By Daniel Feuerstein | March 10th, 2026 | Miami, FL
After a hard lesson given to Israel by the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands was their next opponent at LoanDepot Park in Miami, Florida. While both the Dominicans and the Venezuelans have already clinched their spots to advance out of Pool D play, the hope for the American Jewish players can even their record against the Dutch, and they can hold their heads up high, feeling good with a .500 record. They did so by winning the ballgame by a final score of six to two.
Game Review
The Dutch took the lead in the bottom of the first with runners at the corners as Xander Bogaerts reached on an infield single as Israel tried to get a double play, but couldn’t get an out at either base. Druw Jones was able to score from third. Didi Gregorious comes up later at the plate and hits a sacrifice fly to left field to bring in a run from third to make the score two to nothing. In the top of the second, Noah Mendlinger reached on a walk, then Jake Gelof hit a double to right centerfield to bring Mendlinger to the plate from first base to cut the deficit to one.
The pitching was very strong on both sides until Israel took advantage in the top of the sixth inning. It started with a seeing-eye single up the middle from Spencer Horwitz, C.J. Stubbs came up and reached on an error by the Dutch first baseman, Sharlon Schoop. Horwitz reached third, having runners at the corners. R.J. Schreck came up with an rbi single through the right side to tie the game at two to bring Horwitz to score. Mendlinger came up and walked to load the bases, and that’s when the next two batters did damage. Gelof came up with a two-run single to help Israel take the lead at four to two, then Matt Mervis hit a two-run double to clear the bases and made the score six to two.
Ben Simon came up in the bottom of the ninth out of the pen and delivered a three-strikeout inning to give Team Israel the win and an even record of two and two. While the bullpen did its job to keep the game close and then helped to keep the lead, a very difficult Dutch side just didn’t have enough to hold on to the lead, and finished going 1-3 in Pool D play. While this is the end of the road for these two teams, they gave it a wonderful try to make a run into the next round. Let’s hope they will do better in the next four years.
WP: JOSH MALLIYZ
LP: KEVIN KELLY
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