by Riccardo Schiroli
The Italian Baseball Series take off on Friday 8/14 at the “Gianni Falchi” stadium in Bologna. The series begins with no real favorite. Fortitudo Bologna (with a brand new sponsor for the Series, UGF Banca) and T&A San Marino have performed on the same level in the semi final round robin. Actually, San Marino has won a game against Bologna coming from behind a 9-0 deficit and completing the come back with an outstanding 10-9 victory. Bologna won game 3 of the series 7-6 in a dramatic 11th inning, when the tie break rule applied: San Marino scored 2 in the top of the inning, Bologna came back scoring 3 and went away with the win.
Bologna has a very good offense, with a few players starring (Richard Austin has an OPS over 1.3, which is really amazing at any level of baseball, Eddie Garabito has been hitting homers from both sides of the plate and Claudio Liverziani looks like he is back in his prime, Pablo Angrisano is having a career season) and shortstop and lead off hitter Juan Infante should be ready to start again after injuring his right ankle. San Marino can produce some runs too with hitters like Vasquez, De Biase, Duran, Jansen, Francesco Imperiali and with catcher Simone Albanese who has had a round robin with an average over .400. San Marino may not have center fielder Duran at his best, since he suffered a micro fracture in his ribs. Left handed slugging first baseman Dino Rovinelli is back to his top condition after suffering.
Both San Marino and Bologna can count on effective starters. The match ups will be between Matos and Estrada in game 1, Ribeiro and Da Silva in game 2 and between Martignoni and Betto in game 3. After the first 3 games, one or both teams could switch to a 4 men rotation, giving a chance to start to import relievers Moreno (who as a reliever as been unhittable all year for Bologna) and Ramirez (who seldom struggles with the strike zone, but throws 94 mile per hour heaters).
The 2 managers agree: it will be a long series.
“I see 2 teams performing at the same level” says Bologna skipper Marco Nanni “So I definitely expect the series to be long”.
San Marino manager Doriano Bindi is a bit more enigmatic: “Well, on paper it us supposed to be a pretty long series. But what happens on the field sometimes is different from what we expect”.
The whole program (all games played at 9pm CET)
Friday 8/14 UGF Banca Bologna-T&A San Marino (import pitchers)
Saturday 8/15 UGF Banca Bologna-T&A San Marino (italian pitchers, also not of the Italian School or ASI, and EU citizens)
Monday 8/17 T&A San Marino-UGF Banca Bologna (ASI pitchers)
Tuesday 8/18 T&A San Marino-UGF Banca Bologna (import pitchers)
Wednesday 8/19 (if necessary) T&A San Marino-UGF Banca Bologna (italian pitchers, also not ASI, and EU citizens)
Friday 8/21 (if necessary) UGF Banca Bologna-T&A San Marino (ASI pitchers)
Saturday 8/22 (if necessary) UGF Banca Bologna-T&A San Marino (import pitchers)