European Championship

With one swing of the bat, Kalian Sams secured a victory for the Dutch national baseball team over Italy in the one-game final of the 2019 European Championships. The 33-year-old outfielder belted a grand slam off Italian left-handed starting pitcher Luis Lugo that sailed over the center field wall in the fifth inning.

An error and a wild pitch preceded the go-ahead homer, and was followed by a solo home run from John Pollonius. Alberto Mineo’s home run in the bottom of the fifth was the last run of the game, setting the final score of 5-1.

Despite the Netherlands suffering a 2-3 defeat against Germany in the European Championship qualifier on Sunday, Dutch coach Ronald Koeman is still very proud of his team. After ending the first half 0-2 behind the German team, Oranje made a major comeback in the second half. "I am proud of how we played in the second half. We were 2-0 behind. Then you can just give up, but we played great", Koeman said to NOS.

The professional football umbrella in the Netherlands, KNVB, has attributed part of this year’s record earnings to its some 1.2 million registered football players. The increase in both number of players and small change in registration fees aided the organization to record the massive 6.8 million euro profit for the 2014/’15 season.

With seven goals from six games, the call came as a surprise to Ajax striker Anwar El Ghazi when Dutch coach Danny Blind announced him in the Dutch squad for the last two European Championship qualifiers on Friday. Parool reported that El Ghazi said he was not even thinking about it when he read it on the internet, and was really happy about his selection.

The Dutch men’s national football team is expected to square off against the United States on June 5 in a friendly match, SI.com reported. The game would take place just one week before a critical Oranje qualifier European Championship qualifier against Latvia.

Following exceedingly racist reactions to a selfie posted by footballer Leroy Fer, the Dutch national football association, KNVB, confirmed they contacted the public prosecutor to investigate the response for possible crimes. The football association waited until after Sunday’s European Championship qualifier against Latvia before making their decision, to prevent any unnecessary distractions amongst teammates.

With two goals late in the second half, the Netherlands dispatched World Cup Group B rivals Chile to win their group Monday evening. Oranje won all three games in the group stage, handily beating Spain 5-1 and beating Australia in a challenging 3-2 duel.