Siena College second baseman Dan Paolini, who enjoyed perhaps the most productive offensive season in program history in 2009, has been selected to participate with Team USA in the World Port Tournament (WPT) July 2-12 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

According to its website, the WPT is a highly ranked international baseball tournament, which has been organized by the "Stichting Rotterdam Baseball" for over 20 years. The WPT is one of the most important international baseball tournaments and one of the characteristic events on the the sports calendar of the City of Rotterdam.

The WPT is organized bi-annually, in cooperation with the "Haarlemse Honkbal Week", which takes place in the ‘even' years. One exception was made in 2005, when the tournament was not held due to the Baseball World Championships, which took place in our country during the summer.

After four years of absence the World Port Tournament returned in 2007 successfully back on the international sports calendar, more than 65.000 people came to Rotterdam to see the best participations field ever.

The participating countries in 2009 include the Dutch national team, USA, Cuba, Chinese Taiwan and Japan.

The 12th edition of the WPT will take place from July 2-12 in the "Neptunus Family Stadium" in Rotterdam. During the Tournament’s 11 days, 21 matches will be played, with two matches on every day except for the final Sunday. Matches will be played in the afternoon and evening.

Paolini was a Louisville Slugger Freshmen All-American, the ECAC and MAAC Rookie of the Year and a Second Team All-Northeast pick by the American Baseball Coaches’ Association. His .430 batting average was tops on the Northeast, second among all freshmen nationally and ninth in all of Division I.

He collected a school-record 86 hits in just 50 games and his 53 RBI were one shy of the single-season Siena record.