Holland Series 2016: Neptunus clinches fourth consecutive title
In an exciting game that was a promotion for Dutch baseball both teams were each other’s match, Curacao Neptunus stayed at the right side of the score. After the team took a 3-0 lead, things looked gloomy for L&D Amsterdam Pirates. But the team from Amsterdam managed to bounce back before Neptunus scored the winning run.
L&D Amsterdam Pirates 3 – 4 Curacao Neptunus
In what was a pitching matchup between Diegomar Markwell and Rob Cordemans, Neptunus took a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning on two unearned runs, a fielding error by the third baseman and a throwing error by the catcher.
The Rotterdam based club even took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning when Christian Diaz scored from second when Randolph Oduber hit a ground ball singled to left field.
But in the seventh inning L&D Amsterdam managed to tie the game again. The team got runners on first and second when Kenny Berkenbosch singled and Linoy Croes was hit by a pitch. Rachid Gerard then hit a double down the left field line on which Pirates scored twice. Eventually Gerard scored the game tying run on Michael Duursma’s single to left field.
But when almost everyone thought that extra innings would be needed again, Curacao Neptunus struck again.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, with two outs, Raily Legito singled and then stole second before he was driven in on Rien Vernooij’s single up the middle.
Winning pitcher was Loek van Mil, who pitched 1.2 innings in relief in which he gave up two hits, walked one and struck out one. Tom de Blok took the rare loss after 1.1 innings as he allowed a run on two hits and struck out one.
Best hitter for Curacao Neptunus was Raily Legito, who went 2 for 4 (like three team mates). But Legito did this with a double an RBI and two runs scored.
This fourth consecutive title for Curacao Neptunus was a nice farewell gift for manager Evert-Jan ‘t Hoen and Raily Legito. Evert-Jan ‘t Hoen has been sacked by the club and Raily Legito will hang up his spikes.
This report was brought to you by Score66 Baseball. 