2019 Dutch hoofdklasse
The KNBSB (Royal Dutch Baseball and Softball Federation) has released the competition schedule of the Dutch hoofdklasse. The Dutch season will start on Thursday, April 4 and the final game of the regular season will be played on July 28.
With the upcoming European Championship in early September, followed by the Olympic Qualifier, the Dutch competition has a tight schedule. Normally the regular season runs until the end of August/early September before the playoffs start.
This year the playoffs will start on Thursday night, August 1. The winner of the regular competition will face number four and the runner up will face number three, both in a best-of-five series. The winners of both series will face each other in the Holland Series for the championship of the Netherlands. The Holland Series will be a best-of-seven series that will start on August 24. The final game will be played on September 1.
The bottom four of the standings will also play a best-of-five series: no. five vs no. eight and no. six vs no. seven. The losers of both series will play for a spot in the hoofdklasse. The loser of this best-of-five series will be demoted to the overgangsklasse and its place will be taken by the 2019 winner of the overgangsklasse (if that team wants to be promoted, which has been an issue in the past few years).
As written above, the season will start on April 4. Reigning Dutch and European champion Curaçao Neptunus will start the season at home vs HCAW, which finished third last year. 2018 runner up, L&D Amsterdam Pirates will host Silicon Storks, that finished dead last in 2018. DSS will start the season vs Hoofddorp Pioniers and De Glaskoning Twins will start the season in Amersfoort vs Cityside Apartments Quick Amersfoort. The teams in the latter two matchups are considered equally matched.
Unlike the preceding seasons, Curaçao Neptunus and L&D Amsterdam Pirates will not face each other in the final round of the first and second half of the regular season. In this way, the matchup between the two strongest teams of the hoofdklasse will not be the apotheosis of the regular season but just another series.
After game seven of the Holland Series (if necessary of course), the Dutch national team will have only a week to practice as the European Championship will start on September 6.