HAARLEM, Netherlands — For eight innings this was a taut, one-run wrestling match. Then the Netherlands sent thirteen men to the plate in the top of the ninth, scored nine times, and turned a nervy night into a rout — beating Chinese Taipei 15-4 at Pim Mulier Stadion to climb to 2-1 at the 2026 Honkbalweek Haarlem. Delano Selassa came up twice in that ninth inning alone and drove in four of the nine; he finished with five RBI on the day.
It did not start that way. Chinese Taipei struck first when Chen Min-Sih homered to dead center in the bottom of the first, and Taipei still led 4-3 after six. What looked like a tense pitchers’ duel instead became a referendum on bullpen depth — and the Dutch had more of it.
A Bullpen Plan, Executed
The Netherlands never intended to ride one arm. Scott Prins opened, and four relievers followed: Jamdrick Cornelia, Jelle van der Lelie, winner Ingmar Hutzezon and closer Kevin Kelly, who slammed the door over the final two innings. Five pitchers, one plan.
“We knew from early that it was going to be a bullpen game, so the pitchers were prepared for one or two innings,” Shervyěn Newton said. “Just come in, do your job, fill up the zone and keep attacking the hitters.” It held: after Taipei’s three-run sixth, Dutch arms allowed nothing the rest of the way.
Newton Sets the Tone
Trailing 1-0 in the fourth, Newton flipped the game with one swing — a two-run homer to deep center that scored Darryl Collins and put the Netherlands ahead 2-1. The shortstop, who finished 2-for-5, framed it as exactly the jolt the lineup needed.
“It’s always good to contribute, even if it’s not a home run — just help the team win as much as I can defensively,” Newton said. “But hitting a home run is always good, especially to go ahead early and set the tone.” He also pointed to Collins, the table-setting spark in the seventh: “I play with him overseas, so I know how he likes to hit. In that big situation I told him before, ‘You’re going to come up.’ And he came in clutch for us.”
Collins delivered the go-ahead blow an inning later, a three-run double to left-center in the seventh that made it 6-4 and gave the Netherlands a lead it would never surrender.
Then the Ninth Got Away
What had been a one-run game came apart all at once. The Netherlands batted around and then some, stacking singles, walks and a hit-by-pitch into a nine-run avalanche as Taipei’s bullpen unraveled. Selassa bookended the inning — a two-run homer to left, then a two-run single later in the same frame — and Marnix Ruben, hitting from the nine-hole, kept the line moving with three of his three hits and three runs scored.
Selassa, who went 6-for-6 on the scoresheet with those five RBI, credited a mechanical tweak for the way he’s seeing the ball in Haarlem. “I made my leg kick shorter, so I see the ball better now,” he said. “That’s a great outcome right now.” He pointed to a slow start that the middle of the order eventually solved: the Dutch struggled early, he said, but “six, seven, eight, nine — it went with the plan.”
