THE NETHERLANDS – The L&D Amsterdam Pirates captured a pair of victories against ADO last weekend to inch closer to Dutch Major League front-runner DOOR Neptunus. The reigning league champion trails Neptunus (20-6-1) by percentage points in the race for the regular season crown.

Australian southpaw Adam Blackley (5-2) fanned eight and limited ADO to only two hits in seven innings to notch the 5-2 win on Saturday. Cuban slugger Fausto Alvarez Rizo drove in a pair of runs with three hits, while both Sidney de Jong and Maikel Benner crossed the plate twice.

The Pirates (22-8) flexed their muscle with four home runs to finish off the three-game sweep Sunday with a 12-1 victory. Kenny Berkenbosch homered twice while Rizo and Bas de Jong each added one long ball apiece. The lone run for ADO (4-22-1) came on a solo shot by Shurty Tremus in the opening frame.

NEPTUNUS STAYS HOT, SWEEPS PIONIERS

DOOR Neptunus followed up last Thursday’s 1-0 shutout win over the Konica Minolta Pioniers with two more stellar pitching performances to earn the series sweep.

Kevin Heijstek (6-3) continued the hitting woes of Konica Minolta in a 3-1 win on Saturday. The right-hander held the Pioniers’ potent offense to just three hits in seven innings to get the win. Matt McGraw led the Rotterdam club with a 3-fo-4 effort at the plate.

In the series finale on Sunday, Roy Seltenrijch went 3-for-3 and Dushan Ruzic (4-1) held Konica Minolta to four hits while striking out 10 to post the win.

MEDIAMONKS CONTINUES IMPROVED PLAY

MediaMonks RCH continued their recent impessive play last weekend against Sparta/Feyenoord. One week after knocking off Corendon Kinheim for their second win of the season, RCH picked up another win on Thursday before battling to a scoreless tie on Saturday.

The MediaMonks stranded 16 runners and wasted a gutsy outing by Chris Mowday who threw 11 scoreless innings and racked up 11 strikeouts in a 0-0 game stopped after 12 innings.

Sparta/Feyenoord won the series finale the following day to salvage a split of the three-game set. Rob Cordemans (5-1) struck out seven and Imco Rudolph had had four hits in a 6-1 victory.

KINHEIM SUBDUES MR. COCKER HCAW

Jason Rees smacked his fourth home run of the season and HCAW rallied to even the series with Corendon Kinheim with an 8-4 win on Saturday. Randy Daal and Jurien Overman added a pair of RBIs for the winners.

Reliever Kevin Miner (2-5) allowed three hits over the final 3 1/3 innings to earn the win.

In the series finale the next day, Kinheim’s Dirk van’t Klooster banged three hits and knocked home two runs, and Duko Janson (5-2) had one of his best outings of the season in a 6-0 victory for the Haarlem club.

STANDINGS

Photo courtesy of Henk Seppen/L&D Amsterdam Pirates

Tags: Netherlands