Roel Koolen (born April 20, 1982 in

Mierlo Mierlo is a town in the southern Netherlands, in the 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, for example the old Council house and ...

) was a Dutch baseball player who used to play for Kinheim and the

Dutch national team Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

. Koolen made his

Hoofdklasse The Vierde Divisie, formerly known as Hoofdklasse () is the second-highest league of amateur football in the Netherlands, and the fifth tier in general. Background The league is divided into two sections: Saturday and Sunday. This is a result of ...

debut at the

Twins Sporting Club Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

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 Neptunus is a baseball and softball club in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Following its 2014 championship season, the club signed a sponsorship contract for the 2015, 2016 and 2017 seasons with Curaçao and competes under the name Curaçao Nept ...

and helped the team win the Holland Series 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. He was 3 for 17 with 3 walks in 16 games for the 2003 VCU Rams. 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. After his move to Kinheim 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 Dutch baseball player who currently plays for Kinheim and the Dutch national team. He is the son of Dutch radio and television personality, writer, and columnist Mart Smeets. Smeets played his college baseb ...

and

Evert-Jan 't Hoen Evert-Jan Axel Charles 't Hoen (born 8 November 1975 in Alphen aan den Rijn) is a Dutch baseball player. 't Hoen represented the Netherlands at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, in which the Dutch finished sixth. He also participated i ...

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 Michael Steven Duursma (born 26 February 1978, Heiloo) is a Dutch professional baseball player who currently plays for Pioniers and the Dutch national team. He is the brother of Mark Duursma and was one of the few Dutch players to play in N ...

'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 Stadiu ...

. 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 Rombley (born 26 November 1979, in Amersfoort) is a Dutch baseball player for the Amsterdam Pirates. He also played six years in Minor League Baseball. Career Rombley was selected by coach Robert Eenhoorn in the team that represents the ...

, was second to

Fausto Alvarez Fausto is a given name and surname. It is used as a title for: __NOTOC__ Music * ''Fausto'' (opera), an opera by Louise Bertin Films * ''Fausto'' (1993 film), a French film directed by Rémy Duchemin * ''Fausto'' (2018 film), a Canadian film d ...

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 Kinheim is a baseball and softball team based in Haarlem, the Netherlands. The title sponsor of the club is currently ''Corendon'' so that the official name of the team is Corendon Kinheim. ...

but Kinheim still won. In the 2007 European Cup, Koolen was 4 for 20 with a double and a triple as Kinheim won its first European Cup ever. He was 6 for 23 in the 2007 World Port Tournament. For the

2007 Baseball World Cup The 2007 Baseball World Cup (BWC) was the 37th international Men's amateur baseball tournament. The tournament was sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation, which titled it the Amateur World Series from the 1938 tournament through th ...

, Koolen replaced

Yurendell de Caster Yurendell Eithel DeCaster (born September 26, 1979) is a Dutch professional baseball third baseman. He played part of one season in Major League Baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He played for Team Netherlands in the 2019 European Baseball Ch ...

at second base for the Dutch national team. He started ahead of Michael Duursma, who had had a much better career in

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athleti ...

than Koolen. Koolen hit .267/.267/.267 in 8 games but the Netherlands still finished 4th, tying their best finish ever. Koolen hit .294/.409/.471 in the 2008 European Cup in

Grosseto Grosseto () is a city and ''comune'' in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Province of Grosseto. The city lies from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Maremma, at the centre of an alluvial plain on the Ombrone river. It is ...

to help them win the Cup. In the 9th inning of the gold medal game, he tripled against

Linc Mikkelsen The LINC (Laboratory INstrument Computer) is a 12-bit, 2048-word transistorized computer. The LINC is considered by some the first minicomputer and a forerunner to the personal computer. Originally named the "Linc", suggesting the project's ori ...

and scored on a René Cremer sacrifice fly to force extra innings against Montepaschi Grosseto and give Kinheim their chance to win. Koolen was selected by coach Robert Eenhoorn in the team that represented the Netherlands at the 2008 Summer Olympics in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

.Dutch Olympic Baseball squad 2008
, knbsb.nl, ret: Aug 5, 2008

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koolen, Roel 1982 births Living people Baseball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Dutch expatriate baseball players in the United States Olympic baseball players of the Netherlands People from Mierlo Sportspeople from North Brabant