Mister Baseball

by Riccardo Schiroli

Spectacular and intense: most of the games played in the fourth weekend of the Italian Baseball League can be described this way.

Intensity and great plays became familiar for the spectators of the series between Telemarket Rimini and T&A San Marino. Especially Rimini’s middle infield (with shortstop Alexander and second baseman Santora) was really worth a look. The whole Rimini team was worth a look, at least until the third inning of the rubber match of the series, when their starter Sandy Patrone began to throw balls, their defense began to look shaky and their bench began to complain with umpires. Arguing with umpires definitely is the worst aspect of baseball in Europe (and in Italy in particular) and something should be definitely done about this by CEB Executive.

Going back to the series between Rimini and San Marino, T&A avoided a sweep (that would have been almost tragic) thanks to good relief pitching by left hander Martignoni and a key hit by outfielder Riccardo Suardi. San Marino losing two out of three is not a tragedy, but for sure is a surprise; the week before San Marino was very close to sweeping the defending Champions Grosseto at home and had added to the roster a new pitcher. Left hander Horacio Estrada made his debut Thursday night, but didn’t show much. It’s pretty soon to judge him, though. If we based our scouting on Rimini’s Matt Beech on what we saw when he pitched against Nettuno, we would be describing a weak pitcher who struggles with the strike zone. Against San Marino’s Beech looked on the contrary pretty solid, with excellent command of the inside part of the plate.

Fortitudo Bologna and Montepaschi Grosseto were supposed to win three against Redipuglia and Godo and they did. But while Bologna had a relaxing week end on the road (except for bad weather), Grosseto had to play 15 innings in game one (a three-run homer by veteran Jairo Ramos Gizzi was the victory clincher) and battle until the very last out in game three.

De Angelis Godo is still looking for the first win of the season, but showed they can definitely compete. In game one they were also unlucky. Grosseto tied the game on a pinch hit double by Marval (who is sidelined by muscular problems) in his only at bat of the week end. Godo outfielder Kyle Messineo over reacted trying to fly Marval out: had he accepted a base hit, Grosseto wouldn’t have tied the game. Not in that at bat, at least. Godo showed a pitching duo (veteran Baerlocher and prospect Kyle Collina) that can win games and a good attitude. Their lineup is still pretty inconsistent, though.

Grosseto is a power house and this is a fact. But with Marval out, their defense is not as strong and Riccardo De Santis is not as reliable as a starter as he used to be. Starting this week end, Grosseto’s defense will have some help from Brant Ust, the 2007 Euros MVP. Ust will take over for Marval at shortstop.

Grosseto will host Bologna during next weekend for a series that will tell us a lot about these two teams.

Thursday (live on Rai Sport Più on Eutelsat Hotbird 2 satellite) everybody around Europe will have a chance to watch the first game of the series between San Marino and Cariparma. The parmesans should see former Big Leaguer Hector Marcado make his debut on the mound. A new arm is badly needed by Parma that after having been swept by Bologna and Nettuno cannot afford to lose the series against T&A.

The weekend should be convenient for Danesi Nettuno that travels to Redipuglia to play the local Rangers, and for Rimini against Godo.

Another highlight of the weekend is the Rimini Wellness fair, that will showcase baseball and softball thanks to the cooperation between FIBS Marketing office and two teams of the Italian Baseball League (T&A and Telemarket) and two teams of the Italian Softball League (Europromo Hornets and Fiorini Forlì)