Today the final games of the play offs were played. Most important of them all was the matchup between the two teams that had clinched a spot in the Holland Series already: DOOR Neptunus and L&D Amsterdam Pirates. The winner of this match would win the homefield advantage in the championship series.
After two games this series was tied at one and Neptunus was ahead by one point over Pirates in the play off standings.
Two and a half innings neither team scored but in the bottom of the third L&D Amsterdam Pirates got runners on first and second due to a single by Bjorn Hato and a bunt by Roelie Henrique. The latter’s first priority was to advance Hato but thanks to his speed he managed to get on base safely. A sacrifice hit by Michael Duursma (4-3) made both Hato and Henrique advance a base. Bjorn Hato eventually opened the score on a sac fly by Bob de Jong. Two innings later Pirates added two more (unearned) runs to their score when Henrique and Duursma touched homeplate.
But Pirates didn’t enjoy this lead for long. In the top of the sixth Neptunus evened the score. The starting pitcher of Pirates, Jurrian Koks couldn’t keep Neptunus from putting runners on the corners. Manager Charles Urbanus decided to replace Koks with Kyle Ward. A sac fly, a single, a walk and another single drove in two more runs for the team from Rotterdam. Daan Hendrikx entered the game at the end of the sixth and he remained on the mound for the rest of the game.
Unfortunatley for Hendrikx, he would become the loser of this game. In the seventh and the eighth inning he kept the team from Rotterdam in check relatively well. But in the ninth he was hit hard. It all started with a double down the left field line by lead off hitter Daniel Fernandes. Fernandes advanced to third when Urvin Kemp hit a sac fly towards right field. Adrian Anthony got on base on a fielding error by second baseman Bjorn Hato and due to this error, Fernandes could score the go ahead run. A single by Benjamin Dille and a double down the rightfield line by Reilly Legito eventually made Adrian Anthony score the insurance run.
In the second half of the inning, Kevin Kelly saved the game for Neptunus by retiring the side.
Jorian van Acker earned the win. He replaced starting pitcher Ber van Driel in the seventh inning and would last two frames.
The Dutch baseball players will start the preparation for the European Cup. The Holland Series will start on September 27.
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