(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Hoofddorp Pioniers & Roef! split exhibition double-header
Nederlands
 HOOFDDORP (Neth.) -
Golden League-teams Hoofddorp Pioniers and Roef! played a double-header on Saturday (March 23) in Hoofddorp.
Initially, this was to be a 3-team event, as both teams also were scheduled to play against Terrasvogels.
However, a few days earlier, Terrasvogels announced it was unable to play due to some injuries in its small selection.
Terrasvogels now will play its first games of the exhibition season coming weekend in the Haarlem Series at the site of Onze Gezellen.
With that, Pioniers and Roef! decided to play a double-header.
That was split, as Roef! won the opener, then Pioniers won the second game.
This year, Pioniers will make its comeback in the highest league.
Last year, Pioniers was one of two teams to promote to the Golden League, which expands this season from six to eight teams.
The other team to come back is Twins Oosterhout.
For both teams, it were the first games that were played outdoors.
Two weeks ago, Roef! played five indoor-games during its annual Pre-Season Tournament.
Therefore, the double-header was used to get some playing rhythm.
Head Coaches Glennsig Polonius (Pioniers) and Jeroen Swers (Roef!) looked at the possibilities of their players and used some on different positions.
It was also a moment for them to see how to use new players.
With that, all available pitchers were used in both games.
It was reported that it was a cold afternoon at the site of Pioniers in Hoofddorp.
On the other hand, it also was reported that it was chilly, but not cold during a baseball-game played in the stadium on the same site.
The difference is the location of both fields.
The baseball-field is surrounded by stands.
The softball-field is located at the leftfield-side of the stadium in an open area, which can create cold weather conditions.
That also happened in September last year during the first edition of the Super 6 Baseball Softball.
Then, it also was much colder and windier on the softball-field than in the baseball-stadium.
In the opening game, Sheila van der Tang (last season Twins) and Serena Kersten pitched for Pioniers.
Roef! used several pitchers, including Suzanne van Brakel, who made her debut in the main-squad.
Roef! recorded a comfortable 9-1 victory.
In the second game, Kelsey Huijzers and Iris Strookman pitched for Pioniers.
For Roef!, all available pitchers again threw, including Marjolein Merkx, Kim Horsten and Suzanne van Brakel.
Roef! also appeared to win this game, but in the end, it was Pioniers that left the field with a good feeling, having won 4-3.
(March 23)
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