Our very own senior player Paul Els with our ex-players Danny Lako and Sil Postmus made the selection for the Valley Hitters 2025 Seniors Team (U16). The Valley Hitters are a selection of players from Hilversum, Bussum, Utrecht and Amersfoort. Paul was selected for the team as one of the 2 catchers.
Both headed out for what would be a fun-filled weekend at the Gryphones in Rosemalen for good memories in their last Dutch Championships Little League 2025 (NKLL25) tournament as players.
Unfortunately the entire long weekend was a challenge for NKLL25, with the rain and because of this the seniors’ day 1 was cancelled, and the other age groups were relocated to other clubs. The seniors would end up only playing 4 of the planned 6 pool games.
For Paul, the real tournament started on Sunday with a tightly fought game against East Pro which ended with a 1 – 2 loss. He unfortunately got injured behind the plate and was replaced by the backup catcher.
The second game against Rotterdam did not go well with a 0 – 9 loss. Paul sat behind the plate for the whole game and his calming impact on the pictures and rockets to bases for the steals kept the game from being not a bigger loss.
On the last day of the tournament, the Valley Hitters Seniors started the day with a good 1 – 4 win against the Night Hawks. The team started showing unity and the spirits on the field were very high. Paul supported the team from the bench for this game.
The team’s last game of the tournament was a total 0-8 loss against Amsterdam which had a team which was in a different league. The Amsterdam Seniors Little League team went on to win the whole weekend. Paul did start behind the plate and even being very frustrated by the performance of his own team, was still able to smile and enjoy his last Little League game.
From the Hilversum Hurricanes we want to complement Paul on his performance and thank him for representing our club in this tournament.
