2006 Holland Series

The 2006 Holland Series were held from 21 September to 1 October 2006 between the two Dutch play-off winners Corendon Kinheim and Konica Minolta Pioniers. The first team to win 3 games in the best-of-five-games series would become Dutch champions. Konica Minolta Pioniers took a 1-0 and 2-1 lead, but with only one more win needed they lost the remaining matches, resulting in a 3-2 Kinheim championship.

Rotterdam based defending champions DOOR Neptunus won the Holland Series for seven consecutive years, but found themselves beaten in 2006 during the play-offs by Konica Minolta Pioniers, third placed in the regular season. Since 2001 all Holland Series were decided in a clash between Neptunus and Bussum based Mr. Cocker HCAW. 2006 is the first season since 1992 that neither Neptunus or HCAW are in the Holland Series.

Kinheims most successful period was in the 90s when they reached the Holland Series five consecutive times (1992–1996). They lost four of their Holland Series entries, but managed to become Dutch champions in 1994 when beating Neptunus 3-2. In 2006 Kinheim won the regular league, the Honkbal Hoofdklasse and the KNBSB-Beker, which is the national cup trophy.

Pioniers entrance in the 2006 Holland Series is only the second time in the teams history. In 1997 they also were able to beat Neptunus in the play-offs to beat HCAW 3-2 in the Holland Series and to claim their first title.

Before the Holland Series started Kinheim could be seen as the big favourite. During the regular season both teams met each other six times. Six out of six matches Kinheim left the pitch as winners, even claiming a 17-0 victory on 20 May. In total Kinheim scored 48 runs, while Pioniers were only able to hit 11 runs.

As being the favourites Kinheim started the Holland Series strongly with full loaded bases in the 1st and 2nd innings. Pioniers avoided getting behind early in the game by two crucial doubleplays. In total Kinheim produced 14 hits, which was two hits more than Pioniers achieved. Still Pioniers managed to score 10 runs in the last six innings of the match to claim a 10-5 victory and a 1-0 Holland Series lead.

Where Kinheim was surprisingly beaten in the first match, they equaled the Holland Series in the second match. Kinheim succeeded mainly because of their strong attack during this match. After two innings without any runs they scored a total of five runs in the third inning. Pioniers was not able to react and close the gap. Only in the sixth inning, when Kinheim already scored their sixth run, Pioniers was able to hit a single run back, but could not do any more in the remaining innings.

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