Dennis Ribbens

Dennis Ribbens

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born July 22, 1987

Biographical Information

Infielder Dennis Ribbens made his First Division debut in 2005, hitting .196 with a .206 slugging percentage and fielding .890. In '06, he hit .275/?/.312 and fielded .866. He moved to the Hoboken Pioneers in 2007 and hitting .240 with a .298 slugging percentage; he improved his fielding to .953. In 2008, Ribbens batted .236/?/.283 and fielding .927. He improved to .267/?/.329 in 2009 and fielded .948; his 35 runs tied Nguyen Boulet for 7th in the league. He was 4 for 18 with a walk and a double in the 2010 European Cup. He debuted with the Belgian national team in the 2010 European Championship and was one of their top players, going 6 for 15 with a double, two walks, four runs and a RBI. He led the team in average, was second to Hans Heyrman in OBP, third in slugging behind Heyrman and Steven De Lannoy and tied De Lannoy for first in runs. Three of the runs came in their romp over Ukraine. In the 2010 First Division season, he hit .427/.511/.573 with 28 walks, 53 runs, 38 RBI and 19 steals in 22 tries. He was second in the league in average (behind De Lannoy), second to De Lannoy in OBP, third in slugging, third in walks (behind De Lannoy and Kevin Knollenburg), second to De Lannoy in runs, second to De Lannoy in hits (61, 3 shy), second in RBI (4 behind Dennis De Quint), second to De Lannoy in steals (10 short) and second with 82 total bases (6 behind De Lannoy).

In 2011, he hit .248/.354/.346 for the Pioniers, fielding .932 and stealing 12 bases in 16 tries. He was 8th in walks (25), tied for third in runs (38, even with Dave Herssens) and second in assists (110, 2nd to [{Robin Roevens]]). In the 2011 European Cup, he was 7 for 21 with a walk, 4 runs, 2 RBI, only one steal in 3 tries and a .885 fielding percentage. He tied Aleksandr Maksiakov and Juan Salazar for third in errors and tied Matt Gaski and Sidney de Jong for 8th in hits. In the 2011 European Championship Qualifiers, he helped Belgium win a spot in the 2012 European Championships and got MVP for his stellar performance (.474/.565/.474, 3 R, 3 RBI, 4 SB, 0 CS, 0 E in 5 G). He was first in hits, tied for third in walks (4), third in average, 5th in slugging (between Tomáš Biskorovajny and Hans Heyrman), 4th in OBP and first in steals. Moving to the Borgerhout Squirrels, he hit .310/.399/.397 with 34 runs and 24 RBI in 28 games in 2012. In the 2012 European Championship, he was only 3 for 18 with a walk, 3 runs, a RBI and two errors. In the 9th/10th place game against Croatia, he was 0 for 2. He made an error that led to Croatia's first run but then hit a sacrifice fly off Jadran Dadić to score Sim Ruts with the tying run; Belgium won, 3-2.

Ribbens, along with fellow Belgian Dennis de Quint moved to the Dutch Hoofdklasse in 2013, hitting .259/.341/.333 and fielding .947. He tied for 4th in the league with five sacrifice hits.

Sources

• First Division statistics
• CEB website
• 2013 Hoofdklasse stats