Alphians U12 fall in Schiedam after early deficit, show late fight

Alphians U12 got the kind of opening game that tells a coach plenty. After a postponed Easter-weekend start because the side did not have enough players available, the rescheduled opener in Schiedam on Saturday, 11 April 2026 turned into a narrow 9-7 loss that exposed the early-season gaps and the late fight in the same afternoon.

Schiedam came out hard and put Alphians under pressure right away, loading the bases quickly and racing to a 4-0 lead. Nout started on the mound for Alphians, but the coaches did not wait long to make a change, turning to Silas in the first inning to steady the game. Even with that adjustment, Schiedam kept adding runs and Alphians were staring at a 7-2 deficit after two innings.

That was the point where the game changed. Alphians stopped looking overwhelmed and finally began to string together better at-bats, turning the first-game nerves into a proper comeback. Silas, Marius, Daivey, Finley and Roan all scored in the rally, and Alphians clawed all the way back to 7-7. For a youth team in its first competitive outing of the year, that was the clearest sign that the group did not fold when the start went sideways.

Schiedam still had the final word, though. In its last at-bat, a walk and a single produced the deciding run for the 9-7 finish, leaving Alphians with a loss but also with something more useful than a one-sided scoreline. The game showed exactly what this squad needs to work on next: getting more players available on match day, settling the pitching earlier, and avoiding the kind of first inning that forces an emergency reset.

The timing matters because Alphians is treating 2026 as its 50th season, and the club has wrapped the U12 opener into a broader anniversary year that includes opening-weekend activity across the organisation. There is also a familiar pattern here: Alphians U12-1 had a similar early-season comeback feel in 2025, then finished that campaign strongly with a 9-3 win in Schiedam and a fourth-place finish in an 11-team Tweede Klasse C. The next checkpoint comes quickly, with Portland Poemas due in Alphen aan den Rijn on Saturday, 18 April 2026 at 14.00.