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(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Fred Versluis & Marco Stoovelaar)
    Netherlands Softball Team adds two mercy-rule wins in EC; Lindsey Meadows injured
Nederlands
 SANT BOI DE LLOBREGAT (Spain) -
The Netherlands Softball Team played two games on Tuesday (July 26) in the Second Round of the 33rd edition of the European Championship, which is held in Catalunya, Spain.
Today, the Orange Team met Poland and Greece in Pool F.
...Lindsey Meadows...
...injured...
(© Ph: Marco Stoovelaar) |
The team won both games, but saw veteran player Lindsey Meadows leave the first game after being hit in her face by a foul ball.
Meadows sustained a fractured cheekbone and a concussion.
With that, the pitcher will not play again in the remainder of the tournament.
But luckily, no surgery is needed.
The Netherlands first recorded a big 16-0 victory in 2½ inning against Poland.
Jessie van Aalst threw a 3-inning No-Hitter.
In the late afternoon, the Netherlands played its next game against Greece and won 8-1 in five innings.
The Netherlands Team opened the event on Sunday with a 7-0 shutout-win against Germany in the First round.
On Monday, team opened the Second Round with a 7-0 win against the Czech Republic.
With that, all four games played by the Netherlands have ended via the mercy-rule.
As there are 99 games scheduled during this Championship on four sites, several games are not starting at the scheduled time due to the length of previous games.
Twenty games were scheduled for today.
The Netherlands Team today played both its games in Sant Boi de Llobregat.
The team was to begin at 11:15 against Poland, but started at 12 PM instead.
The first game in Sant Boi between Greece and Slovakia, which started at 9 AM, took two hours and 44 minutes to complete.
Because of this, all other following games in Sant Boi also started later than planned.
The game between the Netherlands and Poland took one hour and 21 minutes and was followed by the game between Spain and the Czech Republic.
That game took two hours and 45 minutes to be completed.
Thereafter, the Orange Team was to play against Greece.
Instead of 3:45 PM, that game now started at 5:15 PM, one-and-a-half hour later than scheduled.
Two more games were scheduled to be played in Sant Boi following the Netherlands vs. Greece game.
The Czech Republic and Slovakia game was scheduled to begin at 6 PM, then Poland and Spain were to begin at 8:15 PM.
However, due to the two games that lasted almost three hours, these games of course also didn't start on time.
Games also started late in Viladecans, where some games also lasted more than two hours.
Belgium recorded two big victories today.
The team first won 20-3 against Malta in a 4-inning game.
Belgium then won 24-8 in a 2½ inning game against Finland, scoring 23 runs in the second inning.
During this Championship, American coaches Connie Clark and Michelle Gromacki are members of the coaching-staff of Finland, which is led by Manager Marko Kärkkäinen.
In part of 2018 and 2019, Clark and Gromacki were coaches of the Netherlands Softball Team.
On Wednesday, the Netherlands again will play two games, this time in Barcelona.
The team then meets Slovakia (11:15 AM) and Spain (3:45 PM).
(July 26)
Other scores today:
Pool E (Championship Round Qualifier): Ireland vs. Great Britain 4-11 (5 inn.); Italy vs. Germany 4-3; Israel vs. France 6-4; Italy vs. Ireland 7-0 (6 inn.); France vs. Germany; Israel vs. Great Britain.
Pool F (Championship Round Qualifier): Slovakia vs. Greece 4-13 (6 inn.); Czech Republic vs. Spain 4-0; Czech Republic vs. Slovakia 7-0 (4½ inn.); Poland vs. Spain.
Pool G (13th-21st place): Austria vs. Türkiye 15-0 (3 inn.); Malta vs. Belgium 3-20 (4 inn.); Ukraine vs. Switzerland 4-3; Croatia vs. Finland 10-0 (4 inn.); Malta vs. Türkiye 8-0 (4½ inn.); Belgium vs. Finland 24-8 (2½ inn.); Ukraine vs. Austria; Croatia vs. Denmark.
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Netherlands vs. Poland
The Netherlands Team set the tone in this game with a 12-run rally in the bottom of the first inning.
However, there also was a scary moment, as the team saw veteran player Lindsey Meadows leave the game after she was hit in her face by a foul ball.
Lead-off hitter Britt Vonk reached second base when a throwing error was made on her bunt.
She then scored when next batter Annemiek Jansen hit the ball into deep left-centerfield for an inside-the-park-homerun, which was the first homerun of the team this event.
Hereafter, Damishah Charles doubled and scored the third run on an one-out single by Laura Wissink.
She advanced to third base when Dinet Oosting followed with a ground-rule double.
That brought Lindsey Meadows, who was the designated player, in the batter's box.
With a 2-1 count, the veteran player fouled off the next pitch from Polish starter Emilia Kozioł.
On the next delivery, Meadows again made contact, but the ball bounced from her bat straight to the right side of her face, just under her helmet.
Meadows immediately fell down and clearly was in pain.
She was attended by the team's Physical Therapist Bas Besselink, as well as two members of the Spanish Red Cross (Cruz Roja).
While attending the player, Besselink used the concussion-protocol to check up on her.
After some five minutes, Meadows was able to stand up and walk, but she had to be supported while leaving the field.
At the hospital, it was diagnosed that Lindsey sustained a fractured cheekbone, as well as a concussion.
...Jessie van Aalst...
...No-Hitter...
(© Photo: Fred Versluis) |
With a 2-2 count, Mariëlle Vleugels took over the at bat of Meadows and reached on an infield-hit, which brought in Wissink.
Oosting advanced to third base and she scored the next run when a walk for Lizzie Clarijs ended in a wild pitch.
Vleugels and Clarijs moved to the next base after Suka Van Gurp flied out, then both scored when Britt Vonk drilled the ball over the centerfield-fence for a 3-run homerun.
Now leading 8-0 with two outs, Annemiek Jansen walked and scored the next run when a fly by Damishah Charles was missed in the outfield.
Charles ended up on second base.
That was followed by a defensive conference by Polish Head Coach Borbély Dušan.
After that had ended and with the Netherlands now leading 9-0, Orange Head Coach Ferenc Jongejan went into a discussion with Czech Home Plate Umpire Jiři Dostál, which appeared to be regarding the total of defensive conferences used by the Polish coach.
But as this was only the first conference, no pitching change was needed to be made and the game continued.
Moments later, Charles scored the tenth run on a single by Cindy van der Zanden.
Hereafter, Laura Wissink followed with a ground-rule double.
With runners on second and third base, Dušan then did made a pitching change and inserted Ewelina Piszczek as new pitcher.
She was greeted with a 2-run triple by Dinet Oosting that lifted the lead to 12-0.
The Netherlands Team added four more runs in the bottom of the second inning.
Lead-off hitter Lizzie Clarijs reached on an error, then scored when Suka Van Gurp hit an inside-the-park-homerun.
Hereafter, Britt Vonk hit her second over-the-fence homerun in this game.
With one out, Damishah Charles singled, moved when Cindy van der Zanden reached on an error and scored on a grounder by Laura Wissink.
Jessie van Aalst started for the Netherlands.
The lefthander retired the first six batters she faced, four of them with a strikeout.
In the top of the third inning, Agnieszka Ciesielska became the lone Polish baserunner when she reached on an error.
Moments later, she was eliminated when next batter Sylwia Stankowska grounded into a double play.
Another grounder then ended both the at bat, as well as the game.
With that, Van Aalst had thrown a 3-inning No-Hitter.
This was only the second game in history between the Netherlands and Poland.
The first time was in 2019 when the Championship was held in the Czech Republic and Poland.
The Orange Team then won with a 10-0 score.
Playing for the Netherlands in this game were Britt Vonk (SS), Annemiek Jansen (LF), Damishah Charles (RF), Cindy van der Zanden (CF), Laura Wissink (C), Dinet Oosting (1B), Lindsey Meadows (DP), Mariëlle Vleugels (PH/DP), Lizzie Clarijs (3B), Suka Van Gurp (2B) and Jessie van Aalst (P, Flex Player).
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| Netherlands - Poland 16-0 (2½ inn.) |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | | R | H | E |
| Poland | 0 | 0 | 0 | | | | | - | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Netherlands | 12 | 4 | X | | | | | - | 16 | 12 | 1 |
| pitchers Poland | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Emilia Kozioł, L (0-1) | 0.2 | - | 2 | 8 | 12 | 4 |
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| Ewelina Piszczek | 1.1 | - | - | 4 | 4 | 2 |
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| pitcher Netherlands | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Jessie van Aalst, W (1-0) | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - |
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| (Jessie van Aalst throws a No-Hitter) |
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| Homeruns: Netherlands: Annemiek Jansen (1)(inside-the-park,1st,2-run,0 outs,off Kozioł), Britt Vonk 2 (2)(1st,3-run,2 outs,off Kozioł; 2nd,solo,0 outs,off Piszczek), Suka Van Gurp (1)(inside-the-park,2nd,2-run,0 outs,off Piszczek). |
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Netherlands vs. Greece
In its second game today, the Netherlands Kingdom Team led 6-0 after four innings, then reached a mercy-rule run-difference in the bottom of the fifth to record its fourth mercy-rule win in a row.
The first two Orange-runs were scored in the bottom of the first inning off of Greek starter Chelsea Runyon.
She is one of several American born-and-raised players in the Greek team, who are eligible to play for the country because of their Greek roots.
Britt Vonk led off with a bunt-single, moved into scoring position via a sacrifice bunt by Eva Voortman, stole third base, then scored when a throwing error followed.
With two outs, Jessie van Aalst singled and scored the second run on a triple by Cindy van der Zanden.
In the second inning, the Netherlands was retired in order by Chelsea Runyon, who was 8-5 with 83 strikeouts this past college-season pitching for the Hawks, the softball-team of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, for whom she plays since 2020.
...Mariëlle Vleugels...
...2 hits, double, 2 RBI's...
(© Photo: Fred Versluis) |
But three more runs were then added in the third at bat.
Again, Britt Vonk led off with a bunt-single.
The speedy Vonk then stole second base and moved to third base on a throwing error.
With one out, Brenda Beers reached second base in a fielder's choice-situation.
Moments later, both Vonk and Beers scored.
Vonk took off from third base in what appeared to be a squeeze-situation, but batter Jessie van Aalst missed.
A throwing error towards third base followed, enabling Vonk to score.
Beers advanced to third base, where 3B Demi Ann Patonis was in her way.
1B Umpire Jiři Dostál immediately gave the signal for obstruction, but Beers went on to score when another error followed.
And that made it a 4-0 score.
After Van Aalst had flied out, Cindy van der Zanden singled and scored on a double by Mariëlle Vleugels.
In the fourth, leading 5-0, the Orange Team clearly wanted to reach another mercy-rule run-difference.
With two outs and Damishah Charles (walk) on first base, Eva Voortman was the batter.
Charles then stole second base and moved to third base on an error.
Voortman then walked and immediately continued running towards second base.
In this situation, Charles scored, but Voortman was caught stealing, being tagged out at first base in a 2-1-6-3 rundown.
Veteran righthander Rebecca Soumeru was announced as starting pitcher, but it was Eva Voortman who did the pitching from the first inning on.
The lefthander retired the first twelve batters she faced, stiking out seven batters.
In the top of the fifth, Voortman lost the Perfect Game, No-Hitter and ShutOut.
She gave up a lead-off single to Caramia Tsirigos, then walked Konstantina Zepeda.
With one out, Tsirigos scored on a double by Brianna Nykaza.
With runners on second and third base, Voortman closed with two strikeouts.
This was the first run given up by the Dutch defense in four games.
With a 6-1 lead, the Netherlands scored twice in the bottom of the fifth off of Kathryn Stavrou, who had taken over the pitching in the third inning.
Brenda Beers led off with a double and Jessie van Aalst walked.
Mariëlle Vleugels followed with a runscoring single.
Suka Van Gurp, the pinch-runner for Vleugels, then stole second base and the bases got loaded when Dinet Oosting reached on an error.
Annemiek Jansen followed with a walk-off single that made it an 8-1 score.
Playing for the Netherlands in this game were Britt Vonk (SS), Eva Voortman (DP/P), Brenda Beers (CF), Jessie van Aalst (RF), Cindy van der Zanden (2B), Mariëlle Vleugels (1B), Suka Van Gurp (PR), Dinet Oosting (C), Annemiek Jansen (LF), Damishah Charles (3B) and Rebecca Soumeru (Flex Player, announced starter).
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| Netherlands - Greece 8-1 (5 inn.) |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | | R | H | E |
| Greece | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | | | - | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Netherlands | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | | | - | 8 | 9 | 0 |
| (one out when 7-run difference was reached in the fifth inning) |
| pitchers Greece | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Chelsea Runyon, L (1-1) | 2.2 | 2 | - | 6 | 5 | 5 |
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| Kathryn Stavrou | 1.2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
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| pitchers Netherlands | inn. | SO | BB | H | R | ER |
| Rebecca Soumeru | - (*) | - | - | - | - | - |
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| Eva Voortman, W (1-0) | 5 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
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| (*) - Soumeru was announced as starting pitcher, but was replaced by Voortman when top 1st inning began |
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Copyright © 1997-2022 Marco Stoovelaar / Grand Slam * Stats & News.
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5-minute injury delay after Lindsey Meadows (Netherlands) was hit in her face by a foul ball in the bottom of the first inning with one out, runners on second and third base and the Netherlands leading 3-0.