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(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen, Fred Versluis & Marco Stoovelaar)
 Mariëlle Vleugels MVP; Ginger de Weert Best Pitcher; More Awards
Nederlands
 HOOFDDORP (Neth.) -
Mariëlle Vleugels (FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem) is Most Valuable Player of the 2015 season in the Golden League, the Dutch big league, while Ginger de Weert (Terrasvogels) was honored as Best Pitcher.
It marked the first time since 2010 that the winners come from two different teams.
In the past four fours years, both awards went to players of Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem.
The winners were announced tonight (Saturday, December 12) during the Star Awards, the annual presentation of the awards for the best baseball- and softball-players.
The event was held this year at Claus Party Centre in Hoofddorp for the first time since 1998.
In the previous four years, the awards were handed out in Rotterdam during the annual European Coach Clinic of the KNBSB, which is no longer organized due to high costs.
Also tonight, baseball-player Dirk van 't Klooster and softball-player Saskia Kosterink were honored for their impressive career and contributions to their sports.
The Slugger also was handed out again tonight.
The Slugger is the highest recognition award of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB) and is handed out to a person, persons, group, club or organization for promotional activities in order to promote the sport(s) of baseball and/or softball on national and or regional level.
Last year, the Slugger was handed out again for the first time since 1999 and then was awarded to the Organizing Committee of the World Women Softball Championship in Haarlem.
This year, the award went to two organizations, who are active now for a few years and are linked closely together.
They are the organizartion of the Battle of the Castle, which organizes a baseball-tournament annually at the site of Twins, and the organization of Collegiate Baseball League Europe.
This last organization is linken to the tournament, but also organizes a trip annually through Europe enabling talented players to play many games.
Go here for the Baseball Awards
Photo Galery of the Stars Awards Night
(December 12)
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Most Valuable Player
...Mariëlle Vleugels...
...Most Valuable Player...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
The award for the Most Valuable Player of the 2015 season to Mariëlle Vleugels (FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem), who played at several positions, including at 1st base, 3rd base and as pitcher.
She batted .420 and collected 42 basehits, which both were third-best of her team.
She led the squad with 32 runs batted in, but scored only 13 runs herself.
She also led the team with a .978 fielding average.
As pitcher, Mariëlle Vleugels appeared in 19 games (5 starts) and was 8-0 with two saves and striking out 50 batters in 68 innings, finishing with a 1.75 ERA, but she pitched not enough innings to qualify for the Best Pitcher-category.
Overall in the Golden League, her .420 batting average was 7th best, while her .483 on-base percentage was 8th best of the season.
Her 42 basehits were 5th best and her 32 RBI's were third-best behind Areke Spel (49) and Karin Tuk (38) (both Sparks Haarlem).
With her 11 doubles, she shared the league-lead with Jessie van Aalst (Terrasvogels).
Vleugels is the first player of Olympia Haarlem to win the MVP Award.
Since 2012, three players of Olympia Haarlem were nominated for the Award.
In 2003, Jocelyn Forest was the Most Valuable Player, while playing for DSC '74, the predecessor of Olympia Haarlem.
The last six years, the Most Valuable Player played for Sparks Haarlem.
That streak began in 2009 when Marloes Fellinger won.
She was followed by Kim Kluijskens (2010), Areke Spel (2011), Nathalie Gosewehr (2012), Leigh Godfrey (2013) and Karin Tuk (2014).
Again four players were nominated for the MVP Award, but for the first time, only two clubs were represented.
Since 2012, four players are nominated for the award with the criteria being that one each of the four teams that qualified for the Play-Offs would be nominated.
With this, players were recognized for helping their team reaching the final four.
But this year, no players of Terrasvogels and Tex Town Tigers were nominated for the award, despite the fact that these teams also reached the Play-Offs.
Also nominated were Maxime van Dalen, Chantal Versluis (both Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem) and Eva Voortman (Olympia Haarlem).
Voortman was the second-best hitter of Olympia Haarlem with a .435 batting average and also led the team in runs scored (38) and basehits (47), while batting in 14 runs.
She also led the team (and the league) with 23 stolen bases.
Voortman, who also played at first base and in the outfield, was 12-4 as a pitcher and struckout 105 batters in 91 innings, while finishing with a 2.38 ERA.
Versluis and Van Dalen were the two leading hitters for Sparks Haarlem.
Versluis led the team with a .490 batting average, 52 runs scored and 51 basehits.
She also led the league with these stats, as she did in slugging percentage (.808) and total bases (84) and was third in on-base percentage (.546).
Van Dalen was the second-best hitter of Sparks Haarlem (.473), scored 28 runs (6th best of the team) and batted in 29 (4th best).
In the league, she was the third-best hitter, was 11th in runs scored and 6th in RBI's, but was 2nd with a .536 batting average with runners in scoring position.
When looking to Terrasvogels and Tex Town Tigers when their players would have been included, candidates might have been Kimberly Jones, Jessie van Aalst and Marisèla de Wind (Terrasvogels) and Laura Wissink and Annemiek Jansen (Tex Town Tigers).
Jones batted in only five runs, but as lead-off hitter, she led Terrasvogels with a .375 average, 38 runs scored, a .483 on-base average and 19 stolen bases.
She was 8th best in the league with a .483 on-base average, sharing with Mariëlle Vleugels and Areke Spel.
Jones also was third-best in the league with her 38 runs scored.
De Wind batted .373, scored 26 runs and batted in 26, while Van Aalst batted .353, scored 29 runs and batted in 27.
De Wind and Van Aalst were both in the top-10 RBI-list in the league.
De Wind was 7th best hitting with runners in scoring position.
Wissink batted .362 (3rd best of TTT), scored 27 runs (2nd) and batted in 25 runs (1st).
Annemiek Jansen was 11th best in the league with 28 runs scored and was 6th best with 41 baseshits, followed by Wissink.
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Best Pitcher
...Ginger de Weert...
...Best Pitcher...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
The award for Best Pitcher went to Ginger de Weert (Terrasvogels).
The righthander led the Golden League with a 1.39 ERA and 113 strikeouts.
She was 6th best with 85 2/3 innings pitched.
With her 12 victories, she shared second place with Eva Voortman behind Kirsten Scheele, who won 17 games.
With 67, De Weert allowed the least basehits of the pitchers who were qualified for this award and was second-best in runs allowed (33) and least walks issued (30).
| Previous Best Pitchers, Terrasvogels |
| Jet Jonker | 1971 |
| Christian Oudendijk | 1975 |
| Els Koks | 1979, 1980, 1981,
1983, 1984, 1988 |
| Fredy van Offeren | 1989 |
| Annet van Opzeeland | 1990 |
| Inez Hollander | 1993 |
| Joyce Smit | 1997 |
| Laura van den Berg | 1999 |
| Maaike Zijlstra | 2000, 2004 |
| Aimee Murch | 2009 |
| Ginger de Weert | 2015 |
Ginger de Weert had been nominated for the award in the previous three years.
It marks the 17th time in history that a pitcher of Terrasvogels wins this award, including six times by Els Koks.
The last time that a pitcher of Terrasvogels won the award was in 2009 when Australian Aimee Murch won.
The last four years, the Best Pitcher played for Sparks Haarlem.
Also nominated for the award were Malou van Dusschoten (Terrasvogels) and Kirsten Scheele (Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem).
Scheele had the second-best ERA with 1.84 and won the most games (17), while throwing the second-most innings (99).
She was in fourth place with 99 strikeouts, but allowed the least runs (27) and issued the least walks (23)
Van Dusschoten was third-best with an 1.85 ERA.
Her .213 batting average by opposing batters was the second-lowest in the league, trailing only De Weert (.207).
Van Dusschoten threw the most innings (109 2/3) and was third in strikeouts (102), while winning nine games (5th).
She made 23 pitching appearances, sharing the lead with Roos-Marijn Kramer (Talent Team).
She shared third place with Scheele in least hits allowed (85).
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Statistical Awards
| Previous Best Hitters, Sparks H'lem |
| 1974 | Els Spee |
| 1976 | Els Spee |
| 1978 | Els Spee |
| 1980 | Elly Nijhuis |
| 1982 | Betty Veenstra |
| 2006 | Kim Kluijskens |
| 2011 | Areke Spel |
| 2012 | Virginie Anneveld |
| 2013 | Leigh Godfrey |
| 2014 | Karin Tuk |
| 2015 | Chantal Versluis |
Best Hitter
The Golden League was led this season by Chantal Versluis (Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem), who batted .490 (51-for-104).
It marks the first time in history that the Best Hitter comes from one club in five consecutive years.
In 2011, Areke Spel won the award, followed by Virginie Anneveld (2012), Leigh Godfrey (2013) and Karin Tuk (2014).
Since 2006, six different players of Sparks Haarlem were best hitter in the highest division.
Besides the above mentioned five, Kim Kluijskens was the other in 2006.
Before that, the last time that a player of Sparks Haarlem, then-named HHC, won the award for best hitter was 1982!
Back then, it was Betty Veenstra, who was the best hitter.
Starting in 1974, in a period of nine years, the award went five times to HHC.
It then took 24 for the next player of the club to win again in 2006.
Homerun Queen
This award was won again by Karin Tuk (Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem).
This season, the powerful catcher registered seven homeruns to lead the league.
It marks the fourth consecutive season that Karin Tuk leads the league in homeruns.
In that span, she belted 35 homeruns.
With her seven homeruns, Karin Tuk shared first place in the Golden League with teammate Areke Spel.
However, when two (or more) players hit the same total of homeruns, the tiebreaker is the total of at bats.
Karin Tuk hit her homeruns in 81 at bats, while Areke Spel needed 95 and with that, the award went to the reigning Homerun Queen.
Most Stolen Bases
The most bases were stolen this season by Eva Voortman (FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem), who led the league with 23.
With that, she broke the streak of Chantal Versluis (Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem), who had led the league in stolen bases the past five consecutive seasons and six of the past seven.
This year, Versluis stole 20 bases to finish in second place.
In her five winning seasons combined, Versluis stole 167 bases.
Did the winning streak of Sparks Haarlem ended in the MVP and Best Pitcher-category, it also ended in this one.
As mentioned, Chantal Versluis won in six of the last seven years.
In that other year, it was Saskia Kosterink, who stole the most bases.
...Chantal Versluis...
...Best Hitter... | 
...Eva Voortman...
...Most Stolen Bases... | 
...Karin Tuk...
...Most Homeruns... |
| (© Photos: Henk Seppen) | (© Photo: Fred Versluis) |
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Other Awards
...Chantal Versluis...
...Holland Series MVP...
(© Photo: Fred Versluis) |
Most Valuable Player Holland Series
The winner of this award already was announced after completion of the final game of the Holland Series.
The award went to Chantal Versluis of Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem, which this year won the best-of-one Holland Series to become Dutch championship.
As is custom, the award is not handed out during the Holland Series, but during the Star Awards as part of the other award-presentations.
...Suka Van Gurp...
...Egbert van der Sluis Memorial...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Egbert van der Sluis Memorial Trophy
This award is for the most talented softball-international under 23.
The award is named after Egbert van der Sluis, who was active for many years in the area of player development, as well as recreation and promoting softball to be played at schools.
He also had been a member of the board for the KNBSB for several years, while also being involved a long time in the then-extisting Eastern District and Region.
The trophy was won this year by Soclaina (Suka) Van Gurp, who made her debut this year in the Netherlands National Team.
She also made her debut in the Golden League, playing in seven games for Terrasvogels.
...Ilona Andringa...
...Riet Vermaat Trophy...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Riet Vermaat Trophy
This award is handed out annually to the most talented youth pitcher of the year.
The award is named after Hall of Famer Riet Vermaat, a softball-pioneer and a longtime pitcher of the Netherlands National Team.
She also promoted the sport throughout the country.
This year, the award was handed out to Ilona Andringa, who pitched for UVV in the Silver League.
She also was a member of the Talent Team Holland (Dutch Juniors), which played in the Golden League and made an impressive debut in the Netherlands National Team during the European Championship in Rosmalen (Netherlands).
While pitching for the Talent Team, she was 5-5 in the Golden League.
Andringa also won the award in 2012 when she played for HCAW.
It marks the first time that this award is won by a player of UVV.
Ilona Andringa was unable to attend the gala in person, as she is currently in the USA, where she studies and plays at Chipola College in Florida.
She was represented tonight by her sister Naomi and father René.
...Brenda Beers...
...Bep van Beijmerwerdt Trophy...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Bep van Beijmerwerdt Trophy
This award is handed out to the most promising youth-player.
The award is named after softball-pioneer and Hall of Famer Bep van Beijmerwerdt, who in 1948 organized the first-ever softball-game and then also founded the softball-affiliate of Kinheim in Haarlem, which became one of the first softball-clubs in the country.
She also made the contacts for the Netherlands National Team to play against American teams, some of which were coming from military bases in Europe.
The award was won by Brenda Beers, who played for FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem, as well as for the Talent Team Holland.
As player of the Talent Team, she finished the season with a high batting average of .480, which was the second-best in the league.
She also registered the second-most basehits (48).
While playing for Olympia Haarlem, she batted .360.
For Brenda Beers, it was an early birthday-present, as she celebrates her 19th birthday tomorrow!
It marks the second time that a player of Olympia Haarlem wins this award.
In 2011, the award went to Dinet Oosting.
...Mary-Ann Hatt...
...Nol Houtkamp Award...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Nol Houtkamp Award
This award is handed out annually to a person who has had many contributions to the development of (young) players.
The award is named after Nol Houtkamp, who had a long association with the Netherlands National Team, as he had been its Head Coach for fourteen successful years.
Houtkamp also coached many years at the club-level and in Belgium.
The award went to former big league- and National Team-player Mary-Ann Hatt.
After her playing career, she became a club-coach and later joined the coaching-staff of the Netherlands National Softball Team.
Since a few years, she is associated with the national youth teams and has been the Head Coach of the Dutch Junior Team, which is the current Talent Team Holland.
...Daisy de Peinder...
...Coach of the Year...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Coach of the Year
The award was won this year by Daisy de Peinder, the Head Coach of Twins.
This season, she guided the team to the championship in the Silver League.
After completion of the regular season, Twins went on to win the Promotion/Relegation Play-Off and with that promoted to the Golden League.
The team will make its comeback on the highest level next season.
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