Pioniers is a baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 and softball

Softball

Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...

 team based in Hoofddorp

Hoofddorp

Hoofddorp is the main town of the Haarlemmermeer municipality in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands. In 2009, the population was just over 73,000...

, the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. The club is currently sponsored by Raamsdonkveer-based construction company Vaessen BV and the team is officially known as the Vaessen Pioniers.

Pioniers baseball team plays in the Honkbal Hoofdklasse

Honkbal Hoofdklasse

The Honkbal Hoofdklasse is the highest level of professional baseball in the Netherlands. It is an eight-team league that plays a 42-game schedule and is overseen by the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Federation . Games are played principally on weekends...

, the top level of professional baseball in the Netherlands. The club's most successful year was 1997 they reached the Holland Series

Holland Series

The Holland Series has been the annual championship series of the highest level of professional baseball in the Netherlands since 1987, concluding the postseason of Honkbal Hoofdklasse...

 for the first time in the club's history by beating reigning champions DOOR Neptunus

Neptunus

Neptunus is the baseball team of the Neptunus Sporting Club in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The title sponsor of the club is currently DOOR Training so that the official name of the team is DOOR Neptunus....

 in the play-offs. In the Holland Series they claimed a 3-2 victory over Mr. Cocker HCAW

HCAW

HCAW or Mr. Cocker HCAW , in full Honkbalclub Allen Weerbaar, is a Dutch baseball club from Bussum. It is one of the largest baseball and softball clubs in the Netherlands and its teams play in all major domestic leagues....

, making them Dutch champions. In 2006 Pioniers finished third in the Honkbal Hoofdklasse and were just like in 1997 able to upset Neptunus in the play-offs, gaining themselves entrance to the 2006 Holland Series

2006 Holland Series

The 2006 Holland Series were held from 21 September to 1 October 2006 between the two Dutch play-off winners Corendon Kinheim and Konica Minolta Pioniers. The first team to win 3 games in the best-of-five-games series would become Dutch champions...

. In those series they twice took the lead, to eventually lose to Corendon Kinheim

Kinheim

Kinheim is a baseball and softball team based in Haarlem, the Netherlands. The title sponsor of the club is currently Corendon so that the official name of the team is Corendon Kinheim. They are current Dutch champions....

 3-2.

The team is attempting to attract three Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

regular season games for the opening of its new stadium in 2014. The stadium will be capable of expanding to temporarily accommodate 30,000.