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(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Roef! and Olympia Haarlem split opening double-header
Nederlands
 MOERGESTEL (Neth.) -
Roef! and Olympia Haarlem, who met in last years Holland Series, faced each other on Saturday (April 18) in the first double-header of the new season.
Last year, Roef! lost the opener of the best-of-three Holland Series, but then won the next two games to capture the Championship-title.
With that, Roef! not only won its first Championship, it also became the first Champion from the Province of North Brabant in 25 years.
Today, Olympia Haarlem shutout the reigning champion 6-0 in the opener.
Roef! recovered and won the second game with a 5-4 score.
Today was Opening Day in the Golden League, later than ever in history.
The season initially was scheduled to open on Saturday, April 18.
From March 12 on, the entire exhibition season was cancelled due to announced measures against the spread of the coronavirus.
From March 23 on, the start of the regular season was postponed frequently.
On June 24, the Dutch Government announced that most measures were eased, effective July 1.
The next day, the KNBSB announced that the regular season in both the Golden League and Silver League were to open today, July 18.
Also, teams were given a period of two weeks to prepare.
Several exhibition games were scheduled and also the Jan de Wit Tournament returned to the program.
This season marks the first time since 2009 that the Netherlands Juniors Team is not participating in the highest league.
Since 2010, the team played either as Young Orange or Talent Team Holland.
However, last season, after having played twelve games, the team withdraw and all its games were annulled.
(July 18)
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Game 1
The first four innings of the opening game remained scoreless, as both starting pitchers encountered no problems.
Roef!-starter Marjolein Merkx got only one runner in scoring position.
Alyson Spinas-Valainis went the distance for Olympia Haarlem.
In the first four innings, Roef! got three runners in scoring position, including one on third base.
Recently, Roef! added three French players to its roster for this season, Rosalie Coste, Chiara Enrione-Thorrand and Emma Patry.
Last year, the last two were members of the Under-16 Team of France during the European Championship U16 in Croatia.
All three played for Les Pharaons during the European Cup Winners Cup-tournament in the Czech Republic.
During that event, the French team was coached by Roef! Head Coach Jeroen Swers, while Roef!-players Marjolein Merkx and Sophie Verdaasdonk were guest-players.
Besides the French trio, German National Team-player Lara Brockmeyer also joined the team.
Last year, she participated with Germany in the European Softball Championship in the Czech Republic and Poland.
Marjolein Merkx retired the side (two strikeouts) in the first inning, then got two baserunners in the next at bat.
With one out, Anna Prins singled in her first Golden League-at bat, but was then forced out on a grounder by Shaneeka Croes, who also made her debut in the highest division.
In the third inning, Merkx struckout the first two batters, then gave up a double to Brenda Beers, who was left behind on second base.
Olympia Haarlem was retired in order again in the fourth.
Sterre den Duijn led off the first inning for Roef! with a walk in her first at bat for the reigning champion.
After last season, she transfered to Roef! from Twins Oosterhout.
After Spinas had struckout the next two batters, Den Duijn stole second base, but was left behind.
Spinas added three strikeouts in the second inning.
In that at bat, she gave up an one-out single to Onaisha Franka, who stole second base, but then two more strikeouts followed.
Roef! was retired in order in the third, then reached base again in the fourth.
Cindy van der Zanden led off with a single, but later stranded on third base.
In the fifth and sixth inning, the defense of Roef! committed four errors, which led to five unearned runs.
In the fifth, both Shakeena Croes and Rachel van Veen (sacrifice bunt) reached on errors.
Both scored when Corinne Ammerlaan followed with a double.
With one out, Ammerlaan scored the next run on a single by Brenda Beers.
Olympia Haarlem added three more runs in the sixth off of new pitcher Kim Horsten.
Mariëlle Vleugels led off the at bat with a single, stole second base, then scored on a single by Anna Prins.
She advanced on an outfield-error and scored when next batter Shakeena Croes reached third base on a throwing error.
Croes scored the third run in the inning on a grounder by Corinne Ammerlaan, which raised the lead to 6-0.
Roef! also got into scoring position in the sixth and seventh inning, but was held scoreless by the Olympia-defense.
With one out in the sixth, Cindy van der Zanden reached on an error and with two outs, Charlotte Drijvers singled, but then a force out followed.
And in the seventh, German pinch-hitter Lara Brockmeyer led off with a single in her first Golden League-at bat.
Hereafter, Alyson Spinas struckout her ninth and tenth batter, but then gave up a single to Sterre den Duijn.
Again, force play ended the at bat and as this was the seventh inning, it also ended the game.
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| Roef! - Olympia Haarlem 0-6 |
| R | H | E |
| Olympia Haarlem | 000 | 033 | 0 | - | 6 | 6 | 1 |
| Roef! | 000 | 000 | 0 | - | 0 | 6 | 4 |
| pitcher Olympia Haarlem | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Alyson Spinas-Valainis, W (1-0) | 7 | 10 | 1 | 6 | - | - |
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| pitchers Roef! | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Marjolein Merkx, L (0-1) | 5 | 6 | - | 4 | 3 | - |
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| Kim Horsten | 2 | 1 | - | 2 | 3 | 1 |
Umpires: HP-Martin Lemstra, 1B-Britt Nielandt.
Official Scorer-Dieks Bannink.
Play-by-Play Scorer-Linda Steijger.
Public Address Announcer-Rieke Dirks.
Scoreboard Operator-Hannie Mulders.
Starting Time-2:00 PM.
Time Played-2:00 hrs.
Site-Sportpark 'Stokeind', Moergestel.
Game Notes:
 Game 1 of double-header.
Anna Prins, Shakeena Croes, Fleur Verdonk, Mayke Maas (all Olympia Haarlem), Chiara Enrione-Thorrand, Rosalie Coste, Emma Patry, Lara Brockmeyer and Eva Versloot (all Roef!) all make their debut in the Golden League.
Gregory Grampon (Head Coach Olympia Haarlem) makes his debut as Coach and as Head Coach in the Golden League.
Anna Prins (Olympia Haarlem) and Lara Brockmeyer (Roef!) both hit a single in their first Golden League at bat.
Game was scheduled for Saturday, May 23 in the original program, but was annulled on April 21.
Weather conditions at game time:
Partly cloudy, 26° C (78,8° F); wind direction south-southwest; wind speed 11 kmh (6,8 mph); wind force 2 Bft; humidity 56%. |
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Game 2
Olympia Haarlem also took the lead in the second game and even held the lead three times.
But those leads were erased by Roef!, which then took the lead in fifth and hold onto it.
In the top of the first inning, off of starter Shomayra Franka, Olympia Haarlem scored its first run.
The righthanded rookie gave up a lead-off single to Brenda Beers, who stole second base and advanced on a wild pitch.
With one out, Jessie van Aalst walked, then Beers scored an unearned run when, with two outs, an error was made on a force play-grounder by Anna Prins.
Roef! reacted with two runs in its first at bat off of starter Mariëlle Vleugels.
Sterre den Duijn led off with a walk and moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt by Kim Donkers.
Next batter Cindy van der Zanden reached on an error, then Sophie Verdaasdonk followed with a 2-run triple.
Olympia re-took the lead in the top of the third, scoring two runs, which were also unearned.
Brenda Beers led off with a single and Lisa Hop walked.
With runners on first and third base and one out, an single by Mariëlle Vleugels was followed by an outfield-error and both runners scored.
Roef! stranded another runner on third base in the second at bat.
Lara Brockmeyer led off with a double and moved on a passed ball, but was left behind.
Trailing 3-2, Roef! came alongside in the third.but failed to take the lead.
With one out, Cindy van der Zanden walked and Sophie Verdaasdonk singled.
Charlotte Drijvers then followed with a runscoring single.
The bases got loaded when an error was made on a sacrifice bunt by Onaisha Franka.
With three runners on base, Lisa Hop took over the pitching for Olympia.
She got a foul-fly and a force out and so, three runners were left behind.
In the fourth inning, Olympia took the lead for the third time.
Rachel van Veen led off with a walk, then Kim Horsten relieved Shomayra Franka.
She walked Corinne Ammerlaan, but followed with a strikeout.
Moments later, Van Veen was forced out on a grounder by Brenda Beers, then a wild pitch led to runner on second and third base.
Hereafter, Lisa Hop produced a runscoring single.
Due to the tranfer-rule, the run was credited to Franka.
With Beers on third base, Hop stole second base, but Horsten closed with a strikeout.
For the third time, Roef! erased the deficit, this time scoring an unearned run.
French lead-off hitter Chiara Enrione-Thorrand reached on an error, then moved on a sacrifice bunt by Sterre den Duijn and a single by Kim Donkers.
With two outs, the tying run was scored on a single by Sophie Verdaasdonk, who was 3-for-4.
With the score now at 4-4 and runners on first and second base, Hop closed with a strikeout.
Olympia came close to taking the lead for the fourth time in the fifth.
Mariëlle Vleugels led off with a single and moved on a wild pitch and a grounder.
Marjolein Merkx then became the third pitcher for Roef! and retired the next two batters.
In the bottom of the fifth, Roef! took a 5-4 lead.
Onaisha Franka led off with a triple and scored on a passed ball with one out.
Olympia got another scoring opportunity in the top of the sixth, but then stranded three runners.
With two outs, Brenda Beers walked, Lisa Hop singled and Jessie van Aalst also walked, but a grounder ended the at bat.
In the top of the seventh, Marjolein Merkx retired the side to seal the win.
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| Roef! - Olympia Haarlem 5-4 |
| R | H | E |
| Olympia Haarlem | 102 | 100 | 0 | - | 4 | 6 | 3 |
| Roef! | 201 | 110 | X | - | 5 | 8 | 2 |
| pitchers Olympia Haarlem | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Mariëlle Vleugels | 2.1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
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| Lisa Hop, L (0-1) | 3.2 | 4 | - | 4 | 2 | - |
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| pitchers Roef! | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Shomayra Franka | 3 (*) | - | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
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| Kim Horsten | 1.1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | - | - |
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| Marjolein Merkx, W (1-1) | 2.2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - |
| (*) - Shomayra Franka pitched to one batter in the fourth inning |
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Copyright © 1997-2020 Marco Stoovelaar / Grand Slam * Stats & News.
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