by Pim van Nes
At the occasion of Opening Day, Netherlands champion 2015 Curaçao Neptunus hosted a press and partners gathering in the business lounge of their Familie stadium prior to game 1 versus Glaskoning Twins from Oosterhout.
President Geoffrey Kohl presented the newly arrived Neptunus players and proudly announced another sponsor from Curaçao: United Foundation. This name will appear at the backside of the shirts.
Defending champion Neptunus in a road game on their own field was surprised by newly promoted Twins with two runs in the first inning. It took Neptunus to the fifth inning to go ahead in the score thanks to a solo homerun by Gianison Boekhoudt: 2-3.
In the top of the ninth Benjamin Dille drove in the insurance run (2-4) to help closer Berry van Driel to save the win. Winning pitcher was Diegomar Markwell, who worked in 6 innings and was relieved by Bayron Cornelisse (1) and Kevin Kelly (1) before Van Driel closed game 1: 2-4 for Neptunus.
Starting line-up Neptunus: ss Dwayne Kemp, 2B Benjamin Dille, 3B Raily Legito, DH Gianisson Boekhoudt, RF Christian Diaz, C Riccardo Dashenko, 1B Rien Vernooij, LF Urving Kemp, CF Shaldimar Daantji.
Other results in Hoofdklasse:
Kinheim – HCAW 6-7, Amsterdam – Pioniers 1-3, UVV – DSS 9-1.
Photo by Kotaro Nagata (from left to right: Robert Eenhorn, Eric de Bruin, Bob van Aalen, Geoffrey Kohl)