by Pim van Nes
Statistics are only statistics. Trends in regular season from April through September were broken in the first postseason games of the Hoofdklasse. The latest four games between DOOR Neptunus and L&D Amsterdam were won by the visiting teams: twice in Rotterdam and twice in Amsterdam. Yesterday in playoff game one between the two clubs the home team Neptunus took the 2-0 lead in the first inning and beat Amsterdam 11-1 in seven innings thanks to complete game winner Leon Boyd and three doubles by Raily Legito, Lennart Koster and captain Jeroen Sluijter.
In Haarlem the other trend was broken by the visiting Konica Minolta Pioniers, which had lost five out of six games versus Corendon Kinheim in the regular season, including all three games played in Haarlem. In their first playoff game however, the Pioniers came back from trailing 3-0 in the fifth inning, took the 4-3 lead in the sixth inning through Jourick Blanco’s homerun of starting pitcher David Bergman and built up a 9-3 victory in the seventh and eighth innings against relief pitchers.
Back-to-back doubles by Norbert Lokhorst and Michael Duursma and two-out back-to-back singles by Glenn Romney and Mark Duursma marked the fifth inning, which tied the score 3-3 after a shaky start by Pioniers pitcher Conrad Orman. He was relieved in the first inning already, leaving two outs and the bases loaded to stand-up pitcher Maarten Mulder. He managed to close the inning immediately and without further damage for the underdogs from Hoofddorp. Also in the second and third inning Mulder pitched perfectly facing only three batters each time and conceded his first hit only in the fourth inning.
The visitors’ contra attack was initiated by Pioniers left fielder Sergino Martis in the fifth inning with a single and he opened the score after back-to-back doubles by Norbert Lokhorst and Michael Duursma, who together tied the score 3-3 on a single by Glenn Romney. In the eighth inning it was again Sergino Martis at bat, now to advance the Pioniers’ lead from 5-3 to 7-3 doubling for two RBI scored by De Flanegin and Edwin de Graaf. The latter also doubled in the eighth and batted in Glenn Romney for the final score of 9-3.
Characteristic for Kinheim’s performance in the box was that their designated hitter was struck out all four times at bat, irrespective Seattle Mariners slugger Gregory Halman was in the box or his one-time substitute Jeffrey Verbij. Dutch pitcher Jurriaan Koks and Czech closer Jan Rehacek kept a strict Pioniers control over Kinheim batters. In the last five innings the home lineup brought only 18 batters in the box, including one hit in the fifth and one walk in the sixth and ninth inning.
Saturday and Sunday afternoon will bring games two and three between the four contenders. Tomorrow at 14:00 CET the four teams will play at the boarders of international airport Schiphol: just north of the large territory near Amsterdam leading Neptunus will meet local L&D and just south of the airport leading Pioniers will host champion Kinheim.
Thursday September 18:
Corendon Kinheim – Konica Minolta Pioniers 3-9
DOOR Neptunus – L&D Amsterdam Pirates 11-1
Saturday September 20:
14:00 Konica Minolta Pioniers – Corendon Kinheim
14:00 L&D Amsterdam Pirates – DOOR Neptunus
Sunday September 21:
14:00 Corendon Kinheim – Konica Minolta Pioniers
14:00 DOOR Neptunus – L&D Amsterdam Pirates
Saturday September 27:
14:00 Konica Minolta Pioniers – Corendon Kinheim*
14:00 L&D Amsterdam Pirates – DOOR Neptunus*
Sunday September 28:
14:00 Corendon Kinheim – Konica Minolta Pioniers*
14:00 DOOR Neptunus – L&D Amsterdam Pirates*
*if necessary
Pim van Nes
Baseball writer for
www.honkbalsite.com
www.sporttribune.nl
www.baseball.it
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