HAARLEM, Netherlands — When the bases are loaded and Ericson Leonora is at the plate, you might as well start clearing them yourself. The 33-year-old has come up with the bags full twice at Honkbalweek Haarlem 2026 — and twice he’s hit a grand slam.
The second came Tuesday at Pim Mulier Stadion. Representing Curaçao against the host Netherlands, Leonora stepped in with the bases loaded in the top of the third and drove a ball deep to left, clearing them in a single swing. It was his only hit of the night, and it accounted for all four Curaçao runs. Three days earlier, against Czechia, he’d done the exact same thing — another bases-loaded blast as part of a three-hit, five-RBI afternoon.
The tournament line is staggering in its efficiency: five hits in four games, two of them grand slams, ten RBI. His bases-loaded splits read like a typo — 2-for-2, two homers, eight runs driven in. Every single time Curaçao has filled the bases with Leonora due up, he has emptied them over the fence.
The man who surrendered Tuesday’s slam took it in stride. Netherlands veteran Shairon Martis, who pitched into the seventh for the win, owned the mistake and moved on. “After that home run it was like, okay, that’s all it’s gonna get,” Martis said. “I missed my location. Before that I was missing my spot, and then I regrouped and just cruised.”
Leonora’s blast fits a career that has never stopped crossing borders. Born in Punto Fijo, Venezuela, he spent the better part of a decade in the New York Yankees’ farm system before reinventing himself abroad, becoming a force in the Italian Baseball League with a career OPS north of 1.150 for clubs like Bologna and San Marino while continuing to hit in the Venezuelan winter leagues. Now, at 33, he’s wearing Curaçao’s colors in the Netherlands and authoring the signature individual performance of the tournament. A Venezuelan, by way of the Bronx and Bologna, lighting up a Dutch ballpark for a Caribbean nation. Baseball without borders, in a single batting line.
It wasn’t enough Tuesday. The Netherlands answered, and the engine all night was a young, deep Dutch lineup that outfielder Darryl Collins says runs through leadoff man Delano Selassa. “The whole tournament, Delano’s been doing the hell of a job, being the leader of us,” Collins said. “He’s been getting on base a lot and giving us the opportunity to drive him in.” Shervyěn Newton supplied the power with a second-inning homer — “He knows he has power and he’s taking advantage of it,” Collins said. “He’s our cleanup hitter, and he’s proven it the whole time.”
