by Pim van Nes
Mister-Baseball.com attended this game in the 5th weekend this year, because it was do or die for home team Neptunus. If they were defeated in this game, Neptunus would stay fourth in the Hoofdklasse ranking, with two wins behind all three leaders in this 7 weekends stage of regular season. Thanks to winning pitcher Berry van Driel (closer with two fly-outs and a ground-out) and last batter Shaldimar Daantji (2 RBI with a sacrifice fly and a walk-off single), Neptunus tied the score in the seventh and grabbed the victory at one out in the ninth inning. Kinheim and Neptunus are now 1 win behind Vaessen Pioniers and L&D Amsterdam Pirates.
Together with hitting legend Hudson John (74), we admired both strong starters on the mound of the Familie stadion in Rotterdam: LHP Diegomar Markwell for Neptunus and RHP David Bergman for Kinheim. The latter’s knee was hit by the ball coming back from second batter Benjamin Dille, but Bergman threw him out at first base and managed to stay on the mound during eight innings. Thanks to both WBC experienced pitchers a double perfect game lasted almost three innings. Markwell eliminated Kinheim line-up in three innings with 4 strike-outs, 4 ground-outs and 1 fly-out. After him in those three innings, Bergman even scored 5 strike-outs, alterated by 4 ground-outs and a spoiling first hit of the game: a double by Urving Kemp at one out in the third inning.
Both Markwell and Bergman kind of struggled in their fourth inning, when they had to face even 5 batters each, without further damage though. Markwell continued with two perfect innings 5 and 6, including his last 2 strike-outs. Bergman had to fight four batters in each of those two innings due to a throwing error by his short stop and the second hit by former pro player Dwayne Kemp.
At exactly 21.00 h (90 minutes game at 0-0), the seventh inning started with Markwell’s ground-out and three consecutive walks. His manager Evert-Jan ‘t Hoen called Kevin Kelly from the bullpen for his first innings ever in Hoofdklasse. However, the reliever could not prevent two inherited runners from scoring 0-2: Bryan Engelhardt and Jeffrey Arends.
Again Bergman followed Markwell’s performance in the game by allowing walks in the seventh inning, resulting in the first run for Neptunus, batted in by Daantji’s sacrifice fly to left field, and their second run scored on a fielding error by Kinheim infield: 2-2. Neptunus debuting pitcher Kelly improved in the eighth striking out 1 and grounding out 2 Kinheim batters. Once again starter Bergman tried to copy his opponent on the mound by striking out 1 and grounding out 2 Neptunus batters, but he also conceded a walk.
Nevertheless, Bergman left a 2-2 tied score to his reliever Pim Walsma, also because Berry van Driel in the ninth inning managed to add the seventh 3 batters inning to the six combined by Markwell and Kelly. Then Walsma walked Adrian Anthony and could not prevent Urving Kemp’s sacrifice bunt and Daantji’s game deciding single: 3-2.
Other last night games: Mr Cocker HCAW – L&D Amsterdam 5-6, Vaessen Pioniers – Mampaey Hawks 12-5, UVV Utrecht – ADO Lakers 4-4 (after 8 innings ended due to time curfew rule at 22.40 h).