Kingdom of the Netherlands falls to USA in practice game

Today team Kingdom of the Netherlands played their second practice game in Taiwan as a preparation on the Premier 12 tournament that will start Sunday. In their first practice game, the Dutch took on a local university team, but that team was no match for the orange. The Dutch team beat the Taiwanese 7-0.

Today the opponent was a much more serious one: Team USA.

The USA had won their last practice game vs Canada before both went to Taiwan. The other two games vs the Canadians ended in a tie. For team Kingdom of the Netherlands, this was the fourth practice game. Before the win vs the university team, the team had played two games vs a Curacao All Star team and won them both.

For the Dutch, Jair Jurrjens started on the mound. This was his first appearance for the team since the 20016 World Baseball Classic. He limited the USA to only one hit in two innings. The Dutch took a quick lead as lead off hitter Christopher Garia got on base on a single and scored on a double hit by Wladimir Balentien. In the third inning, the Dutch extended the score as Andruw Jones (just returned from Curacao to attend his father funeral) scored on a hit by Yurendell de Caster.

The Dutch gave the Americans a chance to come back in the game as they did not score any more runs, despite some chances. The prospect of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Adam Frazier, drove in Joe Sclafani with a single on a pitch that was served up by Rob Cordemans. With Loek van Mil (recently playing for the Rochester RedWings) on the mound in the seventh inning the US tied the game as Frazier drove in Sclafani once more.

In the eighth inning and in the ninth, the Dutch had two scoring opportunities. In the eighth the bases were loaded with one out, but then Sharlon Schoop (yes the younger brother of….) hit into a double play. One inning later, Calton Daal singled and stole second to get into scoring position, but once again the Dutch couldn’t take advantage.

And when you don’t use the opportunities the opponent will get away with the win, as did the USA. With the bases loaded, Adam Frazier drove in the winning run with a sac fly to center field.

It was only a practice game, but with a team that is a mix of hoofdklasse players, a player from the NPB, a few AAA players, a few with MLB experience but mostly single A players, the Dutch did rather well against a US team that
contains AAA players (of which some have MLB experiene as well) for the biggest part and has some AA, single A and even two players from Asian Leagues (KBO and CPBL) on the roster.