U-12 European Championship 2018: Dutch recover after heavy loss vs Italy

After the big defeat vs archrival Italy, the Dutch team recovered well today. In five innings the Dutch swept Belgium aside as they beat their Southern neighbours 18-4.

In the first inning, leadoff hitter Amarensio Franka drove the third pitch he saw to center field for an inside-the-park home run. In the bottom of that inning, Belgium’s Nando Mostaert hit a two-run home run that did clear the fence but that merely a hiccup of the Belgians as the Dutch countered in the top of the seventh inning with seven runs.

The two Dutch pitchers did a good job as they gave up a walk each and struck out seven in total. Their counterparts had some trouble with finding the strike zone at times as for pitchers of team Belgium walked eleven and threw as many wild pitches. This helped the Dutch to score several runs.

Both teams did a fine defensive job as the Netherlands did not commit an error and Belgium just one. The Dutch collected twelve hits as Belgium had seven.

Kimi Verkruijssen earned the win after 2.1 innings in relief in which he gave up one run on three hits and a walk. The pitcher also was the best hitter for the Netherlands as he went 2 for 2 with two runs batted in and two runs scored.

Tomorrow the Dutch will play the final game of the preliminary round. A must win situation as they will face Germany, that suffered its first loss today vs Italy. The winner of the matchup between the Dutch and the Germans will advance to the semi-finals. With Italy as the winner of the group, the Dutch or the Germans will face the winner of group B, the Czech Republic that remained unbeaten.