(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Neptunus adds German international Vincent Ahrens to team
Nederlands
 ROTTERDAM (Neth.) -
Curaçao Neptunus has added German catcher Vincent Ahrens to its roster for the upcoming 2024 season, the Rotterdam-club announced on Wednesday (December 27).
The 30-year old Ahrens is a player of the German National Team and has played for Bonn Capitals in more than ten seasons.
...Vincent Ahrens with Bonn Capitals during...
...the 2023 European Champions Cup...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In a press release, Neptunus states that it has completed its roster with the addition of Ahrens and also mentions the following:
,,The German international is expected to be the first choice as catcher, but he can also be used as an outfielder.
Ahrens replaces American Tony Krueger, who was catcher in Rotterdam last season.
Krueger will focus on his social career and will not return to the Netherlands''.
The press release continues as follows:
,,Ahrens' arrival concludes a busy transfer-period, in which Neptunus had to say goodbye to four Dutch internationals, among other things.
The arrival of experienced players such as Jesse Aussems and Kevin Dirksen was previously confirmed.
With the addition of Vincent Ahrens, the Curaçao Neptunus line-up will also be very strong on paper in 2024.
Together with the good pitching-staff, Greg Muller has all the ingredients to make another attempt at the coveted 20th national title in his second year as Manager''.
Last season, Neptunus finished in a tie for first place with (then-reigning champion) HCAW in the first half of the regular season and was awarded first place, based on the head-to-head results.
In the following Top-4 Pool, Neptunus also finished in first place.
Thereafter, Neptunus swept HCAW in the best-of-three Wild Card Top Series, then eliminated Twins Oosterhout in the best-of-five Play-Offs via a 3-game sweep to advance to the all-deciding Holland Series.
But in the Championship Series, Neptunus was left empty-handed (again), as it lost the best-of-seven (4-3) against Amsterdam Pirates.
The last time that Neptunus captured the title was in 2018.
Thereafter, Neptunus reached the Holland Series annually, but each time was left empty-handed.
The team lost to Amsterdam Pirates in 2019, 2021 and 2023 and to HCAW in 2022.
In the 2020 Holland Series, Neptunus had lost the first two games against Pirates when the final was halted due to new measures during the coronavirus-pandemic (COVID-19).
No champion was crowned that year.
After completion of last season, righthanded pitchers Jayden Gonesh, Mike Groen and Kevin Kelly, short stop John Polonius and outfielder Roger Bernadina all left, as did the already mentioned catcher Tony Krueger.
Groen, Kelly, Polonius and Bernadina all played for the Netherlands National Team.
Groen will play for DSS/Kinheim in 2024, while Kelly will pitch for San Marino in the Italian Baseball League.
Where Gonesh and Bernadina will play is not known.
Initially, righthander Orlando Yntema, who was bothered by injuries in the past few seasons, retired.
However, later it was announced that the veteran will be back in 2024.
Besides infielder Jesse Aussems (RCH-Pinguïns) and outfielder Kevin Dirksen (HCAW), Neptunus also added righthanded pitcher Koen Postelmans (Twins Oosterhout).
Also, three players from the club's second team, Neptunus Tridents, were added to the main-squad.
The lefthanded hitting Vincent Ahrens played in the Bundesliga.1, the highest German league, since 2009 when he made his debut at age 15, getting one at bat in the team of Cologne Cardinals in his home-town Cologne.
He became a more regular player in the following season.
After the 2011 season, Ahrens transfered to Bonn Capitals for whom he played through last year, except for the 2020 season.
While playing for the Bonn-team, Ahrens was the prime catcher.
His batting average improved to .326 in 2014 and .318 in the 2015 season.
Ahrens also hit above .300 in 2017 when he closed with a .310 batting average, but he played in only twelve games that season in which he hit two homeruns.
In the following season, Ahrens batted .309 and was second-best in the Bonn-team with 21 runs batted in.
In 2020, Vincent Ahrens played in the Italian Baseball League for T&A San Marino Titans.
There, Ahrens primarily was a first baseman and played in 16 games, hitting .220, scoring four runs and also batting in four.
Ahrens returned to Bonn thereafter and played for the team again since 2021.
In 2022, he won his second German Championship-title with Bonn, the first coming in 2018.
With Bonn Capitals, Ahrens participated in four European club-tournaments.
In 2018 in the CEB Cup-tournament, where Bonn lost the Final against Borgerhout Squirrels (Belgium) with a 2-0 score.
In 2021, 2022 and 2023, Ahrens played with Bonn in the European Champions Cup-tournament.
In his first tournament in 2021, Ahrens reached the Final, but the Germans then lost 6-4 against Parma Angels from Italy.
In 2022, Bonn Capitals hosted the event and captured third place via a 6-3 win against T&A San Marino Titans.
In that game, Ahrens was 2-for-3.
Last year, in Amsterdam (Netherlands), Bonn finished in fourth place after losing 12-6 against Amsterdam Pirates, which hosted the event with Bussum-based club HCAW.
This time, Ahrens was 2-for-5.
Since 2018, Ahrens also played for the German National Team.
In that year, he participated with Germany in the Haarlem Baseball Week in Haarlem (Netherlands) and batted .389.
Later in 2018, Ahrens again traveled to the Netherlands, this time to participate in the Super6 in Hoofddorp.
Ahrens, who is a defensive solid catcher, participated in two European Championships with Germany.
In 2021, in Italy, Germany finished in ninth place.
Last year, in Czechia, Germany faced the Netherlands in the Bronze Medal-game.
Germany lost the game 5-4 in 10 innings, meaning the team finished in fourth place.
In the 2023 tournament, Ahrens batted .333 and led the German team with eight runs batted in.
He collected seven basehits, including two doubles and two homeruns.
(January 2)
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