The Dutch were hoping to advance to the finals against the Czech Republic. But their hopes were dashed by a dominating Czech pitcher, who led his team to a mercy rule 10-0 victory.
The 12-2 loss against Italy, yesterday, likely wasn’t a confidence builder. After the Dutch, got through the first inning without any damage, the Czech Republic struck in the second. A throwing error by the Dutch second baseman led to the opening run for the Czech Republic, followed by back-to-back singles that drove in three more runs.
At bat, the Dutch were completely overwhelmed by a hard throwing Czech pitcher that looked like a seventeen year old. Many of the Dutch batters looked like sheep that were led to the slaughter. The Czech pitcher, Jan Kozel, allowed two hits, issued two walks and struck out nine in five mercy rule innings.
The Czechs would score three runs in the third inning and three more in the fourth, to reach the final score of 10-0.
Besides the error in the second inning, that heralded a four-run frame, the Dutch did rather well defensively. Unfortunately they didn’t have an answer to the Czech pitcher. The two hits that the Dutch collected, were hit by Junairo Ostiana and Moos van Genderen.
With this loss, the Dutch are destined to play the bronze medal game against Italy tomorrow. In tomorrow’s final, the Czechs will face France that stunned Italy by beating them 9-7.
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