(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
  Dashenko Ricardo & Randolph Oduber sign with Lincoln Saltdogs
Nederlands
 LINCOLN, Nebraska (USA) -
Catcher Dashenko Ricardo and outfielder Randolph Oduber will play for Lincoln Saltdogs next season.
The club announced it has signed the two Dutch players earlier this month.
Lincoln Saltdogs was 52-48 this season and finished in third place in the Central Division of the American Association, which is a professional Independent League.
This year, Ricardo and Oduber both played in the Dutch big league for Curaçao Neptunus, with whom they won the championship-title.
This season, two other Dutch players also played for the Saltdogs, being righthanded pitcher Shairon Martis and first baseman Curt Smith.
Martis pitched in 24 games (18 starts) and was 9-8 with a 3.33 ERA.
In 121 1/3 inning, Martis struckout 93 batters.
Smith batted .331 (104-for-314) with 17 doubles and 17 homeruns.
He scored 50 runs and batted in 60.
Both are on the roster of the Saltdogs again for next season.
Ricardo, Oduber, Martis and Smith all play for the Netherlands National Team.
With the Orange squad, they won the European Championship-title in September.
All were with the Netherlands Team when it reached the Semi-Final of the 2013 World Baseball Classic.
Ricardo and Oduber are currently with the Netherlands Kingdom Team in Japan for the Samurai Japan Warm-Up Games.
The Netherlands and Japan will play against each other Saturday and Sunday, November 12-13.
Smith is currently playing for Tigres de Chinandega in the professional baseball league in Nicaragua.
Dashenko Ricardo played in 25 games in his first season for Neptunus.
A year ago, Ricardo was the league's Most Valuable Player when he played for Kinheim.
Ricardo batted .404 (38-for-94) with two homeruns.
He scored 14 runs and batted in 26, which was the second highest total in the team, despite missing several games.
With Neptunus, he participated in the European Champions Cup-tournament in Italy.
There, the team was dethroned as champion by L&D Amsterdam Pirates, which then won the Cup the next day.
Neptunus finished in fourth place.
After returning from the tournament, Ricardo announced his retirement effective immediately and returned to Curaçao.
However, he returned to an active status a month later when he played for the Netherlands National Team during the Baseball Week Haarlem.
After that event had ended, he also returned to Neptunus, with whom he completed the season and won the Dutch championship.
Ricardo also played in the Dutch big league for Kinheim in 2014 and 2015.
Before coming to the Netherlands, Ricardo played professionally in the organizations of the Baltimore Orioles, San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers since 2007.
He last played in the Minor League in 2013 when he played in Single-A, Double-A and Triple-A for the Dodgers.
Randolph Oduber played in only eight regular season-games for Neptunus after joining the team in May.
Early April, the outfielder was released by Washington Nationals, with whom he had played during Spring Training.
Oduber was added to the roster of Neptunus, but sustained a leg-injury in only his second game, which kept him out of action for awhile.
In his eight games, Oduber batted .353 (6-for-17), scored four runs and batted in one.
Oduber played professionally in the organization of the Washington Nationals since 2010.
In 2015, he played at the Double-A level.
Oduber was then invited for Spring Training this season and played in two games for the Nationals.
He was then released on April 2 and joined Neptunus in May.
Also playing for Lincoln Saltdogs this season was René Leveret, who played France during the European Championship.
With the Saltdogs, Leveret batted .306 (89-for-291) with seven homeruns this season, scored 36 runs and batted in 41.
Leveret is currently on the inactive list of the Saltdogs.
(November 11)
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