Lino Ballardini

Lino Ballardini

• Bats Both, Throws Right

• Born January 5, 1996 in Antwerp Belgium

Biographical Information

Lino Ballardini has played in the First Division and for the Belgian national team.

Ballardini was briefly with the Antwerp Royal Greys in 2012. In 2013, he did not play in the First Division. In '14, he was 3 for 16 with a double and 3 RBI as a bench player for the Brasschaat Braves. He went only 3 for 35 with a walk and hit-by-pitch for the '15 Braves with more errors (5) than hits. In 2016, the 20-year-old became the Braves' starting first baseman, fielding .973 and hitting .229/~.257/.267. He stole 8 bases in 8 tries.

During 2017, he produced at a .273/.360/.403 clip. He was a part-timer for Belgium in the 2017 European Championship U23, going 1 for 12 with a walk and a double. Brasschaat hosted the 2018 Federations Cup and he hit .389/.455/.556 with 6 RBI in 5 games. He batted .306/.391/.405 in the regular season with 23 RBI in 31 games and went 8 for 12 in steals. He also pitched five shutout innings and notched a save.

He pitched for Belgium in the 2018 Super6. He closed out a 13-1 loss to Spain with a solid inning in relief of Robin Roevens. He got Leo Rodríguez to ground out and fanned Blake Ochoa. Lesther Galván hit into an error by Lucas Rizzi and Daniel Sánchez walked but Lino got Daniel Martínez to end it. He also wrapped up a 15-10 loss to the Czech national team, relieving Robbe De Jongh with one on and two outs in the 8th, striking out Martin Schneider on three pitches.