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Fortitudo Bologna 010 000 100 2 9 0 Samsung Lions 010 010 03X 5 6 0
Fortitudo Bologna’s debut and with that also the debut of European Baseball in the Asia Series “International Tournament of Champions” ended with a 2-5 loss to the Korean champion Samsung Lions (see above for the video on demand). But the Italian Baseball League club put up a good fight against the pro team from the Korea Baseball Organisation (KBO).
Fortitudo took a 1-0 lead in the second thanks to a run by Alessandro Vaglio. The Lions evened the score right away in the bottom of the same frame and got in front in the fifth. But Bologna answered in the seventh and tied the game through a run by pinch runner Francesco Fuzzi. S.Y. Lee ended the hopes for an upset with a three-run home run off Junior Oberto in the eighth.
Luca Bischeri and Andrea D’Amico had the RBIs for Fortitudo. Bobby Blevins (6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 0 SO), Felipo Crepaldi (L, 0-1) and Oberto took the mound for the team of manager Marco Nanni. C.M. Sim got the win for the Korean team, which is playing without Dutch right-hander Rick van den Hurk.
Fortitudo Bologna will be back in action on Saturday, needing a win against the Uni President Lions of the Chinese Professional Baseball League. All games will be broadcasted live through CPBL’s YouTube Channel.