by Riccardo Schiroli, FIBS
The Cadets of the Friuli Venezia Giulia reached a milestone in the history of baseball in Europe. They are the first team representing the EMEA region to reach the semi finals in the 10 year history of the Senior World Series, that are being played in Bangor (Maine) in the United States.
The Friuli Venezia League made it to the semi final (Friday 8/19 at 1 pm US East, 7 pm CET) against Hilo (Hawaii, US West) with a 3-1 record.
After losing (11-2) the debut game against Rose Capital (Texas, US Southwest), the Italians won 3 in a row. They got started with a 7-6 win against the host team Brewer, with Mayor Joe Ferris (former College World Series stand out pitcher in 1964 for the University of Maine) sitting in the stands. They moved on thanks to a 13-7 success against the canadians Notre Dame de Grace (Montreal) and they finally claimed a spot amongst the top 4 teams in the tournament beating (9-8) Talbot County (Maryland, US East).
Friuli Venezia Giulia showed some offense and had a solid contribution from the bull pen to maintain the leads they built on big innings.
Alessandro Tonzar starred picking up a couple of wins as pitcher and helping himself combining in the games 5 hits for 8 at bats while pitching.