(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Janneke Louisa-van der Ploeg & Linda Steijger)
   Edwin Louisa named WBSC Europe Baseball Umpire of the Year
Nederlands
 BELGRADE (Serbia) -
Dutch baseball-umpire Edwin Louisa has been named WBSC Europe Umpire of the Year.
The announcement was made on Friday (February 10) during the annual Congress of the World Baseball Softball Confederation Europe, which was held in Serbian capital Belgrade on February 10-12.
...Edwin Louisa...
...WBSC Europe Umpire of the Year 2022...
(© Photo: Janneke Louisa-van der Ploeg) |
The Congress began with the representatives of the respective members holding a moment of silence out of respect for the Türkiye Baseball and Softball Federation and the victims of the earthquake disaster, which has struck the country.
In his opening address, WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari stated:
,,I believe Europe has a strong image and a solid platform of events that it can consistently convey to its fans.
Your work is essential to the growth of our sport, and I applaud what you've done on consolidating your branding in coordination with the WBSC.
This is an excellent showcase of the unity of our sport and community and an important step for communicating baseball-softball to the fans.
Behind one brand, we are one sport.
In 2022, we resumed most of the WBSC events, and I hope 2023 is a year of full recovery for our sport''.
Since 2008, the former European Baseball Confederation (CEB) annually handed out awards to umpires and official scorers, amongst others, for the previous year.
This is now done by the baseball-division of WBSC Europe.
The softball-section, which is the former European Softball Federation (ESF), annually names individuals to its Hall of Fame.
On Friday, it was announced that the Umpire of the Year Award for 2022 was awarded to Dutch umpire Edwin Louisa.
The Award was presented by WBSC Europe President Krunoslav Karin to Stefaan Eskes, the Executive Director of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association, who was in Belgrade on behalf of the KNBSB.
The Award for Scorer of the Year 2022 went to Elisabet Salvador from Spain.
Edwin Louisa is the third umpire from the Netherlands who wins the Umpire of the Year Award.
Fred van Groningen Schinkel was the first when he one the Award in 2008 for the 2007 season.
Back then, he also was the very first umpire to win this Award.
In February 2020, Henri van Heijningen was the second Dutch umpire and he won the Award for 2019.
...WBSC Europe President Krunoslav...
...Karin (left) hands out the Award...
...for 2022 Umpire of the Year...
...to KNBSB-Director Stefaan Eskes...
(© Photo: Linda Steijger) |
Coming month, Edwin Louisa will be one of the umpires that will officiate games during the fifth edition of the World Baseball Classic.
In the First Round, Louisa is assigned to Pool C, which is based in Phoenix, Arizona (USA).
Playing in this Pool are Canada, Colombia, Great Britain, Mexico and reigning champion USA.
Edwin Louisa is one of five European umpires who were invited for the World Baseball Classic.
On January 5, it was announced that that Fabrizio (Fabry) Fabrizi (Italy), Serge Makouchetchev (France), Cuauhtámoc (Cuti) Suárez Hernandéz (Spain) and Edwin Louisa were invited.
A few days later, it was also confirmed that German umpire Tim Meyer will be one of the European umpires during the Classic.
Edwin Louisa is an umpire in the Dutch big league since 2012.
He is an international umpire since 2016.
In that year, he was appointed to lead games in the Baseball Week Haarlem in Haarlem (Netherlands) and the Samurai Games in Tokyo (Japan).
In following years, Louisa officiated games during the 2018 Women's World Cup (USA), the 2019 European Championship (Germany) and the 2019 Europe/Africa Olympic Qualifier (Italy), as well as in several European Cup-tournaments.
In the Netherlands, Louisa was one of the umpires during the Baseball Week Haarlem in 2016, 2018 and 2022 and the World Port Tournament in 2017 and 2019.
In earlier WBSC Europe news, is was announced on January 31 that former international Italian baseball-umpire Marco Screti was appointed as Director of Baseball Umpires of WBSC Europe.
In that position, he heads the Baseball Umpiring Committee, which also includes Zdenek Židek (Czech Republic) and Serge Makouchetchev (France).
This Committee works closely with František Bunta (Slovakia), who is the Baseball Technical and Competitions Director for WBSC Europe.
In the announcement, it was added that Židek will act as the Executive of the Committee, while Makouchetchev will be in charge of the assignments for the international tourrnaments.
(February 13)
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