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(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Kitty Dirksen) Neptunus also wins Pre-Season Indoor Tournament Nederlands REUSEL (Neth.) - The women's softball-team of Neptunus has won its second international tournament of the year. On Sunday (February 26), the Rotterdam-team won the 15th edition of the annual international Pre-Season Indoor Tournament, organized by Roef! in the indoor-facilities of Optisport Sporthuis Reusel, which is located in the city of Reusel, south of Moergestel, which is Roef!'s home-city. Just over a month ago, Neptunus won the international Indoor Cup Softball Tournament in Schiedam. Back then, Neptunus nipped Roef! 1-0 in the Final. This time, Neptunus recorded another shutout in the Final, winning 4-0 against Onze Gezellen. Nine teams participated this year, including one from abroad, which was Les Pharaons d'Evry-Courcouronnes from France. Last year, Neptunus also won the Pre-Season Tournament, which was first organized in 2008. A year ago, Neptunus also faced Onze Gezellen in the Final and then won with the same score (4-0). For Neptunus, this is the third time in a row that it wins the tournament, as it also win in 2020. The tournament was cancelled in 2021, due to the measures against COVID-19. Also last year, Neptunus made its debut in the Dutch big league. (February 25-26)

First Round In the First Round, the nine participating teams were divided into three Pools. In Pool A, Neptunus finished in first place by winning its two games against Euro Stars (2-0) and Les Pharaons (5-1). Euro Stars also outscored the French team with a 6-3 score to finish in second place. In Pool B, it was Roef! that won twice. The host-club opened with a 3-1 win against UVV, which this season will make its comeback in the highest Dutch league. Roef! then shutout Hoofddorp Pioniers 10-0 in its next game. Roef!-pitcher Kim Emmen not only kept Pioniers scoreless, she also didn't allow a batter to reach base, throwing a Perfect Game. The third game in the Pool, between UVV and Pioniers ended in an 1-1 tie. In Pool C, Red Lions began the tournament with two victories. The team first won 8-1 against Onze Gezellen, then won 8-1 in its next game against Twins Oosterhout. In the opening-game in this Pool, Onze Gezellen had outscored Twins Oosterhout with a big 15-2 score. The three Pool-winners (Neptunus, Roef!, Red Lions) advanced to Pool M in the Second Round. The three teams (Les Pharaons, Hoofddorp Pioniers, Twins Oosterhout) that ended up in third place continued in Pool N. The three teams that had finished in second place were divided. The two teams (Onze Gezellen, Euro Stars) that had the best record or best run-ratio joined the teams in Pool M, the third-best second team (UVV) played the Second Round in Pool N.

Second Round In the Second Round, the rankings in Pools M and N decided who would face who in the placement-games of the tournament. In Pool M, Neptunus remained unbeaten, but began with two narrow escapes. In the first two games in this Pool on Saturday-afternoon, Neptunus won only 1-0 against Roef! and Euro Stars. On Sunday, Neptunus began with a more convincing 7-0 win against Red Lions to become the first finalist. Neptunus then closed the Second Round with a 6-0 win against Onze Gezellen, which had become the second finalist moments earlier. Onze Gezellen opened this round on Saturday with a 3-1 win against Red Lions. The team then had to play three games on Sunday. The Haarlem-team then first shutout Euro Stars 4-0. In its next game against Roef!, Onze Gezellen scored twice in the fifth inning to break a scoreless tie, but as the inning was not completed, the runs didn't count for the final score. And so, the game finished with a 0-0 score, but the tie was enough for OG to become the second finalist. The team then closed the Second Round with the above mentioned 6-0 loss against Neptunus. Roef! and Euro Stars ended in a tie for third place in Pool M, meaning they would face each other in the Bronze Medal-game. Red Lions finished in fifth place and advanced to the game for fifth and sixth place against UVV, which was the winner of Pool N. UVV opened the Second Round on Saturday with a 5-2 win against Twins Oosterhout, then shutout Les Pharaons 2-0 later that day. On Sunday, UVV closed with a small 1-0 win against Hoofddorp Pioniers to remain unbeaten in Pool N and advance to the game for fifth and sixth place. Les Pharaons and Pioniers respectively finished in third and fourth place in Pool N. With that, they would face each other in the game for ninth place. The winner of that game moved to the game for seventh and eighth place against Twins Oosterhout, which had finished in second place in Pool N.

Placement Games Ninth Place Hoofddorp Pioniers and Les Pharaons met each other in this game, which ended with a 5-5 tie. As Les Pharaons reached third base the most times in this game (tournament-rule), the team was declared the winner, meaning Pioniers finished in ninth place. The French team advanced to the game for seventh and eighth place. Les Pharaons scored all its runs with two outs. In the second inning, the first run was scored on a single by Ambre Brouard. The lead was doubled in the third at bat on a passed ball, then the third run was added in the fourth at bat on a single by Jade Aubard. In the fifth, Christil Philippe and Pareng de Ridder singled, then both scored on a double by Leonie Panthe to put the French team ahead, 5-0. But in the bottom of the fifth inning, Pioniers rallied and came alongside. Ilysa Hoepelman and Fleur Witvliet led off with singles. After a double steal, a grounder by Djinny Leeuw accounted for the first run, then an error led to the next one. That was followed by a runscoring single by Kayleigh van de Linden. After Pioniers got the bases loaded, a force out at the plate accounted for the second out. But thereafter, Ilysa Hoepelman delivered a 2-run single to make it a 5-5 score, which also became the final score. 7th/8th Place Twins Oosterhout outscored Les Pharaons 6-3 to finish in seventh place. Twins rallied for four runs in the first at bat. The team got the bases loaded quickly off of starter Amelie Bacelon when Kelly Bezems led off with a single, Gitte Janssen doubled and Beba Cheong walked. Singles by Madelief Croonen and Rosa Henebiens then led to the first two runs. With one out, a walk for Zusi Hermans and a single by Jasmijn van de Donk lifted the lead to 4-0. An error and a grounder by Yana Rottier led to two runs in the third at bat. Twins-starter Sara de Graeve held the French opponent scoreles in the first three innings. Reliever Maud Talma then gave up three runs in the fifth inning. With the bases loaded and one out, a walk led to the first run. A grounder by Christel Philippe then produced the next run, followed by an RBI-single by Pean Andrews. 5th/6th Place In this game, Red Lions outscored UVV 6-2 to finish in fifth place. Red Lions opened the score with two runs in the first inning off of starter Lauren Heijnsdijk. With two outs, Carmen Dijkhuizen delivered a runscoring single. With the bases loaded, the second run was then scored when Larice Kloppers walked. The team of Head Coach Gregory Grampon then took more distance by adding four runs in the third inning. The bases got loaded via Carmen Dijkhuizen (single), Kim Kusters (bunt-single) and Rosalie Iannelli (single). With two outs, two runs were scored on a single by Lara van Voorthuizen. The bases were then re-loaded when Quilen Dirksz also singled. A single by Sophie de Vos then brought in the next run and an error accounted for the fourth run in the at bat. UVV left two runners behind in the second inning, then got one run back in the bottom of the third off of Saskia Steenbakkers, who went the distance for Red Lions. Laura Arp led off with a single, advanced on a grounder by Britt van Veen, then scored on a single by Ilona Marcelis. UVV scored its second run with two outs in the fifth. With one out, Nienke Trapman and Marleen van Gastel then singled. With two outs, the first scored on a single by Eliza Rikkelman. 3rd/4th Place In the game for third place, Roef! had a strong outing against Euro Stars, recording a big 9-0 shutout-victory to win the Bronze Medal. Marjolein Merkx went the distance for Roef! and struckout eight of the first ten batters she faced. In the first five innings, only one batter of Euro Stars was able to reach base. That was with one out in the fourth inning when Bobbi Scheurkogel singled. Last year, she initially was on the big league-roster for Sparks Haarlem, but then stopped shortly before the start of the season. In the sixth inning, Euro Stars got its final two runners on base. Liz van der Hoeven led off with a single and moved into scoring position via a sacrifice bunt by Laura Schouten. Hereafter, Bobbi Scheurkogel was hit by a pitch, then both runners advanced on a grounder by Shari van Heyningen. But they stranded on second and third base, as Marjolein Merkx closed with her twelfth strikeout. Roef! was kept scoreless in its first two innings by Nyasha Dunlop, who was supported with a line drive in the second at bat. Roef! then opened the score in the third. Isa Los (error) then scored the first run on an one-out double by Benthe Zwanenburg, who scored herself on a 2-out single by Kim Emmen. Four runs were added in the fourth inning on a single by Nicky Uytendaal, a 2-run single by Kate Geldof and a force play-grounder by Melissa Rottiers. Roef! took more distance in the fifth inning, thanks to a 2-run single by Lisa de Vries. The ninth run was scored in the sixth on another double by Benthe Zwanenburg, who was 3-for-4 and reached base five times.

Final ...Players and coaches of Neptunus celebrate... ...winning their second tournament in 2023... (© Photo: Kitty Dirksen) In the Final of the tournament, Neptunus-pitcher Eva Voortman dominated again, as she also had done on the final day of the Indoor Cup-tournament in Schiedam a few weeks earlier. Back then, she threw three consecutive Perfect Games (the first of them was combined), including the Semi-Final and Final. Today, the lefthander came close to another Perfect Game, but this time, she had to settle for an one-hitter. In the top of the second inning, veteran player Karin Tuk-Adriaansz led off for Onze Gezellen with a single. She was to be the lone OG-batter to reach base and stranded on first base. Eva Voortman struckout nineteen (!) batters in the Final. After having given up the single in the second inning, she struckout the next sixteen batters in a row! This means that of the 22 batters she faced, only three were able to bring the ball into play. Besides the already mentioned basehit by Karin Tuk, there were two grounders in the top of the seventh inning. Karin Tuk then led off with a grounder and after Voortman had struckout her 19th batter, Puk de Groot grounded to first base, which ended the game. Neptunus opened the score in the bottom of the first inning, but didn't decide the game until the fourth inning when it rallied for three more runs.Eva Voortman led off with a walk and stole second base off of starting pitcher Yala Zwakman. With one out, Voortman moved to third base on a grounder by Laura Wissink, then scored on a following single by Anouk van den Heuvel. Hereafter, Neptunus got the bases loaded when Rachel van Veen also singled and Tammie Lijbers walked. But the three runners were left behind. Last season, Wissink played for Tex Town Tigers, Van Veen for Olympia Haarlem and Lijbers for Sparks Haarlem. With one out in the fourth inning, Neptunus added three more runs to take more distance. Keedy Florentini then walked and stole second base, followed by a single by Eva Voortman, who also stole second base. Judith Buschman then followed with a runscoring single and Laura Wissink added a 2-run double to make it a 4-0 score. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Roos-Marijn Kramer took over the pitching for Onze Gezellen. She gave up no more runs and struckout the side in the sixth.

Neptunus - Onze Gezellen 4-0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E Onze Gezellen 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 1 2 Neptunus 1 0 0 3 0 0 X - 4 7 0 pitchers Onze Gezellen inn. SO BB H R ER Yala Zwakman, L (1-1) 4 2 3 6 4 4 Roos-Marijn Kramer 2 4 - 1 - - pitcher Neptunus inn. SO BB H R ER Eva Voortman, W (2-0) 7 19 - 1 - - Umpires: HP-Jeanot van Vliet, 1B-Arjan Mens, 3B-Wout van der Horst. Scorer-Rieke Dirks. Umpire Commissioner-Rein Merkx. Starting time-4:00 PM. Time Played-0:00 hrs. Site-Indoor-hall 1, Optiesport Sporthuis Reusel, Reusel (Netherlands). Game Notes: Final 15th Roef! Pre-Season Softball Tournament.

Officials The umpires who participated in the fifteenth edition of the Roef! Pre-Season Softball Tournament were Daniël van Campenhout, Wout van der Horst, Arjan Mens, Conny van Meurs, Serge Meijer, John van Renswoude, Jac van Riel, Tjeerd Schouten and Jeanot van Vliet. Rein Merkx acted as Umpire Commissioner during the two-day event. Rieke Dirks, José Gram, Annie Hekkers and Hannie Mulders acted as scorers.

Final Standings 1 Neptunus (Netherlands) 4 Euro Stars (Netherlands) 7 Twins Oosterhout (Netherlands) 2 Onze Gezellen (Netherlands) 5 Red Lions (Netherlands) 8 Les Pharaons (France) 3 Roef! (Netherlands) 6 UVV (Netherlands) 9 Hoofddorp Pioniers (Netherlands)

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