 1 2 pitcher Terrasvogels inn. SO BB H R ER Roos-Marijn Kramer, W (2-0) 5 12 - 1 - - pitcher Alligators inn. SO BB H R ER Alexandra Bajic, L (0-2) 5 1 1 17 13 9 Umpires: HP-Gregorio Carletti (Italy), 1B-Jes Sandhu (Great Britain). Official Scorers-Misa Malá (Czech Rep.), Karin Pieneman (Netherlands). Technical Commissioner-Gabriele Hardinger (Austria). Starting Time-5:45 PM. Time Played-1:12 hrs. Site-Field #3, Eagles Park, Prague (Czech Rep.). Game Notes: European Cup Winners Cup 2019.

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