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(Story by Marco Stoovelaar) Spring Training-basehits for Albies, Apostel and Kieboom Nederlands BRADENTON / JUPITER / LAKELAND / NORTH PORT, Florida / SURPRISE / TEMPE, Arizona (USA) - On Tuesday (February 25), seventeen games were played at the Spring Training-sites in Florida and Arizona. Six players from the Netherlands played in Tuesday's games: Ozzie Albies (Atlanta Braves), Sherten Apostel (Texas Rangers), Didi Gregorius (Philadelphia Phillies), Carter Kieboom (Washington Nationals), Jonathan Schoop (Detroit Tigers) and Andrelton Simmons (Los Angeles Angels). Albies, Apostel and Kieboom all recorded a basehit. The ones hit by Albies and Apostel were doubles. Czech catcher Martin Červenka on Tuesday was used as a pinch-hitter in a split-squad of Baltimore Orioles in a 12-4 loss against Boston Red Sox. He entered the game in the seventh inning and struckout. Nigerian outfielder Demi Orimoloye got is first Spring Training at bats on Tuesday, playing for a split-squad of Toronto Blue Jays against a split-squad of Philadelphia Phillies. Earlier in the day, he was added as an additional player. During Spring Training last year, the 23-year old outfielder also was added for a game, but then didn't play. He then became the first baseball-player in Spring Training, who was born in Nigeria. Today, Oluwademilade Oluwadamilola (Demi) Orimoloye got two at bats and played in rightfield since the sixth inning. He got his first at bat in the eighth inning and grounded out. In a 5-run ninth inning, Orimoloye struckout. Toronto won 13-6. Orimoloye was born in Nigerian capital Lagos, but moved with his family to Canada when he was 18 months old. Since then, Orimoloye grew up in Canada where he started playing volleyball and basketball. Baseball followed when he was 10 years old and he went on to play for the National Junior Team of Canada when he was fifteen. He plays professionally since 2015 and played in Single-A last year. (February 25) Related Articles: 10 Kingdom-players open Spring Training on Major League-rosters. (February 20) Sherten Apostel & Zander Wiel first Netherlands-players in action in Spring Training. (February 21) Five Netherlands-players in Spring Training-action on Saturday. (February 22) Wiel homers for Minnesota; Gregorius makes Philadelphia-debut. (February 23) No hits, but 3 walks for 5 Netherlands-players in Spring Training. (February 24)

At Cool Today Park in North Port, Atlanta Braves played at home against Minnesota Twins and played a 4-4 tie in a 9-inning game. Ozzie Albies was the starting second baseman for Atlanta and was 1-for-3. With one out in the bottom of the first inning, Albies doubled, was unable to advance on a following grounder towards thirds base, then was left behind. In the third inning, Albies flied out. Trailing 1-0 in the fifth inning, Dansby Swanson led off with a walk for Atlanta, then Adam Duvall doubled. With one out, both scored on a single by Ronald Acuña. Hereafter, Acuña was forced out at second base on a grounder by Albies. Moments later, Albies advanced to third base on a single by Yonder Alonso, but then was left behind again. In the top of the sixth, Pete Kozma took over second base from Albies.

At Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Detroit Tigers played at home against New York Mets, where Hensley Meulens is the Bench Coach this season. Detroit won 9-6. Jonathan Schoop started at second base for Detroit and was 0-for-3. Schoop grounded out in the first inning. With one out in the third inning, Schoop reached on an error, but then was eliminated when next batter Miguel Cabrera grounded into a double play. In the bottom of the fifth, Detroit rallied for five runs. With runners on first and second base and one out, the first run was scored on a single by Cameron Maybin. Hereafter, with runners on first and second base, Schoop contacted well, but his line drive was caught by second baseman Max Moroff. With two outs, four more runs were added on back-to-back homeruns by Cabrera (3-run) and C.J. Cron. In the top of the sixth, Schoop was replaced by new second baseman Daniel Pinero. New York answered with four runs in the sixth, including three on homeruns by Jarrett Parker (solo) and Tim Tebow (2-run). Detroit then took more distance from the seventh inning on.

At LECOM Park in Bradenton, a split-squad of Philaldephia Phillies visited Pittsburgh Pirates and won 6-2. Didi Gregorius was the starting short stop for the Phillies-team and was 0-for-2. With a runner on first base and one out, Gregorius flied out in the first inning. He then led off the fourth inning and was hit by a pitch from Clay Holmes, who had just entered the game as new pitcher for Pittsburgh. Moments later, Gregorius was forced out on second base on a grounder by Jean Segura. In the top of the sixth, Gregorius struckout with a runner on second base. He then was replaced in the bottom of the sixth by new short stop José Gomez.

At Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter, Washington Nationals played at St. Louis Cardinals. The score went back-and-forth, but it was Washington that won, 9-6. Carter Kieboom was the starting third baseman for Washington and was 1-for-3 with a walk. In the top of the first inning with runners on first and second base and two outs, the inning ended with a force play-grounder from Kieboom. In the top of the third inning, Washington broke an 1-1 score when Juan Soto belted a 2-run homerun. Hereafter, Howie Kendrick singled. Kieboom was the next batter and he hit a line drive into rightfield, but the ball was caught by rightfielder Dylan Carlson. St. Louis took over the lead in the bottom of the third when Paul DeJong hit a 3-run homerun. But in the fourth, Washington scored two runs again. With runners on second and third base, Soto delivered a single that tied the score. With one out, the bases got loaded when Kieboom walked. After a pitching change, Washington then took a 5-4 lead on a sacrifice fly by Michael A. Taylor. In the fifth, St. Louis scored twice to take a 6-5 lead, but in the sixth, it was Washington that scored two runs again. The bases got loaded when Yadiel Hernandez led off with a single, Raudy Read walked and Kieboom also singled. The tying run was then scored when Rafael Bautista also walked. With one out, the go-ahead run was scored on a force play-grounder by Mac Williamson. In the bottom of the sixth, Kieboom was replaced by Andrew Stevenson, who became the new rightfielder. First baseman Jacob Wilson moved over to take over at third base.

At Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Texas Rangers played at home against Kansas City Royals and lost 5-4. Sherten Apostel started the game as designated hitter for Texas and was 1-for-3. In the second inning, Apostel got his first at bat with runners on first and second base and one out, but then flied out. He then led off the fifth inning for Texas and grounded out. In the bottom of the sixth, with two outs, Apostel hit a double off of reliever Jake Kalish, who had entered the game in the previous inning with two outs. But Apostel stranded on second base. With Kansas City leading 5-2 in the bottom of the ninth inning, Apostel was scheduled to be the lead-off hitter. But he was replaced by pinch-hitter Josh Jung, who grounded out. Later in the at bat, Texas managed to score two runs, but ended up just short.

At Tempe Diablo Stadium in Tempe, Los Angeles Angels played at home against Cincinnati Reds and won 7-3. Andrelton Simmons was the starting short stop for Los Angeles and was 0-for-2. Los Angeles opened the score with two runs in the first inning on a 2-out, 2-run single by Albert Pujols. In the second inning, Simmons was the lead-off hitter and flied out. Hereafter, Taylor Ward homered and another run was added on a 2-out single by Anthony Rendon. In the third, with runners on first and second base and one out, Simmons also flied out. Hereafter, Ward hit a triple to bring in two more runs and lift the lead to 6-0. In the top of the fourth, regular players Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon, Albert Pujols and Simmons all left the game. Simmons was replaced by Elliot Soto.

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