by Pim van Nes
Dutch Hoofdklasse play-offs started last Thursday with two games in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, which were interrupted by rain and were continued on Saturday afternoon for the last innings.
Minnesota Twins pitcher Loek van Mil (Triple A in Rochester) postponed his Trans Atlantic flight from Friday to Sunday, in order to play as a closer for Curacao Neptunus in games 1 and 2 versus visiting Corendon Kinheim. Van Mil started Game 1 at 13.00 h with 2 outs in the top of the 8th inning, first base loaded and the score tied at 1-1. Inherited runner Jochem Koedijk, on base after a RBI bad hop on starting pitcher Orlando Yntema last Thursday, scored 1-2 for Kinheim on Van Mil in the inning that lasted 40 hours.
Neptunus prevented a nine innings loss thanks to a three stages decision by the umpires, sending runner Dwayne Kemp from third to home base because of hindering by Mervin Gario. In the tenth inning it was a wild pitch by home pitcher Loek van Mil, which enabled Kinheim runner Jeffrey Arends to score 2-3 from third base. This turned out to be the game winning run fur number three club Kinheim over fresh European champion club Neptunus.
At 14.30 hrs Game 2 started with star pitchers Diegomar Markwell and David Bergman on the mound. Kinheim scored 0-1 on two singles and a sac fly in the third inning, 0-3 in the fourth on two singles and 2 RBI by Kevin Moesquit and 1-4 in the sixth after a triple by lead-off Victor Draijer and a RBI single by Jochem Koedijk. Neptunus responded with merely homeruns: Stijn van der Meer in the fifth and Gianison Boekhoudt driving in three in the sixth: 5-4 for home team Neptunus.
In the top of the ninth inning their relief pitcher Kevin Kelly was hit hard by singles from Jochem Koedijk, Kevin Moesquit, Dashenko Ricardo and Jeffrey Arends. Kinheim was back on top of the game 5-7 and in the bottom of the tenth Tom Stuifbergen, who worked as Kinheim starter on Thursday, replaced first reliever Pim Walsma at 1 out and a runner on first base. After a single by Rien Vernooij, Stuifbergen struck out two, saving the second win for Kinheim on one afternoon in Rotterdam.
Regular season winner L&D Amsterdam Pirates in the same afternoon booked two wins at home versus Vaessen Pioniers 3-2 and 7-2.
On Sunday Curacao Neptunus (19-0 vs Corendon Kinheim) and L&D Amsterdam (8-6 vs Vaessen Pioniers) won on the road to complete sweeps.
Ranking after 3 play-off games: 1. Pirates 6 wins included regular season bonus, 2. Kinheim 3 wins, same, 3. Neptunus 3 wins, same, 4. Pioniers 0 wins.
Photo by Robert Bos
Where DO you guys get the information you state as fact?!?
Look Van Mil will NOT be flying back to pitch for the Twins’ AAA team. He isn’t even on their roster. Nor on the Twins AA roster. It does not appear he pitched for any affiliated team in 2014 or 2015. Washed out because he can’t throw strikes.