 Softball Season opens Saturday; Opening Day Rosters
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
The new softball season in the Dutch big league opens on Saturday, April 14 with four double-headers.
A fifth double-header will be played on Sunday.
Dutch champion Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem opens the season at home with a double-header against Tex Town Tigers, which last year finished in fifth place.
Last season, Sparks Haarlem, led by veteran coach Juny Francisca, lost only two games in the entire season, including the post-season.
Tex Town Tigers finished the regular season with a tie for fourth place with Olympia Haarlem, but missed the Play-Offs based on the run-average formula as the head-to-head games were 2-2.
This season, Tex Town Tigers is led by Australian Bill Gates, who is the seventh Head Coach of the team since 2008.
Hotel Ambassador c.c. Terrasvogels, which qualified for the Holland Series last year and ended in second place, opens the season on the road at Olympia Haarlem.
Last season, Terrasvogels was the only team that won a game (twice) vs. Sparks Haarlem.
Alcmaria Victrix, which reached the Play-Offs last season in its first season back in the top-league, travels to Oosterhout on Saturday for their openers at Twins, which finished in sixth place.
Twins is led for the first time by former player Daisy de Peinder.
Gryphons, the champion of the second-highlest league last season, meets UVV, which finished in second place in that division.
Both teams promoted to the big league and open the season against each other in Rosmalen.
Gryphons is led by veteran coach André Prins, who will make his his comeback in the highest division as a Head Coach.
He last coached on the highest level in 1990 when he led Sparta.
UVV is coached by rookie Melvin Brown.
On Sunday, Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem will play its second double-header of the season and then meets the Dutch Junior Team, which participates in the big league for the third consecutive season.
Including the Dutch Juniors, 145 different players are listed on the nine Opening Day-rosters, 50 of them with a rookie-status.
15 of the 21 players on the Junior-roster also will play for one of the eight other teams in the big league.
Sparks Haarlem and Terrasvogels have the most experienced rosters, having one rookie each on their roster.
Gryphons has the most rookies with eleven.
(April 13)
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