(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Jan Kruijdenberg & Henk Seppen)
   Dutch pitchers Sem Robberse and Jiorgeny Casimiri make professional debut
Nederlands
 DUNEDIN, Florida (USA) -
Dutch pitchers Sem Robberse and Jiorgeny Casimiri have made their debut in professional baseball.
The 17-year old righthanded Robberse pitched in two games in relief and both times, he was credited with the win.
18-year old righthander Casimiri made three relief-apppearances and got two Holds, but also was credited with a Blown Save.
On Wednesday, July 24, the Toronto Blue Jays signed both Sem Robberse and Jiorgeny Casimiri to a minor league-contract.
Three days later, the two were assigned to GCL Blue Jays, the Rookie League-team of the Canadian organization in the Gulf Coast League, which is based in Florida.
Pitching Coach of the team is Mark Worrell, who pitched in the Major League for St. Louis Cardinals (2008) and Baltimore Orioles (2011).
Robberse and Casimiri both made their debut on July 27, the day that they were officially assigned to the team, which is compiled mostly of Spanish-speaking players.
Playng at home, GCL Blue Jays faced GCL Phillies East, which took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning.
Blue Jays came alongside in the bottom of the third and took the lead in the sixth en route to a 3-2 win.
In the top of the sixth, with the score at 2-2, Robberse became the fourth pitcher in the game for the Blue Jays.
The righthander retired the side (one flyout, two groundouts).
Moments later, the Blue Jays took a 3-2 lead when José Rivas homered, which made Robberse the pitcher-of-record.
Robberse returned to the mound in the seventh and then struckout three batters!
In the eighth, Jiorgeny Casimiri took over from Robberse and also retired the side (one strikeout).
He also retired the first two batters in the ninth inning, then was relieved by closer Williams Moreno.
Casimiri earned his first Hold.
On Tuesday, July 30, Casimiri made his second appearance.
In an away-game at GCL Phillies West, he took over the pitching in the sixth inning with the Blue Jays leading 1-0.
With one out, the righthander gave up a triple, then a runscoring single that tied the score.
The next two batters were eliminated, but Casimiri was credited with a Blown Save.
The Phillies won 2-1 in ten innings.
On Saturday, August 3, Robberse made his second pitching appearance and again was successful.
The team then played against GCL Tigers West and won 4-3.
Trailing 1-0, the Blue Jays scored three runs in the fourth inning.
After the Tigers had narrowed the deficit to 3-2 in the fifth, the Blue Jays added an insurance run in the eighth to make it a 4-2 score.
The Tigers scored one more run in the top of the ninth.
...Jiorgeny Casimiri pitching for HCAW...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In this game, Robberse entered the game in the top of the third inning, taking over from starter Kendall Williams with the Blue Jays trailing, 1-0.
This time, Robberse struckout his first batter, then gave up a single, but a groundout and flyout followed.
With one out in the fourth, Robberse gave up another single, but two flyouts then ended the at bat.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Blue Jays scored three runs, thanks to a 2-run homerun by Jhon Solarte and a single by Yhon Perez.
And with that, Robberse again became the pitcher-of-record.
With the Blue Jays now leading 3-1, Robberse was relieved in the top of the fifth by Jiorgeny Casimiri.
With one out, Casimiri walked a batter, then gave up a single, followed by a runscoring single.
With runners on first and second base, Casimiri struckout the next batter, then a flyout ended the inning.
Casimiri gave up a 2-out single in the sixth, then was relieved in the seventh.
He was credited with his second Hold.
GCL Blue Jays plays its home-games at the Bobby Mattick Complex, which is located at Dunedin and in 2003 was named after Bobby Mattick, who worked for the Toronto Blue Jays from 1976 through his death at age 89 in 2004.
In 1980-1981, Mattick was the Manager of the Major League-team of the Blue Jays.
This season, Sem Robberse pitched in the Dutch big league for Quick Amersfoort after having made his debut in the highest division last year playing for HCAW.
This year, Robberse was 6-3 with an 1.83 ERA in nine games (all starts).
He led the team in ERA, wins and complete games (2) and is second in innings pitched (64) and strikeouts (62).
He walked only nine batters.
Jiorgeny Casimiri pitched in his first season for HCAW this year.
He appeared in 13 games as reliever and was 1-1 with one save and an 0.77 ERA.
He struckout 24 batters and walked ten in 23 1/3 inning.
Last year, Casimiri made his debut in the Dutch big league pitching for Curaçao Neptunus.
(August 4)
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