Frank Bulte

Frank Antonio Bulte Pinya

• Bats Both, Throws Right

• Born March 27, 1997

Biographical Information

Frank Bulte has played regularly for the Russian national team.

Bulte hit .300/.417/.350 and fielded .933 in the 2013 18U European Championship. He batted .500/.591/.611 in the 2014 U21 European Championship, handling 14 chances error-free. He tied for 4th in the event in hits (9) and doubles (2) and made the top 10 in average, OBP and slugging. He debuted for the senior national team in the 2014 European Championship, taking over at short for Yury Bokalets (who had left for a pinch-hitter) in a loss to the Czech national team. His first at-bat was as a pinch-hitter for Artem Kulik late in a shutout loss to Spain; he grounded out against Eric González. His first hit came against David Bergman of the champion Dutch national team. He finished 2 for 7 with a walk and fielded .857.

In 2015, he hit .200/.400/.200 and fielded .923 in the 2015 European Junior Championship. He tied for 8th in the event with five walks (in five games). He was 0 for 3 for SSHOR Moskvich in the 2016 Federations Cup. He was at .267/.313/.333 in the 2016 U21 European Championship, but fielded .786; he tied for 4th with 4 RBI but tied for 4th in errors (3); the event did not include many of Europe's top baseball countries. In the 2016 European Championship, he batted only .105/.227/.105 but handled 26 chances with no errors. Among qualifiers, only France's Dylan Gleeson and Luc Piquet had lower averages.

Frank's batting line in the 2017 B-Level European Championship was .300/.462/.300 and he handled 15 chances with no errors. He hit .143/.308/.143 and fielded .920 in the 2017 U23 European Championship. He excelled in the 2018 World University Championship, with 4 runs and 3 walks against Hong Kong, 3 walks and 3 runs against Australia and Russia's lone run in the 5th/6th place game loss to Czechia. He hit .429/.652/.429 with 9 walks and 10 runs in 6 games, while having 17 putouts, 18 assists and no errors. He led the event in OBP (.005 ahead of Japan's Yuya Ginji), walks and runs (two more than Yuuki Yoshida).

He was back with Russia for the [[2019 B-Level European Championship, with 4 RBI in the opener against host Bulgaria and 3 hits the next day against Greece.