Dutch Hoofdklasse: Curacao Neptunus clinches win after sustained protest

Today the remainder of the game between Curacao Neptunus and L&D Amsterdam Pirates was played. The original game was played on June 30 in which L&D Amsterdam Pirates won 4-1. In that game Nick Urbanus of L&D Amstersdam Pirates hit with an illegal bat (one that isn’t on the CEB’s list of approved bats) according to Neptunus. They protested and the commission that dealt with the protest sustained the protest, so the game had to be replayed from the bottom of the fifth inning.

So today, L&D Amsterdam headed to Rotterdam for the remainder of the game. With the score tied at one, Neptunus took off in the bottom of the fifth with Dennis Burgersdijk on the mound, who took over from Rob Cordemans. Burgersdijk started by giving up doubles to Shaldimar Daantji and Raily Legito to hand Neptunus a 2-1 lead. Eventually Legito scored the third run on a single by Gianison Boekhoudt.

When Kenny Berkenbosch hit a lead off double in the top of the sixth, it looked like Pirates would cut Neptunus’ lead in half. But the next three hitters were reitred by reliever Kevin Kelly.

Pirates had a runner in scoring position in the top of the seventh, but failed to cash in once again when Michael Duursma singled to shortstop and Linoy Croes was thrown out at third base 6-5. Neptunus on the other hand showed how to deal with runners in scoring position as Christian Diaz scored the fourth run for Neptunus after he tripled to right center field and was driven in on a ground ball hit by Urving Kemp in the bottom of that same inning.

The final run was scored by Urving Kemp on a single by his older brother Dwayne. Shortly before he stole second and in an attempt to throw him out, Pirates’ catcher Bas Nooij hit pitcher Tom de Blok, who went down and had to be replaced by Daan Hendrix.

Dennis Burgersdijk took the loss for L&D Amsterdam Pirates after he gave up three runs in one full inning (the fifth) and after three hitters faced in the bottop of the sixth.

Kevin Kelly, who was flat out dominant in four full innings, earned the save. He limited the Amsterdam based team to only two hits. He gave up three walks and fanned three.Even though Kenny van den Branden didn’t pitch tonight, he earned the win as Neptunus took a lead in the bottom of the fifth.

Dwayne Kemp was the best hitter for Neptunus through the whole game, not only in the four innings of tonight, going 3 for 3 with an RBI. So was Kenny Berkenbosch for Pirates, going 2 for 3 with two doubles.