(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
  Denzel Richardson's season in Nicaragua ends with release
Nederlands
  LEÓN / MANAGUA (Nicaragua) -
Denzel Richardson's season in the professional baseball-league in Nicaragua has ended.
Just over a month after the outfielder/first baseman joined Leones de León, Richardson was released on Wednesday-afternoon (December 28), two days before the end of the regular season.
Richardson was replaced on the roster by Dominican righthanded pitcher Miguel Hernández Rodríguez.
With the Play-Offs beginning on January 4, the team opted to add an additional pitcher to its roster.
...Denzel Richardson hitting for the Netherlands during the...
...2019 World Port Tournament in Rotterdam (Netherlands)...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Richardson officially had been added to the roster of Leones on November 22 and he made his debut the same day.
He then became a teammate of outfielders Roger Bernadina and Jiandido Tromp, who returned to the Nicaraguan league for a second season.
Recently, Tromp missed some games due to an injury.
Coming year, Richardson again will play in the Dutch big league for Amsterdam Pirates, while Bernadina will re-join Curaçao Neptunus.
This year, Tromp also played for the Rotterdam-team, but he will not return.
After this year's season Richardson won the Award for Most Valuable Player.
All three also played for the Netherlands National Team this year, winning the Baseball Week Haarlem.
Earlier this month, two other players with a Dutch passport made their debut in the Liga de Beisbol Profesional Nacional (LBPN).
On December 3, righthanded pitcher Juancarlos Sulbaran made his debut after having been added to the roster of Indios del Bóer four days earlier.
A week after Sulbaran had joined the team, he got a familiar teammate, as outfielder Ademar Rifaela was added to the roster on December 6.
Rifaela replaced Venezuelan outfielder Ricardo Marcano Hewitson, who was released on November 30.
Denzel Richardson played in 23 games for Leones de León, most of them as designated hitter.
In eight games, Richardson was the first baseman, making only one error defensively in 41 chances.
The day before he was released, Richardson was 3-for-5, scored three runs and batted in two runs for Leones in a 11-10 loss against Indios del Bóer.
In his 23 games, Richardson batted .313 (25-for-80), which was the third-highest in the team.
Richardson scored twelve runs and batted in eighteen.
Amongst his 25 basehits were three doubles, one triple and three homeruns.
He walked eleven times, but struckout twenty times, which was the second-highest total of the team.
Roger Bernadina is currently the best hitter of Leones with a .342 batting average (38-for-111).
His 38 basehits are second-best, but he leads the team with 29 runs scored and 21 runs batted in.
Bernadina's slugging average of .495 also is the highest of the team, as is his .455 on-base percentage.
Jiandido Tromp is hitting .264 (19-for-72) at the moment with two doubles, one triple and one homerun.
He scored fourteen runs and batted in nine.
...Ademar Rifaela hitting for the Netherlands during in 2018...
...in an exhibition game in Bussum (Netherlands)...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Since joining Indios del Bóer, outfielder Ademar Rifaela is doing very well.
Although his .414 (29-for-70) batting average is currently the highest of the team, it is not officially the highest, as he has not enough plate appearances.
Amongst his 29 basehits are five doubles and five homeruns.
Rifaela, who plays in leftfield, scored 19 runs and batted in 16.
In his first game (on December 6), Rifaela was 0-for-4 and struckout three times.
From his second game on, he had a hitting streak of six games and also scored in each of these games.
He currently has a hitting streak of nine games.
On December 22, Rifaela hit both his first and second homerun in a game against Tigres de Chinandega.
He was 3-for-4 and with his homeruns, the Curaça-born outfielder batted in four runs for Indios in a 10-4 win.
Ademar Rifaela played in 2018 and 2019 for the Netherlands Baseball Team with whom he participated in the Super6, European Championship, Olympic Qualifying Tournament and Premier12.
At the 2019 European Championship in Germany, Rifaela won three individual awards.
He won the award for Most Homeruns (6) and Runs Batted In (17) and also was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
In the 2020 season, the outfielder played in eleven games in the Dutch big league for Quick Amersfoort.
Juancarlos Sulbaran has pitched in four games since joining Indios, all starts.
The righthander is 0-2 with an 8.83 ERA and struckout twelve batters in 17 1/3 inning.
Sulbaran also walked twelve batters and gave up 29 basehits and 20 runs (17 earned).
On Thursday (December 29), Sulbaran started against Tren del Norte.
He then gave up nine basehits and five earned runs in 3 2/3 inning, leaving the mound with a 5-1 deficit.
In the fifth inning, Indios rallied for ten runs and went on to win 22-6 on twenty basehits, including three by Rifaela, two of them a homerun.
Rifaela scored four runs and also had four runs batted in for the team from Managua.
Indios del Bóer finished the regular season in the 5-team league in first place with Tren del Norte.
Both were 18-14.
They were followed by Gigantes de Rivas and Leones de León, who both were 16-16.
In fifth place was Tigres de Chinandega with a 12-20 'record' and therefore, the team was eliminated for the Play-Off Round, which begins on January 4.
(December 29)
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