Latin America breaks out the lumber
By John Denny
Staff Reporter

Latin America's Tsade Joubert settles under a flyball. First below, Latin America's Glorianne de Jongh beats the throw to EMEA second baseman Lorijn Buise. Second below, Latin America celebrates a good performance. Third below, Zuleinys Salesia gets ready to power into a swing. Fourth below, Farisette Martina watches a high pitch very closely. Photos by RUSLANA LAMBERT

Mirroring somewhat that history, two years ago, a Netherlands softball team traveled to Curacao, beat the hometown Latin American Senior League Softball champs and went to the Little League World Series in Roxana.

But on Aug. 8, 2006, the Latin American team would flip the script and conquer the Netherlands, in a 22-0 drubbing over the team representing Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) — Rotterdam, Netherlands.

“We didn’t know which team would be coming or what would happen, so beating them was a plus,” Latin America team manager Myustinov Helmijr said through a translator.

The Latin American team pasted EMEA for seven first-inning runs, five in the second and third innings, while scoring five combined runs over the fourth and fifth innings before the game ended due to the 10-run rule. Latin America out hit EMEA 4:1 (12:3, respectively) but 10 Rotterdam errors prolonged many of those innings, resulting in the inflated score.

And despite a gaping scoring margin between them, the EMEA players cheered their peers on for every putout, hit, hustle play, strike and stolen base.

“We made some bad decisions base running and some unnecessary errors,” EMEA manager Eric van Ee said. “But we stayed focused and were emotional (energetic) throughout the game.”

Twice they had runners on second and third, but in the end their inexperience as a team was their undoing.

Though some of EMEA’s players have several years of experience, van Ee noted that this is the first year for a few of his players.

“Little League is not big in Europe right now, but we’re getting there,” van Ee said. “But they are talking to the players from the other teams and get to see the good pitchers here. Our girls always keep fighting and will definitely take our experiences with them.”