(Story & Photo by Marco Stoovelaar)
    Netherlands Softball Team opens European Championship with big shutout
Nederlands
 RONCHI DEL LEGIONARI (Italy) -
The Netherlands Women's Softball Team opened the 22nd edition of the European Championship Women's Softball in Italy on Sunday-morning (June 27) with a big 16-0, mercy-rule, shutout against Austria.
In its first game, the Orange Team belted six homeruns.
Today, the Netherlands played one of the first two games of the tournament that started at 10 AM.
On Monday, the Orange Team will play its next game.
This time, it will be one of the two final games of the day, starting at 8 PM, against Germany.
The European Championship is the second international event in Europe this season and follows the European Men's Softball Championship, which was concluded on Saturday in the Czech Republic.
Last year, all international events in Europe were cancelled due to measures against the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Initially, the Women's Championship was to be held in June last year, but early April, the tournament was postponed to the end of September.
However, in May, the Championship was postponed to this year.
Besides winning the European title, there are several other qualifications at stake in this year's tournament.
The European champion also will qualify for participation in the World Games, the three best teams will qualify for the WBSC Women's World Cup and the six best teams will qualify for the second edition of the Super6.
Initially, the World Cup was scheduled for this year, but due to the re-scheduling of all international (qualifying) events, the next World Championship will now be held in 2023 and will shift to a 4-year cycle again.
The organizing country has not yet been announced.
The World Games, which is a multi-sport event, will be organized next year in Birmingham, Alabama (USA).
This event initially was scheduled in July this year, but was moved to next year due to the re-scheduling of the Olympic Games.
The Super6, which was organized for the first time in 2018, also will be organized again next year.
Seventeen countries participate in this years European Championship in Italy.
Five of them play in Group A which is formed by host and defending champion Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Russia.
Playing in Group B are Netherlands, which was the second finalist two years ago, Austria, Germany and Lithuania.
Group C is made up by Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Israel.
And Group D is formed by France, Slovakia, Spain and Ukraine.
Initially, in last year tournament, there would have been 22 participating countries and six groups.
In the first round of the event, the teams in Groups C, D, E and F would play with the winners advancing to Groups A and B, which the teams already qualified for these groups joining in the second round.
However, Belgium, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland and Switzerland all opted not to participate.
With that, a new format, group alignments and new schedule was set up.
The Netherlands Softball Team prepared in Italy the past week and played four exhibition games.
On Tuesday, the Netherlands won 7-3 in its first exhibiton game against Italy.
The Orange Team recorded two convincing victories against France on Wednesday, winning 9-0 and 11-1.
And on Friday-evening, the team won 12-3 against the Czech Republic.
...Tommasita Pavan & Mariana Prins...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
There are also five officials from the Netherlands active in this years Championship.
Mariana Prins, Tommasita Pavan and Arjan Mens will be on the field as umpire.
Wout Isbouts is one of technical commissioners and Hans Hornstra is one of the Umpires-in-Chief.
Isbouts and Hornstra also served in these positions in the previous two Championships.
Of the three umpires, Mariana Prins is the most experienced.
Next month, she also will be one of the umpires in the softball-tournament of the Olympic Games in Japan.
In the past few years, she also was an umpire in the 2017 European Championship, 2018 World Championship and 2019 Europe/Africa Olympic Qualifier.
Tommasita Pavan and Arjan Mens are officiating in their first European Championship and make their international debuts in European tournaments.
In the past few years, both officiated in some international tournaments in the Netherlands.
For Pavan, this will be her first big international tournament.
Mens also umpired in Little League-events in the Netherlands and was an umpire during the Junior League Softball World Series in the USA in 2018.
Tommasita Pavan made her debut today behind the plate in the game between France and Denmark.
In that game, she was joined by the very experienced international umpires Gianluca Magnani (Italy) and Galip Sönmez (Germany).
Later in the day, she was at third base in the game between Israel and Croatia.
Arjan Mens also made his debut behind the plate, which he did in the game between Russia and Bulgaria.
He then officiated at third base in the game between Poland and Hungary.
Mariana Prins was at first base in her first game today, which was the meeting between the Czech Republic and Denmark.
She then was behind the plate in the evening-game between host Italy and Russia, which was the official opening game of the tournament and followed the Opening Ceremony in Castions di Strada.
Joining her in that game were two other experienced umpires, Franck Lautier (France) and Jens Jakobsen (Denmark).
Wout Isbouts and Hans Hornstra also were in function in this game.
Veteran Italian pitcher Greta Cecchetti threw a No-Hitter in this game.
(June 27)
Other scores of Day 1:
Czech Republic vs. Denmark 9-0 (4½ inn.), Russia vs. Bulgaria 10-0 (4 inn.), France vs. Ukraine 5-2, Spain vs Slovakia 5-3, Lithuania vs. Germany 1-17 (4 inn.), Israel vs Croatia 7-0 (5 inn.), Poland vs. Hungary 11-1 (4 inn.), Italy vs. Russia 9-0 (4½ inn.).
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The Netherlands scored its first run before the second batter had done something.
Britt Vonk led off with a bunt-single and stole second base with Brenda Beers in the batter's box.
Vonk then also stole third base and scored when an error followed.
Ten years ago, Vonk and Lackner were teammates in the Dutch big league when both played for Tex Town Tigers.
After Vonk had scored, Beers grounded out.
With two outs, Maxime van Dalen singled and scored on a triple by Cindy van der Zanden, who herself also was able to score when an error was made.
In the top of the fifth, the Orange Team did reach a mercy-rule run-difference with a 7-run rally, highlighted by two back-to-back homeruns.
With one out, Laura Wissink reached on an infield-hit, then moved to third base when Dinet Oosting reached on an error.
Lizzie Clarijs followed with a runscoring single, then the bases got loaded when Suka Van Gurp reached on a fielder's choice.
Britt Vonk then connected for a 2-run double.
With two outs, Annemiek Jansen drove the ball into rightfield for a 3-run homerun and Maxime van Dalen followed with a solo-shot.
The Netherlands now had a 16-0 lead.
644th international game of the Netherlands Women's Softball Team.