Roel Koolen

Roel Koolen (born April 20, 1982 in

Mierlo Mierlo is a village in the southern Netherlands, in the Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of Geldrop-Mierlo, North Brabant. Until 2004, it was a separate municipality with an area of . Mierlo is home to a few interesting buildings, ...

) was a Dutch

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player who used to play for

Kinheim Kinheim is a baseball and softball club based in Haarlem, the Netherlands. Kinheim's top baseball team plays in the Honkbal Hoofdklasse, the top level of professional baseball in the Netherlands. The club's most successful period was in the ...

and the Dutch national team. Koolen made his

Hoofdklasse The Vierde Divisie (; "Fourth Division"), formerly known as Hoofdklasse () is the second-highest league of amateur football in the Netherlands, and the fifth tier in general. Background The league was divided into two sections: Saturday and Sunda ...

debut at the Twins Sporting Club in 1998. He played for the Dutch junior team in the 1999 World Junior Championship and 2000 World Junior Championship. In 2000, Koolen moved to DOOR Neptunus and helped the team win the

Holland Series The Holland Series is the annual championship series of the highest level of professional baseball in the Netherlands. It is the conclusion of the postseason of Honkbal Hoofdklasse, played between the two winners of the league's playoffs. The serie ...

in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005 (he was not on the team in 2003). In the 2004 playoffs, he was named MVP. During 2003 and 2004, he spent time in College in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. He was 3 for 17 with 3 walks in 16 games for the 2003

VCU Rams The VCU Rams are the college athletics, athletic teams of Virginia Commonwealth University of Richmond, Virginia, United States. The Rams compete in NCAA Division I, Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association as members of the Atl ...

. In 2004, he hit .210/.300/.290 in 26 games. Returning to the Netherlands full-time in 2005, the 23-year-old hit .253/.345/.326 in 26 games for Neptunus and fielded .889. He was 6 for 16 with 3 doubles in the Holland Series as the team won the title. Koolen was 4 for 9 in the 2006

Haarlem Baseball Week The Haarlem Baseball Week (, before 2016 known as ) is an international invitation baseball tournament at the in Haarlem, Netherlands. It was first held in and has been held every other year in even-numbered years since . In December 2016, a ...

. After his move to

for the 2006 Hoofdklasse season, Koolen hit .324/.435/.426 with 27 walks in 42 games. He was 5th in the league in OBP and tied Eugene Kingsale,

Tjerk Smeets Tjerk Smeets (born 3 June 1980) is a former Dutch baseball player for Kinheim and the Netherlands national baseball team, Dutch national team and technical director of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Federation (KNBSB). He is the son ...

and Evert-Jan 't Hoen for fifth in walks. He only hit .190/.292/.190 in the Holland Series but Kinheim won the title, breaking the long run by Koolen's old Neptunus mates. He was one for two with a run and RBI as Michael Duursma's backup at 2B in the

2006 Intercontinental Cup The 2006 IBAF Intercontinental Cup was held in Taichung, Taiwan from November 9 through the 19th. Eight countries contested the tournament, which was played at Taichung Baseball Field and the newly built Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium ...

. In 2007, Koolen hit .386/.525/.534 with 22 walks and 21 runs in 26 games. He lost the batting title by six points to

Danny Rombley Danny Reginald Rombley (born 26 November 1979) is a Dutch former professional baseball player. He played six years in Minor League Baseball. Career Rombley was selected by coach Robert Eenhoorn in the team that represents the Netherlands at the ...

, was second to Fausto Alvarez in slugging and led the league in OBP. He tied for second in the league in triples (3). He was just 2 for 12 with a double in the

2007 Holland Series The 2007 Holland Series involved the Corendon Kinheim, defeating the Konica Minolta Pioniers in 3 straight games. {{Short pages monitor