by Pim van Nes
As both DOOR Neptunus and L&D Amsterdam won their Sunday afternoon games in Netherlands Hoofdklasse, they confirmed their rankings as second and third as definite for the regular season final standing. This last day of the regular season matched the number two and three for the playoffs, but also numbers one and four: Corendon Kinheim and Konica Minolta Pioniers lost their today’s games, conserving their ranking in the final standing. Pioniers has the right to play one more official game versus ADO, but nothing can change their present fourth and eighth place in Hoofdklasse anymore.
Yesterday national title defender Kinheim conquered the Federation Cup by winning the regular season. Manager Ben Thijssen and his team beat Sparta/Feyenoord 6-0 in Rotterdam assuring the gap with runner-up Neptunus, which was defeated 7-4 by Pioniers in Hoofddorp. Today the results of Kinheim and Neptunus were the other way around. First game winner Kinheim was beaten by Sparta/Feyenoord 4-2 in Haarlem and first day loser Neptunus needed only eight innings to reach their 10-0 victory over Pioniers. Because Amsterdam won, today’s game versus Mr. Cocker HCAW 1-3 in Bussum, Pioniers was condemned to the fourth playoff position. Neptunus in this manner avoided semi finals matching with Pioniers, their fatal opponent in the latest two semi-finals of the Hoofdklasse playoffs.
Thursday September 18 Haarlem and Rotterdam will host Games one of the two semi-finals series in a best-of-five. The matching results on regular season’s last day coupled Kinheim with Pioniers and Neptunus with Amsterdam. Kinheim and Neptunus will play home games on Thursday and Sunday and a road game on Saturday. If necessary they will play a road game on Saturday September 27 and a home game on Sunday September 28. On Thursday the games will take off at 19:45 CET in Haarlem’s Pim Mulier Stadium and in Rotterdam’s Familie Stadium. All weekend games will start at 14:00 CET.
Pim van Nes
Baseball writer for
www.honkbalsite.com
www.sporttribune.nl
www.baseball.it
| Time | Home | Visitor | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, September 13 2008 | ||||
 |
14:00 | Amsterdam Pirates | Mr.Cocker HCAW | 07:02 (9) |
|
14:00 | Konica Minolta Pioniers | DOOR Neptunus | 07:04 (9) |
|
14:00 | MediaMonks RCH | ADO | 02:05 (9) |
|
14:00 | Sparta/Feyenoord | Corendon Kinheim | 00:06 (9) |
| Sunday, September 14 2008 | ||||
|
14:00 | ADO | MediaMonks RCH | 07:10 (9) |
|
14:00 | Corendon Kinheim | Sparta/Feyenoord | 02:04 (9) |
|
14:00 | DOOR Neptunus | Konica Minolta Pioniers | 10:00 (8) |
|
14:00 | Mr.Cocker HCAW | Amsterdam Pirates | 01:03 (9) |
| Monday, September 15 2008 | ||||
|
19:45 | ADO | Konica Minolta Pioniers | 03:05 (9) |
Standings
| # | Team | W | L | R+ | R- | .pct | GB | Streak |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Corendon Kinheim | 32 | 10 | 245 | 134 | .761 | 0 | L1 |
| 2 | DOOR Neptunus | 31 | 11 | 275 | 103 | .738 | 1 | W1 |
| 3 | Amsterdam Pirates | 29 | 13 | 250 | 176 | .690 | 3 | W3 |
| 4 | Konica Minolta Pioniers | 28 | 14 | 290 | 165 | .666 | 4 | W1 |
| 5 | Sparta/Feyenoord | 21 | 21 | 162 | 184 | .500 | 11 | W1 |
| 6 | Mr.Cocker HCAW | 14 | 28 | 135 | 268 | .333 | 18 | L2 |
| 7 | MediaMonks RCH | 8 | 34 | 155 | 279 | .190 | 24 | W1 |
| 8 | ADO | 5 | 37 | 94 | 297 | .119 | 27 | L2 |
