by Riccardo Schiroli
What a surprise Cariparma was! The three wins against T&A San Marino were a real accomplishment. Also because they came after three days of baseball played at a very good level. The game doesn’t get any better than game one of that series in Europe. And the twelfth inning drama was just close to the Cup’s final in Grosseto.
Parma and San Marino will face De Angelis Godo and Rangers Redipuglia in week six of the regular season. They are supposed to sweep the side and this would mean that Redipuglia falls back to the Serie A2 and that Parma and San Marino have to conquer a place in the postseason in the last week end. San Marino will face Nettuno and this could help, since Danesi won’t have much to ask to their regular season by then.
Parma will face Montepaschi Grosseto and this is a whole different story.
The defending champions have won two against Fortitudo Bologna. That too is some accomplishment, since nobody had won a series against Bologna until now. Grosseto maintains a two-game lead, but will face Telemarket Rimini during the weekend. If Parma and San Marino can reduce the gap, the series in Grosseto will be nothing less than dramatic.
By the way, Parma cannot take a sweep for granted against Godo, since De Angelis has won a game against Grosseto and Rimini in the last two weekends and has a couple of pitchers (Baerlocher and Collina) that can beat everybody. The game will be televised live on Thursday night, starting at 9.30 pm CET.
The match up in Nettuno between Danesi and Fortitudo Bologna could have been a series to remember, but both teams are already in the playoffs. Bad timing, this time. The match ups during the semi final round robin will be much more interesting.
{mrb-schedule:2008-07-17|2008-07-19|IT}
{mrb-standing:italy-2008}