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(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Fred Versluis, Henk Seppen, Rein Merkx & Marco Stoovelaar)
 Dinet Oosting Most Valuable Player; Dagmar Bloeming Best Pitcher
Nederlands
 HAARLEM (Neth.) -
Dinet Oosting (FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem) is the Most Valuable Player of the 2016 season in the Golden League, which is the Dutch big league, while righthander Dagmar Bloeming won the award for Best Pitcher.
For Dinet Oosting, it was the first time that she won the MVP Award.
Dagmar Bloeming was honored for the third time as Best Pitcher.
...Dinet Oosting and her father Cobus...
...both won Awards tonight...
(© Photo: Fred Versluis) |
This years winners were announced tonight (Saturday, October 22) during the KNBSB Baseball Softball Stars Awards, which is the annual presentation of the awards for the best baseball- and softball-players of the past season.
Tonight, the event was held in the Lichtfabriek in Haarlem.
It marked the first time that the awards were handed out in Haarlem since 2011.
The Stars Awards gathering took place much earlier than in previous years, as the award ceremony mostly was scheduled in the months of November or December.
Last year, the awards were handed out on December 12.
The last time that the event was held this early was in 1988, when the best players were honored on October 28.
The awards have been handed out in December ten times since 2000, except for 2011 (November).
On five occassions, the awards were handed out in January of the following year.
From 1999 on backwards, November had been the months in which the awards were presented from 1989 on.
As was done in the previous two years, 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 (or 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.
Two years ago, the award was handed out for the first time again since 1999.
Tonight, the Slugger went to the Foundation SoftbalDino, which was well-deserved.
Former KNBSB-Chairman Henk den Duijn and former Netherlands Softball Team-player Els Wedman-Koks (Terrasvogels) handed out the award to Cobus Oosting, the father of softball-MVP Dinet Oosting.
Both founded SoftbalDino a few years ago.
SoftbalDino makes a very nice softball-magazine, organizes clinics for clubs and schools, assists at events and does much more.
SoftbalDino also contributes to live-stream productions, which are handled by Hans Vleugels.
It streams all softball-games of FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem live during the season.
Go here for the Baseball Awards
Photo Gallery of the Stars Awards Night
(October 22)
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Most Valuable Player
...Dinet Oosting...
...Most Valuable Player...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
The award for the Most Valuable Player of the 2016 season went to Dinet Oosting, who was the catcher, but also played at third base for FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem.
In 2011, she had won the Bep van Beijmerwerdt Trophy for most talented youth player.
This season, she led the league in several offensive categories, including batting average (.528), slugging average (.764), runs scored (38), basehits (56), triples (6) and total bases (81).
She was second in on-base percentage (.589) and runs batted in (32).
In all these categories, she led Olympia Haarlem.
As she also led the team in homeruns (2), she realized a team Triple Crown.
Oosting is the second player of Olympia Haaarlem to win the MVP Award and the second in a row.
Last year, Mariëlle Vleugels was named Most Valuable Player of the Golden League.
In 2003, Jocelyn Forest was the Most Valuable Player of the Dutch big league, while playing for DSC '74, the predecessor of Olympia Haarlem.
This year, three players were nominated for the MVP Award.
In the previous four years, four players were nominated.
In 2012, for the first time, four players were nominated 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.
Last year, four players also were nonimated, but then represented only two teams.
Besides Dinet Oosting, the other nominees this year were Jessie van Aalst (Terrasvogels) and Maxime van Dalen (Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem).
Van Dalen also was nominated last year.
Jessie van Aalst was the fourth-best hitter in the league (.495), second-best in slugging percentage (.725) and fifth in on-base percentage (.549).
She also was listed high in other categories, including runs scored (33, 4th place), basehits (54, 2nd place) and runs batted in (26, 4th place).
Van Aalst led the league with 15 doubles.
Maxime van Dalen was the fifth-best hitter in the Golden League this season (.472), was seventh in slugging (.597) and third in on-base percentage (.579).
She shared fourth place with Van Aalst with 26 runs batted in and led the league with 21 walks.
Van Dalen scored 21 runs, collected 34 basehits and led Sparks Haarlem with her RBI's.
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Best Pitcher
...Dagmar Bloeming...
...Best Pitcher...
(© Photo: Fred Versluis) |
The award for Best Pitcher went for the third time to Dagmar Bloeming, who this year played in her first season for DSS.
She earlier won in 2012 and 2014 when she played for Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem.
The righthander led the league this season with an 1.15 ERA and 123 strikeouts.
Her opposing batting average of .183 also was the best in the league and she gave up the fewest earned runs (15).
She finished the season with a 10-5 record, appeared in 18 games and threw 91 innings (3rd place).
Since the early nineties, there always were three pitchers nominated for the award, even in situations when it was clear who would be the eventual winner.
With a nomination, a player also is honored for her accomplishments during a season.
This year, for the first time, only one pitcher was nominated.
However, some pitchers could have been considered for nomination.
One of them is American righthander Dani Bonnet of Terrasvogels.
She led the league in victories and was 13-0 with one save, while finishing with the second-best ERA with 1.51.
Bonnet ended up in fifth place with 64 strikeouts, as she did with her 78 2/3 innings pitched.
Rebecca Soumeru (Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem) and Mariëlle Vleugels (FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem) shared second place with Dagmar Bloeming with ten victories.
They respectively were 10-0 and 10-3.
Eva Voortman (Olympia Haarlem) had the third best ERA with 1.61, was second with 109 strikeouts, but her record was only 7-7.
She threw the second-most innings with 91 1/3, trailing Malou van Dusschoten (Terrasvogels), who led the league with 111 2/3 innings.
Dagmar Bloeming became the first pitcher of DSS to win the Best Pitcher Award in 39 years!
In the seventies, Ineke Mulder was the only other DSS-pitcher, who won the Award.
She was the Best Pitcher three times in the Dutch big league, 1974, 1976 and 1977.
Terrasvogels leads all clubs with 17 Best Pitcher Awards through the years.
Last year, the Award went to Terrasvogels-pitcher Ginger de Weert.
This season, she played for Sparks Haarlem, which trails Terrasvogels with 14 Best Pitcher Awards (six as HHC, eight as Sparks Haarlem).
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Statistical Awards
...Dinet Oosting...
...Best Hitter...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Best Hitter
The Golden League was led this season by Dinet Oosting (FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem), who batted .528 (56-for-106).
She was one of three players, who batted above .500.
The second-best hitter was Virginie Anneveld (Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem), who batted .509.
Wies Ligtvoet (Talent Team Holland) closed the season with a .508 batting average.
The last player to hit .500 or higher was Karin Tuk (Sparks Haarlem), who batted .548 in 2014.
She then was the lone player, who reached the mark.
The last time that two players batted .500 or better was in 2013.
In that season, Leigh Godfrey (Sparks Haarlem) led the league with a .585 average, followed by Solange Starrenburg (Terrasvogels), who batted .504.
Dinet Oosting became the first player ever of Olympia Haarlem to lead the highest league in hitting.
Through the years, the most batting champions played for Terrasvogels and Sparks Haarlem, who both had 12 Best Hitters.
For Sparks Haarlem, six of them played for predecessor HHC.
...Laura Wissink...
...Most Homeruns...
(© Marco Stoovelaar) |
Homerun Queen
This award was won this year by Laura Wissink (Tex Town Tigers), who led the Golden League with seven homeruns.
She ended the streak of Karin Tuk (Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem), who hit the most homeruns in the past four seasons.
This year, Karin Tuk finished in second place with five homeruns.
It marks the fourth time that a player of Tex Town Tigers leads the league in Homeruns.
The first to do so was Sonja Groeneveld in 1998.
She was followed nine years later by Saskia Kosterink.
In 2010, Karin Tuk hit the most homeruns while playing for Tex Town Tigers and then shared the top-spot with Noémi Boekel and Chantal Versluis, who both played for Sparks Haarlem.
...Anne Blaauwgeers...
...Most Stolen Bases...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Most Stolen Bases
The most bases were stolen by Anne Blaauwgeers (Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem), who led the league with 22.
Last season, Eva Voortman (FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem) led the league in stolen bases, but ended in second place this year with 15.
By stealing the most bases, Voortman last year broke the streak of Chantal Versluis (Sparks Haarlem), who had led the league in this category in five consecutive seasons and six of the last seven.
It then also ended the streak of Sparks Haarlem, which led in stolen bases in seven consecutive years (2008-2014).
Besides Versluis, the other Sparks Haarlem-player, who stole the most bases in this period was Saskia Kosterink.
Before Chantal Versluis first led the league in Stolen Bases in 2008, it had been 22 years ago since a player of Sparks Haarlem had stolen the most bases.
Back then, in 1986, it was Sandra Klesser, who played for predecessor HHC.
When HHC and Sparks Haarlem are combined, it marked the ninth time that a player of that club led the league in this category.
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Other Awards
...Rebecca Soumeru...
...Holland Series MVP...
(© Photo: Fred Versluis) |
Most Valuable Player Holland Series
The winner of this award already was announced after completion of the Holland Series.
For the first time, the award also was handed out on the same day after the game during the award ceremony.
In previous years, the award was handed out during the Stars Awards, as part of the other award-presentations.
After the best-of-one Holland Series against Terrasvogels, winning pitcher Rebecca Soumeru was named Series MVP.
The veteran righthander went the distance in an exciting 8-inning game, struckout ten batters and gave up only three hits to lead Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem its third consecutive Dutch Championship-title.
...Maxime van Dalen...
...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.
This year, the trophy was handed out to Maxime van Dalen, who was a member of the Netherlands National Softball Team for the second year.
In the Summer of this year, she participated with the Orange squad in the Women's World Championship in Canada.
There, the Netherlands finished on a historic fourth place, its best result ever.
This award is handed out to players of the Netherlands National Team, but these player of course are also associated with a clubteam.
It marks the sixth time that this Trophy went to a player of Sparks Haarlem.
The others were Kim Kluijskens (2001), Noémi Boekel (2007), Chantal Versluis (2008), Nathalie Timmermans (2011 and 2012).
...Lisa Hop...
...Riet Vermaat Trophy...
(© Photo: Fred Versluis) |
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.
The award is won this year by Lisa Hop, who pitched for Birds in the Silver League.
Besides that, she also pitched for the Talent Team Holland in the Golden League.
With this team, she appeared in 14 games, nine as a starter, and was 3-5, striking out 16 batters in 44 2/3 innings.
With the Netherlands Under-22 Team, she won the title at the European Championship in the Czech Republic.
Lisa Hop was 5-0 in the tournament with an 1.18 ERA and struckout 25 batters in 23 2/3 innings.
She led the event in almost all categories.
Lisa Hop became the second player of Birds to win this Award.
In 1999, Elske ten Hoope was the first.
...Manoa Weijgertse...
...Bep van Beijmerwerdt Trophy...
(© Photo: Fred Versluis) |
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 winner is this award this year is Manoa Weijgertse, who is an utility player for Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem, but also plays college-softball in the USA.
For this reason, she was unable to be in attendance tonight.
Because of her college-seasons, she played in only five games for Sparks Haarlem during the regular season in the Golden League.
With the Netherlands Under-22 Team, she captured the European title this year in the Czech Republic.
Manoa Weijgertse led the team with a .630 batting average (17-for-27), scored 19 runs and batted in 15.
She led the tournament in all major offensive categories, but was second in RBI's, which was led by Dutch player Laura Wissink with 16.
The only other player of Sparks Haarlem to win this Award was Chantal Versluis, who received the Trophy in 2006.
...Jeroen van de Wiel...
...Nol Houtkamp Award...
(© Photo: Rein Merkx) |
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 Nol Houtkamp Award was handed out this year to Jeroen van de Wiel, who has been associated in player development for many years now in the southern region of the country.
Van de Wiel also has been the Head Coach of the women softball-team of Roef! for several years.
It is the second time that this recognition is awarded to someone who is associated with Roef!, as the Nol Houtkamp Award was won by Annie Hekker in 2013.
...Juni Francisca...
...Coach of the Year...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Coach of the Year
The award was won this year by Juni Francisca, the Head Coach of the Netherlands National Softball Team.
After having been the successful Head Coach of Sparks Haarlem for seven years, Francisca was named Co-Head Coach of the Netherlands Team for the 2015 season.
Last year, the Orange squad had to settle for the Silver Medal at the European Championship.
This year, Francisca was in charge by himself.
And this year, he led the Netherlands Team to a historic fourth place at the Women's Softball World Championship in Canada.
Never before had a Netherlands Softball Team finished that high in a global event.
It is the third time that Juni Francisca wins this award.
He was also named Coach of the Year in 2010 and 2014, while coaching Sparks Haarlem.
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