Dutch hoofdklasse 2018: Playoffs, round 2, day 1

Curaçao Neptunus hosted HCAW and had to deal with a major upset. L&D Amsterdam Pirates hosted De Glaskoning Twins clinched a hard-fought victory.

HCAW  13  –  0  Curaçao Neptunus
Where Neptunus has been rather superior throughout the season so far, it didn’t stand a chance against HCAW tonight. In seven innings, HCAW finished the job. The pitching of Neptunus had a bad day as a whole. Diegomar Markwell gave up eight earned runs on nine hits in 3.2 innings. His successor Jiorgeny Casimiri lasted 1.1 innings in which he allowed three runs of which only one was earned. Taylor Clemensia allowed two runs on three hits in two innings. Chris Pfau, on the other hand, pitched the game of his life. He limited Neptunus to four hits, walked only one and struck out six. He needed 100 pitches to seal Neptunus’ fate.
It was a regular win in which HCAW scored three runs in the first, the third and the fourth and two in the fifth and the seventh. Neptunus was limited to four hits while the HCAW offense exploded for fifteen hits.
No need to say that Chris Pfau earned the win and Diegomar Markwell took the loss.
Best hitter for HCAW was Kevin Weijgertse, who went 3 for 4 with two RBI and two runs scored.

De Glaskoning Twins  0  –  2  L&D Amsterdam Pirates
In a real pitching duel, L&D Amsterdam Pirates stayed at the right side of the score. Rob Cordemans pitched eight innings in which he needed 126 pitches to limit De Glaskoning Twins to six hits. His opponent Shogo Nakashima pitched eight innings and allowed two runs on six hits. He needed just 87 pitches.
Defensively both teams played a solid game. Only Twins committed one error in the third inning but it did not have any consequences. Only in the second inning, Twins had an opportunity to open the score as it had runners on first and second base. But the chance was blown when Sam Kennelly was picked off second base.
Pirates collected as many hits as Twins did but Pirates managed to score twice. In the sixth inning, with the bases loaded, Kenny Berkenbosch hit a sac fly that drove in Victor Draijer from third base. Remco Draijer scored Pirates’ second run when Linoy Croes singled to left field. In fact that was all that happened in this game.
Linoy Croes was the best hitter for L&D Amsterdam Pirates as he went 2 for 3 with an RBI.  

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