(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
   Tex Town Tigers suffers huge loss in Mastenbroek-opener
Nederlands
 ENSCHEDE (Neth.) -
On a rainy and chilly Friday-evening (March 31), the softball-team of host Tex Town Tigers suffered a huge 22-0 shutout-loss in the opening-game of the 38th edition of the annual international J.C.J. Mastenbroek Tournament.
Besides six teams from the Dutch big league, also participating are Joudrs Praha from the Czech Republic and the National Team of Switzerland.
Friday started with a lot of rain and a lot of water on the home-site of Tex Town Tigers in Enschede.
A lot of work was done throughout the day to make the fields playable and the groundscrew succeeded in doing so.
And so, in the evening the first games could be played in both the softball- and baseball-tournament.
The baseball-team of Tex Town Tigers played a 6-6 tie against Barracudas Zürich (Switzerland) in a 4-inning game.
The softball-team of Tex Town Tigers lost 22-0 against Joudrs Praha in a game that also lasted four innings and mostly was played in a drizzling rain.
Despite the very unfavorable weather-conditions, Home Plate Umpire Arjan de Wever did the entire game in short sleeves.
A week ago, Tex Town Tigers finished in third place in the Prealpi Tournament in Bollate (Italy), but tonight, the team was unable to be productive.
This year, TTT has a very small roster after some players left the team after last season.
TTT then faced Olympia Haarlem in the Holland Series and forced a deciding fifth game (which was lost).
By reaching the Holland Series, TTT qualified for participation in this years European Premiere Cup-tournament.
But after the season, all coaches stepped down and seven players left.
That the team has a small roster was underscored tonight, as new (Canadian) Head Coach Danielle de Ruiter started as rightfielder.
Opponent Joudrs Praha collected 15 basehits off of two pitchers, including three by Karolína Nosková.
All nine players in the Czech batting order collected at least one basehit and scored at least two runs.
Winning pitcher Adéla Linková struckout five batters and allowed only two to reach base.
With one out in the second inning, she walked rookie Amber Geus.
And with two outs in the third, newcomer Erin Turko (from Canada) reached with a bunt-single, which was to be the lone basehit for TTT.
Joudrs rallied for five runs in the first inning off of Canadian starter Zoe Gillis, who some seasons ago also played for TTT.
A 2-run double by Karolína Nosková highlighted the rally.
In the second inning, Joudrs added nine more runs.
After having hit the lead-off hitter with a pitch, Gillis gave up five basehits (and walked one batter), including a 2-run triple by Karolina Duorakova.
With no outs and with Joudrs leading 9-0, Nina Geurtsen took over the pitching, but she saw the Czechs score five more runs.
Geurtsen then did fine in a scoreless third inning and struckout two batters.
But in the top of the fourth, Joudrs added eight more runs on five basehits and three errors.
Kristýna Horáková accounted for the highlight in the at bat when she drove the ball down the rightfield-line, which became a 2-run, inside-the-park-homerun.
Thereafter, Zoe Gillis returned into the pitching circle.
For Saturday, eleven games are scheduled, but unfortunately, the weather-predictions are not that favorable.
Games also will be played on Sunday.
Schedule
Livestream-coverage by SDTV (SoftbalDino) will be available for all games.
(March 31)
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