For the first time in the history of European Baseball the CEB is organizing a final four tournament for the best teams of the European Cups. This weekend the event takes place in Barcelona, Spain. After the withdrawal of the reigning Dutch and European Cup Champion CORENDON KINHEIM, the final four is more or less a battle between Spain and Italy, or better between the FC BARCELONA and the pride of Italian baseball. The tournament starts on Saturday with the semi-finals BARCELONA against T&A SAN MARINO and MONTEPASCHI GROSSETO and DANESI NETTUNO.
Schedule
Saturday, September 13:
11:00 Grosseto – Nettuno
18:30 Barcelona – San Marino
Sunday, September 14:
10:30 Game for Third Place
17:30 Finals
Livescoring at official website
FC Barcelona
The FC BARCELONA is host to the tournament and is coming from a successful season. They won the European Cup in Regensburg, Germany with a thrilling victory in the finals against DANESI NETTUNO. Afterwards they finished a close second in the Spanish Championship behind the MARLINS PUERTO CRUZ. During the course of the season the team had a team batting average of .273 and a team ERA of 1.57. Their ace Homer Baez (11-2, ERA 1.12) is expected to start in the semis against SAN MARINO. Jorge Balboa (7-1, ERA 1.57) and Remigio Leal (6-2, ERA 1.80) will follow in a relief or in the Sunday games. Offensive wise they will miss first baseman Jorge Miqueleiz (.277, 14 runs, 17 RBI) due to a wrist injury. Oscar Roman (.397, 20 runs, 20 RBI), recently crowned with gold at the European Championships Under-21, and Jesus Golindano (.400, 27 runs, 24 RBI) lead the lineup. The biggest problem for the FCB is going to be the long break between the end of the Spanish season at the beginning of August and the start of the Final Four. Especially when we are considering the fact that the Italian opponents played important games till last weekend.
T&A San Marino
After a solid regular season SAN MARINO stormed past the favorites in the playoffs and won their first ever Italian Baseball League title a week ago after a thrilling and exiting seven-game series against NETTUNO. They are the replacements for KINHEIM in the tournament, after finishing in third place at the European Cup in Grosseto, Italy. They batted .277 during the regular season and had a team ERA of 3.68. Both stats were good for fourth place in the IBL. Like every of the three Italian teams they have to cut two of the five foreign players due to the CEB regulations before the start of the Final Four and it is not clear, who this is going to be. We also have to consider, if players like Max De Biase (.294, 22 runs, 33 RBI) recovered from their recent injuries during the playoffs. Besides him the offense is led by Martin Vazquez (.380, 30 runs, 30 RBI) and James Buccheri (.327, 28 runs, 18 RBI) (Update: not on the roster). Shortstop Seth La Fera (.291, 31 runs, 20 RBI) impressed throughout the postseason. Horacio Estrada (4-2, ERA 2.27), Brian Looney (3-1, ERA 1.46) and Tiago Da Silva (4-4, ERA 1.92) are in the frontline of the pitching staff. Winning the Italian championship pushes T&A definitely into a favorite role for the event. However it is difficult to say if there is a drop off after last week’s emotional rollercoaster.
Danesi Nettuno
The same things apply to NETTUNO after just a break of about a week after a tough ending of the season in Italy. After losing in the finals of the Italian Championship 2007 and 2008 and the second place finish in the European Cup in Regensburg, they want to prove that they can win a title. DANESI batted .278 (third in IBL) and had a team ERA of 2.90 (second) in 2008. Their pitching staff is led by the former Major League pitchers Nelson Cruz (5-3, ERA 2.25) (Update: Is not on the roster for the tournament) and Giovanni Carrara (8-2, ERA 2.35). Though, fellow starter Carlos Richetti (9-1, ERA 2.22) was their most successful pitcher this year. Five of their batters hit better than .300 with Juan Camilo (.306, 30 runs, 24 RBI) and Giuseppe Mazzanti (.392, 33 runs, 28 RBI) scoring more than 30 runs apiece. With this pitching staff they are definitely one of the better teams in the Final Four. Although we do not know, who is going to start.
Montepaschi Grosseto
It was a difficult postseason for GROSSETO, as they missed the opportunity to defend the Italian title after being eliminated in the semi-final round. They qualified for Barcelona via a second place in the European Cup in Grosseto behind KINHEIM. They led the IBL with a team batting average of .292 and were third with a team ERA of 3.43. Chris Cooper emerged as a starter in the second part of the season and led the staff with an ERA of 1.57 in front of veteran Lincoln Mikkelsen (ERA 2.01, 6-2) and Emiliano Ginanneschi (6-1, ERA 2.60). (Update: Both are not on the roster for the tournament. )Seven of the nine regular batters in their lineup hit better than .290. Leadoff man Jorge Nunez (.299, 43 runs, 23 RBI) scored a league-leading 43 runs. Jairo Ramos (.342, 33 runs, 40 RBI) finished in second with 40 RBI. In difference to SAN MARINO and NETTUNO they should have plenty of time to think about the elimination in the semis and they should be newly motivated, as this is the last chance to win a title till next summer.
