The Netherlands also won the second game of the Haarlem Baseball Week. It remained tense until the seventh and last inning tonight against Cuba, until Roger Bernadina hit a homerun. That allowed John Polonius and Jiandido Tromp to score. The game ended 5-1.
Like Italy in the previous game, the Netherlands took the lead in the first inning. With a good hit by Sharon Schoop (Amsterdam Pirates), Bernadina opened the score: 1-0. With the Dutch baseball players, pitcher Dennis Burgersdijk (HCAW) made his debut. The Cubans tied the score in the second inning via 42-year old Frederich Cepeda.
After the fourth inning, Burgersdijk was taken off the mound and replaced by Mike Groen (Amsterdam Pirates). The score didn’t change again until the sixth inning. Juremi Profar, who was already important on Friday evening, beat Wladimir Balentien over home plate: 2-1. Bernandina was crowned man of the match in the next inning by hitting three runs with his homerun. Closing pitcher Franklin van Gurp (Amsterdam Pirates) took the win in the last inning.
On Sunday, the Orange squad will play again, then against Curaçao. That game starts at 3:30 PM in Haarlem. Today’s other game was between Japan and America. The Asians also won their second game (1-0).