Peter Blange, director, and Jan Tromp, project manager Rotterdam Topsport
by Pim van Nes
During second week of Hoofdklasse season in the Netherlands, alike last week Yvonne van Gennip in Amsterdam, also Rotterdam baseball hosted an Olympic hero. Curacao Neptunus welcomed Gold Medal 1996 winner Peter Blange in Familie Stadium on Thursday evening during Game 1 of their weekend series versus DSS/Kinheim from Haarlem.
Peter Blange was a top player in Netherlands national volleyball team, which clinched Olympic Gold in Atlanta, USA, beating finalist Italy in 5 sets. In Barcelona 1992, Blange already participated in Olympic silver medal for Netherlands volleyball team.
Peter Blange told Mister-Baseball.com, that his professional career brought him to Italian leagues and German leagues. In 1990 he started in Italy as a player in Catania for one year (1990 – 1991), than for five seasons in Parma (1991 – 1996) and two seasons in Treviso (1997 – 1999). In between he spend one season with Moerser SC in Germany (1996 – 1997).
Presently Peter Blange is the new director of regional sports facilitating organisation Rotterdam Topsport, succeeding to Hans den Oudendammer. In this position, he is getting acquainted with baseball thanks to frequent championships won by local topclub Curacao Neptunus, presided by Frans van Aalen since decades.
Second week in Dutch baseball produced a second shut-out victory for experienced pitcher Orlando Yntema in this young season 2020. After 0-7 in Amsterdam versus defending champion L&D Pirates the week before, he was again winning pitcher for Curacao Neptunus in Game Two versus DSS/Kinheim in Haarlem. Their 0-18 result in seven innings meant Neptunus win number 1.200 in Hoofdklasse (regular season games only). Neptunus beat DSS Kinheim all three times: 5-2 in Rotterdam, 0-18 in Amsterdam and 7-0 in Rotterdam.
Even more stunning was the shut-out win by Oosterhout Twins on Sunday, when the southern club hosted L&D Amsterdam Pirates: 9-0. Winning pitcher was 20 years young starter Stefan Iannelli, who played first with The Saints Rotterdam and Curacao Neptunus. In order to make innings on Hoofdklasse mounds, he was outplaced by Neptunus management with Twins in Osterhout last year. Initially plagued by injuries, he made only a few starts for Glaskoning Twins. In 2020 he had two outings in first weekend, including a start for three innings on his way to his team’s third victory. Iannelli’s second start versus Amsterdam, however, lasted eight innings, after which he left a 9-0 lead to closer Raf Cocu. Twins batters had scored 1-0 in the second inning, 3-0 in the sixth, 4-0 in the seventh and 9-0 in the eighth inning. Amsterdam batters singled three times and doubled once on young starter Iannelli.
| # | Team | GW | W | G | V | MIN | Pnt | RV | RT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Curaçao Neptunus | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 53 | 16 |
| 2 | Hoofddorp Pioniers | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 46 | 28 |
| 3 | Twins Oosterhout | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 38 | 31 |
| 4 | HCAW | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 28 | 37 |
| 5 | L&D Amsterdam | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 37 | 37 |
| 6 | Quick Amersfoort | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 38 | 37 |
| 7 | Silicon Storks | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 28 | 47 |
| 8 | DSS/Kinheim | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 19 | 54 |