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(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Fred Versluis)
     Netherlands Softball Team wins twice in Second Round European Championship; Qualifies for Super6
Nederlands
 CASTIONS DI STRADA (Italy) -
The Netherlands Women's Softball Team successfully opened the Second Round of the 22nd edition of the European Championship Women's Softball in Italy.
On Wednesday (June 30), the Netherlands Team played two games on one day for the time during the event.
Day 4 was the busiest of the tournament with thirteen scheduled games to be played at four sites.
Both Orange-games ended with a mercy-rule run-difference and both ended with a walk-off homerun.
The team first won 8-1 against France, then shutout Israel 9-0 later in the day to secure a spot in Group X, which is the Play-Off Round.
By reaching this Group, the Netherlands also qualified for participation in the second edition of the Super6, which will be held next year.
All six teams that advance to Group X will qualify for this event, which was held for the first time in 2018 in Hoofddorp (Netherlands).
On Thursday-morning (10 AM), the Orange Team closes Group F against Russia in Castions di Strada.
As France won 5-3 against Russia tonight, the Netherlands will finish in first place in Group F.
With that, the Orange Team will stay in Castions di Strada on Thursday where it will open the Play-Off Round (Group X) against the winner of Group E at 8 PM.
Who that will be will be decided in the games to be played on Thursday.
On Friday, the team again will play two games for the third consecutive day to close the Play-Off Round.
This time, the Netherlands will play both games in Ronchi dei Legionari.
At 12:30 PM, the opponent will be the team that finishes in third place in Group E.
And at 5:30 PM, the Orange Team will play against the team in second place from Group E.
The teams in first and second place in Group X will qualify for the Final on Saturday-evening.
The Orange Team opened the tournament on Sunday-morning with a 16-0, mercy-rule, shutout against Austria.
On Monday-evening, the team recorded a 9-6 victory in what was an unpexted suspenseful and close game against Germany, then closed the First Round on Tuesday with a 16-0 win against Lithuania.
Besides winning the European title, there are several other qualifications at stake in this year's tournament.
As mentioned, the six best teams will qualify for the second edition of the Super6, which will be organized again next year.
The European champion also will qualify for participation in the 2022 World Games and the three best teams will qualify for the 2023 WBSC Women's World Cup.
(June 30)
Other scores of Day 4:
1st through 8th place:
Group E: Spain vs. Germany 8-9; Italy vs. Czech Republic 5-0; Germany vs. Czech Republic 2-10 (5 inn.); Italy vs. Spain 13-0 (3½ inn.).
Group F: Russia vs. Israel 5-7 (8 inn.); Russia vs. France 3-5.
9th through 17th place:
Group G: Lithuania vs. Ukraine 0-19 (4 inn.); Poland vs. Denmark 10-1 (5 inn.); Lithuania vs. Hungary 4-12 (6 inn.).
Group H: Bulgaria vs. Austria 5-14 (5inn.); Croatia vs. Slovakia 2-1.
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Netherlands vs. France
...Cindy van der Zanden...
...two homeruns...
(© Photo: Fred Versluis) |
The Netherlands was outhit 7-6 by France and briefly trailed, but then rallied for four runs in the bottom of the first inning.
The team went on to finish the game with a mercy-rule run-difference, thanks to a walk-off homerun by Cindy van der Zanden, which was her second fourbagger in the game.
Van der Zanden batted in five of the eight Orange-runs.
France opened the score with two outs in the top of the first inning off of starter Lisa Hop.
Kimane Rogron led off with a double and moved to third base with one out via a sacrifice bunt by Eloïse Tribolet, who played in the Dutch big league for Tex Town Tigers in the 2019 season.
With two outs, Rogron scored on a double by Emilie Olivier, but this was to the lone French run in this game.
The Netherlands answered with four runs in the bottom of the first inning off of starter Louise Le Chenadec.
The Orange Team got the bases loaded quickly.
Britt Vonk led off with a walk, Brenda Beers reached on an infield-hit and Jessie van Aalst singled.
Vonk then scored the tying run on a grounder by Maxime van Dalen.
And hereafter, Cindy van der Zanden followed with a 3-run homerun to put the Netherlands ahead, 4-1.
The Orange Team added a run in the second inning.
With one out, Britt Vonk hit a triple, which led to a pitching change.
Enora Simon took over, but her first pitch to next batter Brenda Beers was a wild pitch, which enabled Vonk to score.
The next run was scored with two runs in the bottom of the third inning.
It was Dinet Oosting who then belted her fourth homerun in four days (and in four games) to lift the lead to 6-1.
After having scored in the first inning, France was retired in order in the second inning, but got a runner in scoring position in the third.
With two outs, Pauline Prade and Eloïse Tribolet both singled, but they stranded on first and third base.
Like Tribolet, Prade also played in the Dutch big league.
She played for Olympia Haarlem in 2016.
Lisa Hop then retired the side again in the top of the fourth and closed with two strikeouts.
In the fifth inning, Kirsten Scheele took over the pitching.
With two outs, she also gave up two singles, this time hit by Kimane Rogron and Pauline Prade.
Hereafter, Eloïse Tribolet also singled again.
On this hit, Rogron tried to score, but was eliminated at the plate on a throw from centerfielder Annemiek Jansen, who had just entered the game.
The ball reached catcher Dinet Oosting in time to tag out Rogron.
And that ended the French at bat.
Moments later, the Netherlands reached a mercy-rule run-difference off of new pitcher Clélia Costes.
She walked Jessie van Aalst, but then Maxime van Dalen flied out.
That brought Cindy van der Zanden in the batter's box and she connected for her second homerun in the game.
This time, it was a walk-off homerun, as it ended the game, because the Netherlands had increased the lead to 8-1.
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| Netherlands - France 8-1 (5 inn.) |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | | R | H | E |
| France | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | | - | 1 | 7 | 0 |
| Netherlands | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | | | - | 8 | 6 | 0 |
| (one out when 7-run difference was reached in bottom 5th inning) |
| pitchers France | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Louise Le Chenadec, L (1-2) | 1.1 | - | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
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| Enora Simon | 2.2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
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| Clélia Costes | 0.1 | - | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
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| pitchers Netherlands | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Lisa Hop, W (2-0) | 4 | 5 | - | 4 | 1 | 1 |
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| Kirsten Scheele | 1 | 1 | - | 3 | - | - |
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| Homerun: Netherlands: Cindy van der Zanden 2 (2)(1st,3-run,1 out,off Le Chenadec; 5th,2-run,1 out,off Costes), Dinet Oosting (4)(3rd,solo,2 outs,off Simon). |
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Netherlands vs. Israel
...Dinet Oosting...
...walk-off grand slam homerun...
...5th homerun in 5 games...
(© Photo: Fred Versluis) |
The second game today began almost 45 minutes later than scheduled due to the length of the previous games played in Castions di Strada, which hosted five games.
After conclusion of the game between the Netherlands and France, Israel and Russia faced each other.
That game needed the first extra inning of the tournament, was won by Israel with a 7-5 score, but need two hours and 40 minutes to complete.
With that, the next game between Hungary and Lithuania started some 45 minutes later and almost took two hours.
And so, it became clear that the game between the Netherlands and Israel was not to begin at 6 PM.
When the game went underway, the Netherlands took an early lead, then took more distance in the third and fourth inning.
The team reached a mercy-rule run-difference in the fifth when Dinet Oosting belted a walk-off, grand slam homerun!
That was her second homerun of the day and her fifth in five games.
Cindy van der Zanden, who homered twice in the first game today, also homered again.
Israel got into scoring position only once off of the Orange pitching.
With two outs in the first inning, off of starter Ginger de Weert, Rebecca Blitz reached on an error, but stranded on first base.
In the second inning, Aliyah Heurta-Leipner walked, but also didn't got beyond first base.
After Israel was retired in order in the third inning, it got into scoring position and closest to a run in the top of the fourth.
With one out, Olivia Gott was hit by a pitch and Alexis Kaiser reached on an infield-hit.
With two outs, Gott was forced out at third base.
Israel then left another runner on first base in the fifth off of Marjolein Merkx.
The Netherlands opened the score with two runs in the bottom of the first inning off of starter Sydney Goldman.
She walked Britt Vonk and Brenda Beers.
The latter was forced out on a grounder by Jessie van Aalst, but hereafter, the bases got loaded when Maxime van Dalen walked.
Vonk then scored the first run on a wild pitch, but the bases were re-loaded when Cindy van der Zanden also walked.
Van Aalst scored the second run on a sacrifice fly by Mariëlle Vleugels.
After a scoreless second inning, two Orange-runs were added in the third at bat.
With one out, Jessie van Aalst walked and scored when Cindy van der Zanden hit the ball into deep centerfield for her third homerun of the day!
In the bottom of the fourth, Dinet Oosting led off with an infield-hit and scored the fifth run for the Netherlands when Laura Wissink followed with a double.
With a 5-0 lead, a mercy-rule win was in the making, as the team needed only two more runs to end the game in the fifth inning.
And these runs were indeed scored off of Vanessa Foreman, who had taken over the pitching in the fourth inning.
Jessie van Aalst led off with a walk and Maxime van Dalen singled.
After Van Dalen was replaced by pinch-runner Wies Ligtvoet, the two runners advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Cindy van der Zanden.
A force play was then set up by walking Mariëlle Vleugels intentionally.
Annemiek Jansen was then inserted as pinch-runner for Vleugels and Dinet Oosting was the next batter.
She connected well on the second pitch she saw and drove the ball into deep centerfield for a walk-off grand slam homerun.
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| Netherlands - Israel 9-0 (5 inn.) |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | | R | H | E |
| Israel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | | - | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Netherlands | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | | | - | 9 | 5 | 1 |
| (one out when 7-run difference was reached in bottom 5th inning) |
| pitchers Israel | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Sydney Goldman, L (1-1) | 3.1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 |
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| Vanessa Foreman | 1 | - | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
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| pitchers Netherlands | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Ginger de Weert, W (1-0) | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | - | - |
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| Marjolein Merkx | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | - |
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| Homeruns: Netherlands: Cindy van der Zanden (3)(3rd,2-run,2 outs,off Goldman), Dinet Oosting (5)(5th,grand slam,1 out,off Foreman). |
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Copyright © 1997-2021 Marco Stoovelaar / Grand Slam * Stats & News.
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647th international game of the Netherlands Women's Softball Team.