European Cup Matino: Corendon Kinheim – Fortitudo Bologna 2-6
BOL 000 042 000 6 9 2 KIN 010 000 100 2 13 6
Profiting from some well-timed hits and some sloppy play by the KINHEIM defense, FORTITUDO celebrated a 6-2 victory at the European Cup in Matino, Italy on Thursday. CORENDON finishes Pool play with a 1-1 record and needs to await the Friday results, if they have chance to qualify for the Final Four in Barcelona. It was the first game for BOLOGNA, which concludes the first round on Friday against SENART.
KINHEIM took a fast lead in the second frame thanks to a RBI triple by Jeffrey Verbij. However they missed to add some runs afterwards and allowed the Italians to come back. Assisted by two errors, FORTITUDO went up in front in the fifth through four runs after RBI singles by Daniele Frignani, Juan Carlos Infante, Claudio Liverziani and Eddy Garabito. One inning and two errors later, they added two some insurance with RBI singles by Infante and Giovanni Pantaleoni. The solo homerun by Josh Renick in the seventh did too little to initiate a CORENDON rally.
Fabio Betto (W 1-0) allowed one run on nine hits in six innings, striking out two. Rene Mazzocchi and Jesus Matos closed it out. Patrick Beljaards (L 0-1) had no chance without defensive help, being charged with eight hits, six runs (1 ER) and a walk in six innings. Steven van Groningen, who pitched in the Liga Paralela last fall, gave up one hit in the last three scoreless frames.