(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Marco Stoovelaar, Henk Seppen & Stanford University)
 Ferenc Jongejan new Head Coach Terrasvogels; Karin Tuk, Desiree Adriaansz, New Zealand-pitcher Nyree White added
Nederlands
 SANTPOORT-ZUID (Neth.) -
Ferenc Jongejan is the new Head Coach of the softball-team of Terrasvogels, the club officially announced a few days ago.
This season, Jongejan was the Assistant Coach of Nick Braakman and made his debut as a softball-coach.
Initially, Jongejan was a Bench Coach, but later he coached at both first base and third base.
...Ferenc Jongejan...
...new Head Coach...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Terrasvogels also announced that National Team-catcher Karin Tuk has joined the team.
Also coming are outfielder Desiree Adriaansz and New Zealand-pitcher Nyree White.
The transfer-period in softball ends on December 1, but the club already has confirmed these additions.
Terrasvogels also will sign another working-agreement with Onze Gezellen, which plays in the Silver League.
In the press release, the club states joint specialized practices-sessions can be set and ''that in this way, a nice softball-bastion will be created again in Haarlem-Noord and Santpoort with a fluent way to develop from the youth to the Golden League''.
Jongejan succeeds Braakman, who led the team the past two seasons (2016-2017) after having a member of the coaching-staff in 2013 and 2014.
Jongejan will be assisted by Joris van Ballegooy and Rob Boersma.
...Ferenc Jongejan with Joris van Ballegooy...
...during the 2014 baseball-season with UVV...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
This season, Terrasvogels finished in third place in the regular season of the Golden League with an 18-16 record behind league-leader FysioExpert Olympia Haarlem (30-4) and second-placed Oolders Omaco Sparks Haarlem (21-13).
By finishing in third place, Terrasvogels again qualified for the Play-Offs.
The Play-Off quartet was completed by Roef!, which ended up in fourth place (16-18).
In the Play-Offs, Terrasvogels was eliminated for the Holland Series, losing three games, including a costly 7-6 loss in nine innings against Roef! in the opener.
In the best-of-three Championship Final, Olympia Haarlem swept Sparks Haarlem, 2-0, to win the title.
Last year, in Braakman's first season as Head Coach, Terrasvogels finished in second place in the regular season (22-13).
The team then was 3-2 in the following Play-Offs to reach the Semi-Final against DSS.
After winning that game, Terrasvogels reached the Holland Series.
In the Final, which then was only a best-of-one, Terrasvogels lost only 1-0 in eight innings against Sparks Haarlem.
In 2013-2016, Jongejan was the Head Coach of the baseball-team of UVV in the Dutch big league.
He led the team to fifth place in his first three seasons.
In his last season in Vleuten, UVV ended up in seventh place.
In that season, Van Ballegooy was the 3B Coach for Jongejan, after having played for the team in previous seasons.
Before turning to coaching, Jongejan was a lefthanded pitcher, who played for Twins, Hoofddorp Pioniers and Neptunus in the highest Dutch league and also pitched in the Netherlands National Baseball Team.
In 2001-2004, Jongejan played professionally in the organization of the Chicago Cubs and pitched in 29 games in Triple-A in 2003 for Iowa Cubs.
After returning to the Netherlands, he briefly played again in the Dutch big league, but then his career ended due to an injury.
A few years later, he returned as a first baseman, playing for UVV in the second highest division.
He also was closely involved with Bixie Baseball, one of the Baseball Academies in the Netherlands.
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...Catcher Karin Tuk (left) and outfielder Desiree Adriaansz...
...will play for Terrasvogels in 2018...
(© Both Photos: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Karin Tuk is playing in the highest Dutch league since 2004.
She first played for Euro Stars (2004-2007) and then was the catcher for Tex Town Tigers in the next four seasons (2008-2011).
Since 2012, the powerhitter played for Sparks Haarlem with whom she won the Dutch Championship-title in three consecutive seasons in 2014-2016.
She also won the title in 2008 and 2009, while playing for Tex Town Tigers.
This season, Karin Tuk led Sparks Haarlem with a .413 batting average (38-for-92), playing in all 34 games.
She also led the team in runs scored (26), basehits (38), doubles (11), homeruns (5) and runs batted in (23), which earned her a Team Triple Crown.
While mostly being a catcher, she also played at third base and as a designated player.
With her five homeruns, the catcher of the Netherlands Softball Team, led the league for the fifth time in six years.
It marked the sixth time that she hit the most homeruns in one season.
With 52 homeruns, she is the all-time career leader in homeruns.
Desiree Adriaansz played in 26 games and batted .188 (9-for-48), scored six runs and batted in five.
She also played for Sparks Haarlem last year after having played for one season for Olympia Haarlem in 2015.
Before that, the outfielder played for Alcmaria Victrix, where she made her big league-debut in 2013.
...Nyree White...
(© Photo: Stanford Univ.) |
New Zealand-pitcher Nyree White, who also plays at first base, grew up in Oregon (USA) and pitched for Stanford University.
In the USA, she broke several pitching (strikeouts, ERA, wins) and hitting (homeruns, RBI's) records at Marist High School, before pitching for Stanford.
There, she pitched both as a starter and reliever for the Cardinals and was named to the All-Pac-12 Freshmen Team and the Pac-12 All-Academic Team.
After finishing her college-career, Nyree White plays for Ramblers in Auckland in the New Zealand softball-competition.
In July of this year, the pitcher made her debut in the White Sox, the National Softball Team of New Zealand during a 14-day tour of Japan, where 16 games were played.
The righthander also was selected for the national squad in 2013, but then had to withdraw.
In 2010-2011, she was a member of the USA National Junior Team with whom she won the Pan American 18-Under Games (2010) in Bogotá (Colombia) and World Junior Championship-title (2011) in Cape Town (South Africa).
Her father Mike White is a wellknown Hall of Fame-pitcher and softball-coach himself.
He pitched for the New Zealand National Team in 1983-1996 and also pitched for the USA National Team in 1995-2006.
With New Zealand, White won two World Championship-titles and two Silver Medals.
With the USA, he won a Bronze World Championship-Medal and three Silver Medals at the Pan American Games.
Since 2009, he is the Head Coach of the softball-team of the University of Oregon.
With 21 participations in the Holland Series and 15 National Championships, Terrasvogels is one of the most successful Dutch softball-teams ever.
With a record 35 participations in European Cup-tournaments, nine European Cup-wins and five European Cup Winners Cup-wins, Terrasvogels also is one of the most successful softball-teams in Europe.
(November 4)
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