After reviewing the World Cup for the German, Spanish and Italian teams, we end our short series with the Dutch national team.
What did they right? As supposed, they were by far the best European team at the Baseball World Cup in Taipei. But they did better than expected. They finished in fourth place overall, winning six of the ten games, including a 2-1 victory against Cuba. Their offense dominated several matches in the preliminary round. Eight batters hit better than .300. Hainley STATIA received the trophy for the best fielder. Catcher Sidney DE JONG was voted into the Allstar team. Reliever Loek VAN MIL showed, why he is playing minor league in the United States.
What went wrong? Not so much. They went unlucky in the semi-final and bronze medal game, as they faced two of the premium pitcher of the tournament, Matt WRIGHT and Tadashi SETTSU. Both stopped the strong offense. One of the few disappointments was closer Michiel VAN KAMPEN (ERA 9.00 in 4 IP), who had his problems to slow the opposite down.
An outlook for the future: As you may know, head coach Robert EENHOORN steps down in 2009. However, there are still two major tournaments left in his time. They are approximately the only European team at the Olympic games next year, which will be the next stop for a great squad on their way to the top. They established themselves as one of the best in the World and should be somehow a favourite for the podium in Beijing. After that, the World Baseball Classic in March 2009 would be the last event of the EENHOORN-era.
Stats:
Pitching:
Team ERA: 3.50
Leon BOYD (1-1), ERA 2.55, 17.2 IP, 14 K
Rob CORDEMANS (0-1), ERA 3.48, 10.1 IP, 9 K
Loek VAN MIL (2 saves), ERA 0.71, 8 K
Diegomar MARKWELL (1-0), ERA 3.65, 12.1 IP, 7 K
Kenny BERKENBOSCH (2-0), ERA 0.00, 10.1 IP, 6 K
Batting:
Team batting average: .283
Vince ROOI .324, 4 doubles, 1 homerun, 8 runs scored, 8 RBI
Dirk VAN’T KLOOSTER .324, 2 doubles, 1 homerun, 9 RBI
Sharnol ADRIANA .316, 7 runs scored, 7 RBI
Sidney DE JONG .314, 1 double, 1 homerun, 6 runs scored
Bryan ENGELHARDT .258, 1 double, 2 homeruns, 6 runs scored
Complete Statistics at IBAF.tv
Results:
vs. Thailand 16-0 box score
vs. Australia 3-4 box score
vs. Germany 15-5 box score
vs. Venezuela 7-4 box score
vs. Canada 1-7 box score
vs. Korea 5-1 box score
vs. Cuba 2-1 box score
vs. Chinese Taipei 6-3 box score
vs. USA 0-5 box score
vs. Japan 0-5 box score
They finished in fourth place after losing the bronze medal game to Japan. Complete Standings.
Photo: © International Baseball Federation (IBAF.tv)