A bizarre start to the new baseball league last night. Reigning Dutch champion Amsterdam Pirates took an 18-1 lead at home against RCH, but still lost 18-24. The Heemsteed-squad, who promoted to the big league, scored no less than 23 runs in the seventh inning. A record.
For example, coach Ronald Jaarsma, who came over from Neptunus, had an unforgettable debut. Pirates’ carefully built lead was completely wiped out in one at bat. On the mound, pitchers Donny Breek, Connor Prins and Martin Kram combined walked sixteen and gave up eight basehits. RCH imagined itself in a playground and set a new big league-record with 23 runs in one inning.
Agony
Jaarsma got Kenny Berkenbosch off first base to end the agony. The 37-year old veteran managed to stop RCH’s battering team. In total, the inning lasted more than an hour and the Amsterdam-squad threw more than a hundred balls.
This weekend, Amsterdam Pirates and RCH will face each other two more times. The games of the other Noord-Holland teams were canceled last night due to bad weather. Kinheim therefore starts the new season tomorrow with its home game against Neptunus, while Hoofddorp Pioniers receives HCAW.