René Herlitzius

René Herlitzius

• Bats Left, Throws Right

• Born March 7, 1977 in Unna, North Rhine-Westphalia Germany

Biographical Information

René Herlitzius was a MVP in the German Bundesliga and played for the German national team.

Herlitzius was 2-0 with a 3.55 ERA and hit .429/.484/.643 with 9 runs, 11 RBI and 6 doubles in 6 games in the 1995 B-Level U18 European Championship, leading the team in doubles, RBI and hits. He made his Bundesliga-1 debut in 1997 with the Paderborn Untouchables, hitting .333/.368/.483 with 21 steals in 23 tries and 23 RBI in 28 games, while going 8-2 with a 4.09 ERA and 74 K in 66 IP. He tied for 7th in the Bundesliga-1 north in RBI, tied for 5th in doubles (11), was second in steals, ranked 4th in ERA (between Andreas Becker and Dirk Günther), was 6th in whiffs (between Günther and Michael Wäller), tied Becker for 3rd in wins, was 7th in IP and was 3rd in WHIP (behind Wäller and Alexander Schnitzler). In the 1997 European Championship, he was 3-for-13 with a double, two times plunked, three runs and two RBI while going 1-0 with 4 runs (3 earned) in 4 innings.

In 1998, he hit .315/.410/.528 and was down to 8 steals, while going 9-2 with a 3.11 ERA. He won the ERA title by .13 ahead of Stefan Fechtig, was 9th in K (56, between Thorsten Wöhner and Slif Ulrich), tied Christian Klein for 4th in wins, led in K:BB ratio, had the lowest walk rate (.31 BB/IP, .05 ahead of Martin Almstetter) and had the best WHIP (1.26, .08 ahead of Fechtig). He was named the best pitcher in the Bundesliga-1 north. During the 1999 campaign, he produced at a .444/.505/.744 rate with 25 runs and 31 RBI in 28 games, going 7-2 with a 2.63 ERA. He made leaderboards in average (5th, between Glen Buckley and Jason Doll), homers (3, tied for 5th), RBI (4th, between Mark Gnutzmann and Andreas Gienger), hits (tied Thomas Riedner for 3rd), doubles (12, 3rd), triples (3, tied for 5th), slugging (5th, between Doll and Buckley), OBP (8th), OPS (5th, between Doll and Buckley), fielding percentage (.983, 9th), ERA (2nd, 1.04 behind Fechtig), strikeouts (58, 8th, between Wäller and Dirk Fries), IP (61 2/3, 8th, between Wöhner and Mirko Heid), lowest walk rate (.24/IP, 1st, .04 ahead of Wäller) and WHIP (1.17, 2nd, .01 behind Fechtig). In the postseason, he was 1-2 with a 3.15 ERA but hit .364/.462/.636 with 8 runs and 6 RBI in 6 games as Paderborn won its first title. In the 1999 European Championship, he batted .333/.368/.500 and was 0-1 despite a 2.25 ERA, losing a 2-1 duel to Robert Roudny of the Czech national team.

The Unna native fell to 9-3, 4.90 in 2000 while hitting .381/.425/.577 with 27 RBI in 28 games, rapping 13 doubles. He tied for 5th in RBI, tied for 7th in hits (37), was second in doubles (one behind Pat O'Conner), ranked 8th in ERA (between Fechtig and Heid), was third in wins (one behind Frank Stattler and Fries), was 6th in IP (64 1/3, between Lutz Denckert and Wäller) and 8th in WHIP (between Heid and Claus-Jan Hendricks). He was 0-1 with a 8.36 ERA in the postseason but hit .500/.538/.750 with seven RBI in six games as they repeated. In '01, he saw reduced action and was 0-1 with a 3.37 ERA while batting .410/.432/.667 with 16 RBI in 12 games, not being slowed by the league's transition from aluminum to wood bats. He was 1 for 4 in the playoffs and did not pitch; Paderborn won without his contributions. He did not pitch as well in the 2001 European Championship - he walked 6 and allowed 3 runs in 3 innings before Almstetter relived against Sweden, while hitting .345/.406/.586 with a homer and ten RBI in eight games. He was among the tourney leaders in average (tied Roberto Ederra for 9th), slugging (3rd, after David Sheldon and Jiří Víšek), RBI (tied Björn Johannessen and Ruslan Deykun for second, two behind Pavel Chadim), doubles (4, tied for 4th) and total bases (tied Remy Maduro, Víšek and Alex Borgo for 3rd, one behind Sheldon and Rodolfo Veitia).

For the 2002 Untouchables, he hit .398/.451/.590 with 28 RBI in 25 games and had a 3-1, 3.14 record. He was 6th in average, tied for 3rd in homers (5), 5th with 33 hits (between Carlos Sanchez and Klein), 3rd in RBI (behind Sanchez and Philipp von Soosten), tied for 8th in runs (21) and 9th in slugging (between Wöhner and von Soosten). He produced at a .344/.382/.469 rate with 9 runs in 8 postseason games when they won their fourth title in a row. In '03, he was 5-0 with a 0.28 ERA (6 R, 1 ER in 32 1/3 IP), allowing only 18 hits. His batting line, meanwhile, was .429/.471/.635. He was third in average, tied Markus Winkler for 4th in dingers (2), tied for 7th in RBI (17), tied for 5th in hits (27), was 4th in slugging, placed 10th in OBP and tied for 5th in wins. He fell short of qualifying for the ERA title (within a few innings at most, as 37 2/3 got Stattler qualified) or he would have easily beaten Wäller's 2.45 for the best mark. He won the MVP. He was similarly untouchable for the Untouchables in their playoff run to another title (5-0, 0.52) and hit .364/.440/.409. He beat Stattler and the Cologne Dodgers in the finale to keep their pennant streak going. In his last time with the national team, he did not pitch but hit .286/.318/.333 with five RBI in seven games in the 2003 European Championship. He missed the event's top ten 10 in RBI by one. He led Germany in RBI and tied Borgo and Marvin Appiah for their hit lead.

At age 27, he fell to .275/.362/.353 and went 5-0 with a 3.34 ERA. He tied for 7th in the 2004 Bundesliga-1 north in wins. He had a 3-0, 3.23 postseason mark and was 2-for-7 with a walk as Paderborn won yet again. Switching clubs for the first time, he moved to the Holzwickede Joboxers in 2005 and did not play in the regular season, only in the play-downs. In 2006, he returned to Paderborn to bat .368/.479/.395 with 16 RBI in 14 games, going 2-1 with a 3.09 ERA. His .978 fielding percentage was 8th in the circuit. The next year, he moved to the Dortmund Wanderers and led the minor Bundesliga-2 in RBI and hits.

Having been a key role of helping Dortmund move from Bundesliga-2 to Bundesliga-1, he continued to play a prominent role for them in 2008. He was 6-5 with a 3.32 ERA and hit .284/.333/.422 as a regular center fielder when not pitching. He tied for 3rd in homers (3), was 7th in ERA, ranked 5th in K (65), tied Moritz Sckaer and Benigno Ozuna for 4th in wins, tied for 5th in losses, tied for second in innings (16 behind Eugen Heilmann) and was 6th in WHIP (between Sckaer and Matt Kemp). He faded to .235/.284/.271 for the 2009 Wanderers but improved to 4-1, 2.28 on the mound. He was 4th in fielding at 1B, 4th in ERA (between Heilmann and Kody Hightower), 7th in strikeouts (40), tied Björn Schonlau and Kemp for 3rd in wins, tied for 3rd in saves (2), was 9th in IP (51 1/3) and was 6th in WHIP (between Kemp and Jens Cornelsen).

The veteran moved to the Regensburg Legionäre in 2010. With a team that averaged over nine runs a game, they did not need his bat. He only came up five times, getting two hits. He went 5-0 with a 1.25 ERA but fell to 1-2, 10.38 in the postseason; they still won as he picked up his 6th career title. He tied for 5th in the Bundesliga-1 South in victories. His whereabouts for 2011 are unclear to this writer. In '12, he was back with Dortmund, going 4-1 with a 5.79 ERA and hitting .289/.347/.301. He made no errors. During 2013, he was 2-3 with a save and a 2.16 ERA while batting .278/.341/.329 as a 1B/P for Dortmund. He was 7th in ERA (between Brent Buffa and Andre Hughes) and edged Buffa for the lowest walk rate (.12/IP).

The 37-year-old was only 1-6 with a 5.60 ERA in 2014 and had a .262/.354/.333 slash line. He tied Harry Glynne for 3rd in IP (70 2/3), tied for 3rd in losses and had the 6th-lowest walk rate. The next year, he was 3-5 with a 6.79 ERA and hit .288/.304/.288. He tied for 4th in losses, was 10th in IP (50 2/3) and was 7th in walk rate. He became the Wanderers' player-manager in 2016. He was 0-1 with a 5.49 ERA, batting .265/.265/.347. At age 39, he finally did not make the leaderboards.

In 2017, he barely pitched (1-0, 7.71) but hit .259/.282/.296 with a team-high 17 RBI as the Wanderers' main first baseman. He tied for 8th in RBI and was 4th in fielding at first (.982), between Maurice Wilhelm and Lennart Weller. The Wanderers fell back to Bundesliga-2 for 2018; he was 1-0 with two saves and a 2.08 ERA, hitting .321/.387/.482 with 16 RBI in 14 games at age 41. He tied for the Bundesliga-2 Northwest lead with three homers (with Vincent Ahrens and Danny Lankhorst as well as Anthony Rodriguez) and tied for second in saves. A season later, he batted .306/.342/.472, was Dortmund's first baseman and was 0-1 with a 3.65 ERA. He tied former Braves farmhand Andres Adrianza and German national team vet Sascha Brockmeyer for the Bundesliga-2 Northwest homer lead (2) and was 7th with six doubles. Dortmund returned to the Bundesliga-1 for 2020 but he did not play that season and appears to be retired.

Through 2010 (the last time the German Baseball and Softball Federation updated the list), he was among the German national team career leaders in average (.309, 11th, between Appiah and Sascha Lutz), RBI (21, 15th), slugging (.457, 11th, between Matthias Winterrath and Tarek Shaer) and fielding (.965, 8th, between Riedner and Michael Franke).