(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by El Águila de Veracruz Instagram & Fred Versluis)
  Maxime van Dalen first European player to play in Mexican Softball League
Nederlands
  VERACRUZ (Mexico) / HAARLEM (Neth.) -
Maxime van Dalen, first baseman of the Netherlands Women's Softball Team and Dutch big leaguer Sparks Haarlem, will become the first European player to play in the professional Liga Mexicana de Softbol (Mexican Softball League) in the upcoming (winter) season.
The lefthanded powerhitter will play for El Águila de Veracruz, which plays in Estadio Universitario Beto Ávila in Veracruz.
The club celebrated its 120th anniversary last year.
The club from Veracruz, which will be led by Manager Argenis Blanco in the new season, anounced the signing of Maxime van Dalen on Friday (October 4).
...The announcement by...
...El Águila de Veracruz...
...via Instagram of Maxime...
...van Dalen joining the club... |
The Liga Mexicana de Softbol was established in September 2023 and opened its first season with six teams in January of this year as first professional softball league in Mexico and Latin America.
All teams in this league are softball sections of the baseball-clubs that play in the professional Liga Mexicana de Béisbol.
The league was created as a joint cooperation between the Mexican Baseball League and the Federación Mexicana de Softbol (Mexican Softball Federation).
Players from Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, the USA and Venezuela played in the first season.
Charros de Jalisco (which plays in Zapopan) became the champion of the inaugural 2024 season winning the best-of-five Serie de la Reina 3-1 against Sultanes de Monterrey.
En route to the Championship Final, El Águila de Veracruz was eliminated in the Semi-Final by Monterrey, which therefore advanced to the Final against Jalisco.
Also playing in the first season were Bravos de León, Diablos Rojos del México (Coyoacán, Mexico City) and Olmecas de Tabasco (Villahermosa).
The same six teams will participate in the second season.
On October 22, it was announced that two more teams will join the league, being Algondoneros de Unión Laguna (Torreón) and Naranjeros de Hermosillo.
The 2025 season opens on January 23 and ends on March 9.
Hereafter, the best-of-five Semi-Final (Series Semifinales) will be played on March 11-16 and will be followed by the best-of-five Serie de la Reina (March 18-23).
Maxime van Dalen is a veteran player in both the highest Dutch league, as well as in the National Team.
Maxime van Dalen primarily plays at first base, but also can play in rightfield, which was her prime position in her early seasons.
Van Dalen made her big league-debut in 2011 when she played for Alcmaria Victrix for whom she played through 2013.
With this Alkmaar-based team, she won her first Championship-title in 2012.
In the Holland Series of that year, Alcmaria defeated Sparks Haarlem, the club for whom Maxime van Dalen plays since 2014.
Besides playing for Alcmaria in 2012 and Sparks in 2014-2016, Van Dalen also played the Netherlands Juniors Team (Young Orange) and Talent Team Holland, which then also played in the highest league as an additional team.
With Sparks Haarlem, Maxime van Dalen reached the Holland Series six times, including this year.
In 2014, 2015 and 2016, Sparks captured the Dutch Championship-title in three consecutive years.
2016 also was the last time that Sparks won the title.
...Maxime van Dalen playing for the...
...Netherlands Softball Team...
(© Photo: Fred Versluis) |
Since 2015, Maxime van Dalen developed into one of the leading hitters in the Dutch big league, finishing in the top-five in several offensive categories in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and this season.
She was the league's Best Hitter in 2020 and then als led in Slugging Average, On-Base Percentage, Basehits, Runs Batted In and Homeruns and was second in Runs Scored.
In that season, Van Dalen won the Triple Crown and was named Most Valuable Player.
In 2021, she led the league with nine homeruns.
This year, Van Dalen was second-best with eight homeruns and 35 runs batted in and was the fourth best hitter with a .438 batting average.
In her 14 big league-seasons, Maxime van Dalen belted 31 homeruns, including 26 since 2019.
Maxime van Dalen plays for the Netherlands Softball Team since 2015 and appeared in 137 official international games.
With the Orange-squad, she participated in six European Championships, winning the title in 2017 and 2022 and finishing in second place in 2015, 2019 and 2021.
Last month, the Netherlands finished in a disappointing third place in the European Championship in the Utrecht-region at home-soil.
Van Dalen also participated in the 2016 and 2018 World Championships.
Last year and this year, she participated in the two-stage World Championship (or World Cup).
In July, the Netherlands finished in a historic fourth place in the World Cup Finals in Italy.
As mentioned, Maxime van Dalen will be the first European player to play in Mexico, as well as in Latin America.
In earlier years, players from the Netherlands have played in (professional) leagues or competitions in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Italy.
Dutch players have also played in competitions in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain.
During European Cup-tournaments, several Dutch players have participated as a so-called pick-up player for club-teams coming from different European countries.
(October 4; 22)
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