Delano Selassa

Delano Quentin Selassa

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• School Arizona Western College

• Born October 25, 1999

BR register page

Biographical Information

Delano Selassa has played in the Hoofdklasse.

Selassa was 0 for 5 with two RBI and a walk as a bench player for the Netherlands when they won the 2016 European Junior Championship. He made his Hoofdklasse debut, going 0 for 18 with two walks for HCAW. In 2017, he hit .281/.324/.391 for HCAW and the infielder fielded .935. He was with the Netherlands when they won the 2017 U-23 European Championship, batting .222/.313/.333 with 7 runs and 8 RBI in 6 games. He hit .250/.294/.281 in the 2017 U-18 Baseball World Cup and had 4 runs and 3 hits in a rout of South Africa. He won the Ron Fraser Award as the top junior player in the Netherlands.

Delano was a starter for HCAW in the 2018 Hoofdklasse, batting .270/.302/.390 with 25 runs in 38 games while fielding .942. His 142 assists led the league (9 ahead of Nick Urbanus) and his 27 double plays turned tied Dennis De Quint for 4th. He was 1 for 7 with a run and two RBI for the Netherlands in the 2019 World Port Tournament yet won the WPT Best Rookie Award.

Moving to the L&D Amsterdam Pirates, the 19-year-old was superb in the 2019 European Champions Cup, hitting .571/.600/1.000 with 5 runs and 5 RBI in the first round. He was a triple shy of a cycle against the K. Deurne Spartans. He finished among the leaders in average (2nd, .054 behind Alex Rubanowitz), tied Sharlon Schoop for 4th in slugging, tied for 5th in OBP, tied Wilson Lee for 2nd in hits (8), tied Ariel Soriano and Ericson Leonora for the most doubles (4) and tied for 2nd with 14 total bases (4 behind Lee). He hit .273/.308/.364 for the Netherlands in the 2019 U-23 European Championship.

In the 2019 Hoofdklasse, he eked out a .248/.311/.325 line for Amsterdam and fielded .930. It was a different story in the 2019 Holland Series, though. He batted .400/.478/.500 with 5 runs in 7 games as Amsterdam became the first team to come back from a 3 games to 0 deficit to win a Holland Series. He was second in the Series in average (behind Rashid Gerard), 4th in slugging, 2nd in OBP (behind Max Clarijs), 2nd in runs (one behind Gilmer Lampe), tied for 3rd with 8 hits, tied Coco Johnson and Sharlon Schoop for 5th in RBI (3), tied for 2nd with two doubles and tied for 5th with 10 total bases. Usually, the Holland Series MVP was awarded after game 7 but it was not that year by mistake. Instead, Selassa was given the award in an empty clubhouse instead of on the field with cheering fans. He then went to the US to play college ball. On October 27, 2023, he signed with the independent Quebec Capitales of the Frontier League.