Curacao Neptunus Rotterdam is one win away from clinching the championship in the Dutch Hoofdklasse. This past weekend they won games three and four of the best-of-seven Holland Series to take a 3-1 lead over L&D Amsterdam. Game five, which was scheduled for Sunday, got postponed to Monday evening at 7.30pm due to rain. The game was first postponed from 1pm to 3pm, but eventually cancelled and rescheduled for Monday.
Curacao Neptunus 130 001 002 7 15 0 L&D Amsterdam 000 110 010 3 9 1
On Friday evening, a game which was re-scheduled from Thursday, Curacao Neptunus took a quick 4-0 lead after two frames en route to a 7-3 win over L&D Amsterdam. Gianison Boekhoudt hit a home run and had a RBI double. Dashenko Ricardo went 4-for-5 with two doubles for Rotterdam. Gilmer Lampe went deep for the Pirates. Diegomar Markwell pitched 5 1/3 strong innings for the win. Robin Schel got charged with the loss.
In the fifth inning Amsterdam threatened to come back, but Michael Duursma ran past a stop sign by third base coach Charles Urbanus and got thrown out at the plate for the second out in the inning. The ceremonial first pitch prior to the contest was thrown by Steve Janssen, manager of the Dutch National Team, which just has defended its European title.
Curacao Neptunus 130 000 000 4 9 0 L&D Amsterdam 000 111 000 3 6 0
Similar to game three Curacao Neptunus also took a quick 4-0 lead after two innings in game four. They wouldn’t score again, but still managed to hold on to a 4-3 win over L&D Amsterdam on Saturday afternoon. Randolph Oduber, who damaged a camera above the back stop with a foul ball, capped the early run surge with a two-run single in the second.
RBI singles by Danny Rombley and Nick Urbanus as well as a solo home run by Linoy Croes helped the Pirates to get within a run. But eventually they had to settle for the loss. Orlando Yntema earned the win, allowing six hits, three runs and four walks in 6 2/3 innings. Berry van Driel and Loek van Mil were unhittable afterwards to close it out. Rob Cordemans took the loss, surrendering four runs on eight hits and three base on balls in 5 2/3 innings.