Jacques Reinenbergh (right) receives his Hall of Fame plaque and ring from ISF Secretary General Andy Loechner this past weekend in Belgium.

TOURNAMENT IN BELGIUM WAS MULTI-FACETED
2008-05-13

By Ben Verhaevert in Belgium

This year the International Memorial Hugo Baert, named after a deceased member of the Hoboken Pioneers, was a junior girls’ (under-19, fast pitch) tournament.

Since Belgium started up a youth softball program in this age category, it was considered an opportunity to let these girls acquire some experience with international softball.

In order to prepare for this tournament 2004 Chinese Olympic Softball team Head Coach Shan McDonald was brought over. She trained the team for the whole week and was able to assist in the first game ever that these girls played together.

Moreover, the ISF was searching for an international tournament to link an ISF umpire clinic to so that some more European umpires could get their ISF certification. (ISF Acting Director of Umpires Bob Stanton was on-hand for that component of the weekend’s goings-on.)

Taking the best of these “three worlds” the tournament was held this past weekend under a bright sunshine in Hoboken, Antwerp.

The eight teams participating were the local team of Hoboken Pioneers and the national teams of Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Spain.

Two divisions were drawn up and games were played at the same time on two fields.

The tournament began with a single round robin, and by the event’s end it was the Czech Republic coming out on top after a 9-4 victory over Germany, which followed a 9-5 Hoboken victory over Spain.

This gave the Czech Republic their first win in the International Hugo Baert Memorial.

In addition to all of the softball games, there were two other special events.

On Saturday evening (May 10) ISF Secretary General Andy Loechner inducted Jacques Reinenbergh, manager of the Belgian Softball Division, into the ISF Hall of Fame.

On Sunday European Softball Federation President Mike Jennings inducted former player and now assistant coach to the Belgian team Vera Van De Ven into the ESF Hall of Fame.

There were also individual awards for the tournament given to the following players:

The Best Batter award went to Kathy Szalay from Germany.
The Best Pitcher award went to Suzanna Kudernatschova from Czech Republic.
The MVP award went to Cornelia Shandinella from Hoboken Pioneers.

It was a very rewarding weekend for Belgian and European softball and the Flemish league and the Pioneers club is already starting to work on the 2009 MHB tournament.