Haarlem, The Netherlands April 12 2008
In a cold and very windy Haarlem, Decos EHS beat Dutch Champion Storks in two long games
Game 1: Decos EHS - Storks 11-4 (6 inning mercy rule)
Due to the bad weather in the pre season, none of the Dutch teams have been able to get some decent pre season games in and that really had an effect mainly on pitching. Jonas Mach, normally not having any problems in finding the strike zone really struggled. Storks took the lead in the first inning when the opening batter Rob van der Vlist got on base on a walk, followed by a wild pitch, a passed bal and he finally scored on an infield hit by Ed Hoet.
Decos EHS equalized in the bottom of the second when Etienne Meijer hit a single, followed by a hard triple by Jeffry Visser which scored Meijer. Decos EHS scored another 3 runs in the bottom of the third on runs by Dave Hazel, Anthony Beaumont and Michel Groenhart. The rally included stolen bases by Hazel and Beaumont and a triple by Groenhart. Another run was added in the bottom of the fifth.
Decos EHS made Storks come back in the game. Bob Bick got on base on a strike out passed ball followed by walks for Rob van der Vlist and Tim Verbrugge. A passed ball scored Bick and Van der Vlist. A second passed ball scored Verbrugge. Two other walks followed for Ed Hoet and Rene Nieveld. A wild pitch moved the runners and Storks came back to within one run on a passed ball. No hits, five walks and three passed balls...one very bad inning...
Decos EHS showed a big heart coming back in the bottom of the sixth exploding for 6 runs on four hits including a triple by Dave Hazel and a double by Michel Groenhart ending the game (after 2hrs 45 min!) in a mercy rule 11-4 win
Boxscore:
Storks 1-0-0-0-3-0 = 4 2 3
Decos EHS 0-1-3-1-0-6 = 11 9 0
Decos EHS: Jonas Mach (WP) 10-9-2 (6 inn)
Storks: Ed Hoet (LP) 8-6-7 (5inn+2 )
Steven Ketting 0-3-2 (2/3+2)
Game 2: Decos EHS - Storks 14-7 (6 inning mercy rule)
Storks took the lead again in this game with two runs in the first inning. Schrijver and Verbrugge got on base on walks and both scored on a single by Steven Ketting and an overthrow by centerfielder Hazel.
Decos EHS equalized in the bottom of the first on runs by Hazel and Groenhart. Hazel was walked, stole second and scored on a single by Groenhart. Groenhart scored on three passed balls
Storks scored another four runs in the second on two walks, two doubles and an error but again Decos EHS showed a big heart coming back in the bottom of the second scoring 10 runs on two walks, three erros and three hits including doubles by Anthony Beaumont and Etienne Meijer.
Storks scored one in the fourth but Decos EHS finished the game with runs in the fifth and the sixth including a double by Groenhart and singles by Beaumont, Visser and the first hit of the bat of rookie Auke Maat. This game also was a long one, 2hrs and 15min.
In the end Decos EHS got two important wins in the opening weekend in two games that were influenced by the bad weather.
Boxscore:
Storks 2-4-0-1-0-0 = 7 5 4
Decos EHS 2-10-0-0-1-1 = 13 13 0
Decos EHS: Jonas Mach (WP) 7-10-4 (6 inn)
Storks: Steven Ketting 0-4-4 (1 1/3inn+6)
Peter Noordermeer 2-0-9 (4 2/3inn)
Norm
Norman Ames
Decos EHS Fastpitch, Haarlem, The Netherlands
