After the French Elite League and German Baseball-Bundesliga we’ll now continue with our ‘2008 in Review’ series with the Italian Baseball League and the Dutch Hoofdklasse.
Fortitudo Bologna
FORTITUDO is always among the top teams in the Italian Baseball League the past few years, winning the Italian title in 2003 and 2005. However the last three seasons the success during the regular season didn’t led to a trip to the Italian Series.
BOLOGNA won 34 of 42 games to finish first in the IBL standings after the first phase of the championship. They never were in danger to drop out of the top position or even the playoffs and had a five-game lead over the second-ranked club DANESI NETTUNO in the end.
However during the semi-final round they only managed three victories in nine matches to miss the Italian Series. Afterwards they were able to eliminate TELEMARKET RIMINI and MONTEPASCHI GROSSETO in the Coppa Italia tournament to clinch a berth in the 2009 European Cup.
What the stats say
BOLOGNA not only led the league in the win-loss column, but also in the statistical department. The team scored a league-best 281 runs (35 more than the runner up GROSSETO), hit 29 homeruns (1st in league), batted .286 (2nd), had an on-base-percentage of .370 (3rd) and a slugging percentage .406 (1st). As well as the offense was, the pitching and the defense were even better. They allowed just 107 runs (49 fewer than NETTUNO), 317 hits (1st), 128 walks (1st) and committed only 39 errors (1st), despite playing the most innings (390.1 IP) of all clubs.
The pitching staff was led by four hurlers with ERA below the 2.00 mark. None of the nine used pitchers had an ERA over 3.56. Cody Cillo had a 9-1 record and an ERA of 1.34 in 14 starts. He struck out 65 in 80 1/3 innings, walking 22. Jesus Matos (7-2, ERA 1.84) had 82 strikeouts (14 walks) in 83 innings over 14 games (eleven starts). Martin Vargas (ERA 1.48), Chris George (ERA 0.82) and Fabio Milano (ERA 2.25) led a dominant bullpen.
Richard Austin headed the offense with a .366 batting average (OBP .475/SLG .652) with ten homeruns, 43 runs scored and 50 RBIs. He led the IBL in slugging, homeruns, runs scored, RBIs, and was in the top five in most of the other offensive categories. But he was not the only FORTITUDO batter with a nice season. Claudio Liverziani (.352/.506/.560) hit five homeruns, scored 34 runs and drove in 27. Ryner Bautista batted .315 (.355/.426) with four homeruns, 43 runs scored and 27 RBIs. Juan Angrisano (.265/.351/.442) had 26 RBIs in just 31 games.
The offseason was uneventful so far in BOLOGNA in comparison to a few other teams in Italy. Starting pitcher Matos likely will leave the team, Austin is expected to stay, the return of Bautista and Lino Connell is uncertain. Catcher Manuel Gasparri left the club for DANESI NETTUNO. The team doesn’t need much reinforcement for the roster, they just need to find a way to translate their performance from the regular season into the playoffs.
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Rangers Redipuglia
De Angelis Godo
Telemarket Rimini
Cariparma
Montepaschi Grosseto