Curaçao Neptunus Sweep Amsterdam Pirates to Win 22nd Dutch Baseball Championship

Curaçao Neptunus completed a four-game sweep of Amsterdam Pirates in the 2026 Holland Series, securing a record-extending 22nd Dutch baseball championship and a third consecutive national title. What had looked like one of the most evenly matched finals in years instead became another demonstration of Rotterdam’s dominance.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Curaçao Neptunus entered the 2026 Holland Series as the favorite. Four games later, there was no debate left.

Neptunus completed a 4-0 sweep of Amsterdam Pirates in the best-of-seven championship series on Saturday, September 12, successfully defending the Dutch national title and taking the championship trophy back to Rotterdam for a third straight season.

It is the 22nd Dutch championship in Neptunus history, extending an already unmatched national record.

The sweep was particularly striking because Amsterdam had been Neptunus’ closest challenger throughout the 2026 Lucky Day Honkbal Hoofdklasse season. Neptunus finished the regular season 33-3, while Pirates went 30-6, and their six head-to-head meetings before the postseason were split evenly at three victories each.

When the championship series began, there were legitimate reasons to expect a long final.

Instead, Neptunus won every game.

Neptunus completes third consecutive Dutch championship

The 2026 title continues a new championship run for the Rotterdam club.

Neptunus reclaimed the Dutch championship in 2024, sweeping HCAW 4-0 to capture its 20th national title after losing five consecutive Holland Series. A year later, the club defeated HCAW 4-2 to win championship No. 21.

The victory over Amsterdam now makes it three consecutive titles:

Across those three Holland Series, Neptunus has therefore won 12 of 14 championship games.

That is a remarkable level of postseason control, particularly considering the strength of the opponents involved.

Holland Series sweep was far from predictable

A 4-0 final score can suggest that the matchup was one-sided from the beginning, but the regular season told a different story.

Neptunus and Amsterdam played six times before the postseason and finished 3-3 against each other. Neptunus outscored Pirates 31-20 in those games, but Amsterdam had proven it could beat the eventual champion in different ways.

Pirates won 3-0 and 6-4 in Amsterdam in May and later took an 8-7 game in Rotterdam. Neptunus countered with victories of 11-1, 6-2 and 3-0.

The clubs were also clearly separated from the rest of the Hoofdklasse.

Neptunus’ 33-3 record produced a .917 winning percentage, with Amsterdam second at 30-6 and .833.

Amsterdam then entered the Holland Series in excellent form after sweeping Oosterhout Twins 3-0 in the playoffs, winning those games 8-1, 9-4 and 6-1.

Neptunus had faced more resistance. After surprisingly losing its playoff opener against Kinheim 7-2, Rotterdam responded with victories of 2-1, 5-0 and 9-1 to win the semifinal 3-1.

Two elite teams had reached the final.

Only one continued winning.

Game 1 sets the tone in Rotterdam

Neptunus opened the Holland Series with a 6-5 victory at the Neptunus Familiestadion, but the final inning demonstrated immediately how dangerous Amsterdam remained.

Rotterdam attacked Pirates starter Lars Huijer from the opening inning. Five consecutive Neptunus hits produced an early 3-0 advantage, with Marnix Ruben, Dwayne Kemp, Darryl Collins, Arthur Bonevacia and Sem Kuijper all contributing to the rally.

Veteran starter Shairon Martis did the rest for most of the afternoon.

The 39-year-old kept Amsterdam scoreless through five innings and carried the game deep into the ninth with Neptunus leading comfortably.

Then Pirates nearly changed the entire series.

Amsterdam scored four runs in the ninth and reduced what had been a 6-1 deficit to 6-5. Ryan Huntington replaced Martis and finally closed the game before Pirates could complete the comeback.

Collins went 4-for-5 in the opening victory.

It was the closest Amsterdam would come to winning a game in the series.

Neptunus breaks 6-6 tie with four-run ninth in Game 2

If Game 1 showed Neptunus could protect a lead under pressure, Game 2 showed it could respond when the momentum appeared to be moving toward Amsterdam.

Pirates took an early 2-0 advantage at the Loek Loevendie Ballpark before Neptunus gradually turned the game around.

Rotterdam scored three runs in the third and added one in each of the next three innings, but Amsterdam refused to disappear.

A Tommy van de Sanden home run helped Pirates reduce the deficit, and Amsterdam eventually tied the game 6-6 after eight innings.

That created what, in hindsight, became the decisive inning of the Holland Series.

Neptunus scored four times in the top of the ninth.

Collins, Bonevacia and Stijn van der Meer produced the key hits as Rotterdam pulled away for a 10-6 victory. Collins finished the afternoon with four RBIs, while Neptunus collected 17 hits.

Instead of returning to Rotterdam with the series tied, Amsterdam was suddenly facing a 2-0 deficit.

Stijn van der Meer and Christian Diaz power Game 3 rout

The first two games had been competitive.

Game 3 was not.

Neptunus returned home and defeated Amsterdam 8-1, moving within one victory of the championship.

The game remained scoreless for three innings as Koen Postelmans and Martijn Schoonderwoerd controlled the opposing lineups.

Then Stijn van der Meer homered in the fourth inning to give Neptunus the lead.

Rotterdam broke the game open one inning later.

Sem Kuijper scored after drawing a bases-loaded walk before Christian Diaz cleared the bases, bringing Drew Janssen, Marnix Ruben and Van der Meer home. Dwayne Kemp followed with another RBI hit as Neptunus moved ahead 6-0.

Amsterdam’s only run came in the seventh when Tommy van den Sanden scored following a deep ball from Alex Madera.

Neptunus added another two runs to complete an emphatic 8-1 victory.

The series was suddenly 3-0.

Neptunus finishes sweep in Amsterdam

That left Amsterdam needing four consecutive victories to prevent Neptunus from retaining the championship.

The comeback never began.

Neptunus returned to the Loek Loevendie Ballpark for Game 4 and completed the championship sweep, turning a series between the two best regular-season clubs in the Netherlands into a 4-0 Holland Series victory.

It was Neptunus’ second Holland Series sweep in three seasons after also defeating HCAW 4-0 in 2024.

More importantly, it confirmed that the gap between Neptunus and the rest of Dutch baseball becomes particularly difficult to overcome once the postseason reaches its final stage.

Elite Neptunus lineup delivered throughout 2026

The championship was not built exclusively during four games in September.

Neptunus had one of the deepest offensive groups in the Hoofdklasse throughout the season.

The league leaderboard entering the championship stage had Stijn van der Meer first in batting average at .455, followed immediately by teammates Darryl Collins at .432 and Christian Diaz at .414.

Collins also carried a .622 slugging percentage and 1.124 OPS, while Van der Meer led the league with a .532 on-base percentage. Diaz had a 1.037 OPS.

That depth repeatedly surfaced in the Holland Series.

Collins collected four hits in Game 1 and drove in four runs in Game 2. Van der Meer supplied the home run that broke open Game 3, while Diaz produced one of the biggest swings of the championship with his bases-loaded hit later in the same game.

Dwayne Kemp, Marnix Ruben, Arthur Bonevacia, Sem Kuijper and Drew Janssen ensured opposing pitchers could not simply work around the top three hitters.

It was a lineup constructed to create pressure inning after inning.

Neptunus pitching was just as dominant

The offensive numbers attract attention, but the championship roster was equally imposing on the mound.

Huntington led the 2026 Hoofdklasse ERA leaderboard at 0.53, while Postelmans ranked second at 1.30 and Juan Carlos Sulbarán third at 1.36.

That gave Neptunus multiple ways to control a series.

Martis could work deep into games, as he demonstrated in Game 1. Sulbarán started Game 2 before the bullpen helped survive Amsterdam’s comeback. Postelmans then controlled Game 3 before the offense created separation.

The depth of the staff had already been visible during the semifinal against Kinheim. After losing the opener, Neptunus allowed only two runs combined across the next three games while winning all three to reach the Holland Series.

By the time Amsterdam faced that same pitching depth, Neptunus was operating at championship level.

Amsterdam Pirates fall short after outstanding season

The sweep should not obscure the quality of Amsterdam’s season.

Pirates won 30 of 36 regular-season games, an extraordinary record that would normally be enough to dominate a league. Their problem was that Neptunus won 33.

Amsterdam also possessed several of the strongest hitters in Dutch baseball.

Tommy van de Sanden finished among the league leaders with a .409 batting average, .659 slugging percentage and 1.144 OPS, while Jeandro Tromp and Delano Selassa were also among the league’s leading offensive players.

Pirates then swept Oosterhout in the playoffs to reach the championship series.

There was little in their season résumé to suggest a four-game defeat was coming.

Neptunus simply elevated its performance when the title was on the line.

Neptunus strengthens status as Dutch baseball’s record champion

The numbers now stand at 22 national championships and three consecutive titles.

The current run is particularly significant because Neptunus had experienced an unusual title drought before returning to the top.

After winning the championship in 2018, Rotterdam lost five consecutive Holland Series before finally breaking that sequence in 2024. The 5-1 Game 4 victory over HCAW that year completed a sweep and delivered title No. 20.

The club has not relinquished the championship since.

It defeated HCAW again in 2025, this time 4-2, before facing Amsterdam in 2026.

The latest championship may be the most convincing of the three.

Amsterdam had played Neptunus evenly during the regular season. The Pirates had the second-best record in the Netherlands. They arrived in the final after a playoff sweep of their own.

None of it translated into a Holland Series victory.

Four games.

Four Neptunus wins.

A third consecutive championship.

And Dutch national title No. 22 for Curaçao Neptunus.