A very interesting weekend, which opens on Friday evening at 8pm (doubleheader on Saturday at 3pm and 8pm) for Group A and coincides with the fifth first leg. While at the Jannella everything is ready for the Grosseto derby between Big Mat and Bbc, at the “Cavalli” and in Serravalle the key match between Parma Clima and San Marino, the two top teams in the class, is being staged. In Macerata, Hotsand hosts UnipolSai Fortitudo Bologna in a direct clash between two teams separated by just one match.
CLASH AT THE TOP – Parma Clima’s first round will end with the clash with Doriano Bindi’s San Marino, first in the standings hand in hand with the ducal team with the same record of 9 wins and 3 defeats. Up until now, the teams’ journey has been almost parallel. Both won the series against Bologna 2-1 and left a match at Big Mat Grosseto. The numbers are also similar: Parma Clima bats with a team average of .300 and boasts an overall ERA of 1.82, while the Titans bat at an average of .276 with a pitching mound of 2.17 ERA. Both teams have four hitters with an individual average above .300: on one side Encarnacion (.429), Luis Gonzalez (.410), Noel Gonzalez (.389) and Desimoni (.367); on the other Pieternella (.407), Batista (.383), Lorenzo Di Raffaele (.333) and Alvarez (.313).
In the first days of the championship the San Marino of the ex-Pomponi and DeLeon used the pitcher Quevedo and the international Celli with caution, both struggling with some ailments of the season but ready to compete with the ducals. Parma Clima also had to deal with some injuries: Mineo and Astorri should be available for the trio while Battioni only resumed training a few days ago and will not be risked by the Parma technical staff.
In game 1, starting pitchers for Parma and San Marino will be Casanova (3-0, 0.77) and Pedrol (2-0, 0.75) respectively. In game 2 Bocchi (3-1, 1.14) and Pomponi (0-2, 4.33), while on Saturday evening for Parma Figueredo and DeLeon (3-0, 2.00) for San Marino. The contribution of the benches will be fundamental with San Marino which will be able to count on Quevedo (1-1, 2.25), Kourtis (1-0, 0.00), Baez (0-0, 1.00) and Luca Di Raffaele (2-0, 1.04) while Parma Clima will respond with Perez (0-1, 1.13), Scotti (0-0, 4.26) and Santana (0-0, 4.50).
On the San Marino side, Doriano Bindi is slowly recovering the players who had some ailments in recent weeks such as Celli and Quevedo, with the former almost completely fine and the latter who is progressing, and who will have to be thoroughly evaluated on the type of use. The manager is satisfied with the double against Bologna and underlined that “the team played well, on the mound and also in batting. Good swings. It’s a shame about the second match which ended 1-0 for Fortitudo. We had several unexploited opportunities, but it is also true that our opponents also left many men on base. Its part of the game”.
The Titans manager then focuses on the match against Parmaclima, “a team as always of a high level and tough to beat, with quality pitchers in all the matches, starting with Casanova immediately and Bocchi with Scotti in the second. It will definitely be a good challenge. The rotation? We still have to make some evaluations and then we will decide. Pedrol? He’s playing very well, he’s definitely a big signing. He did well as a closer and then also as a starter.” On the key to the series for San Marino, Bindi says: “Playing well in defense and always being balanced. Stay in the game without ever giving up. The goal is to win the weekend, we play for that.”
DERBY MAREMMANO – There are only a few hours left until the Grosseto derby between BSC and BBC. The red and whites, led by manager Stefano Cappuccini and strengthened by the call-up of the new signing Ericson Leonora (Venezuelan winger with a Dutch passport signed for the second time after his debut in the 2022 season, last year in San Marino), will try to impose themselves at the Roberto Jannella stadium to give continuity of the good performances and victories achieved in the last two days. “We are ready – declares the interior Niccolò Funzione – to play three complicated matches. We know the capabilities of our opponents, but we want to win the derby and continue moving up the rankings. Furthermore, Leonora’s return is excellent news which has boosted the whole environment even more.”
The last match on Saturday at 8pm will be inaugurated by the first pitch of Joe Martelli, who will be presented with a commemorative plaque as the best hitter of the 1980 championship. The recognition will be presented by the pitching coach Alessandro Cappuccini, who together with the vice-president Roberto Piccioli and Marco Felici , one of the historic coaches of the BSC, were his teammates in the two seasons played in Italy in 1980 and 1981. “Joe Martelli – comments Roberto Piccioli, vice president of Big Mat BSC Grosseto – is a great friend of our club. When he comes to Italy, he never fails to stop by to visit our teams, helping us with the purchase of sports material and thus promoting the growth of young people.”
BOLOGNA ON STAGE IN THE MARCHE LAND – UnipolSai will be busy on the Macerata pitch against the hosts Hotsand who are chasing the Italian champions in the standings with one victory away, having so far achieved a record of 7 victories and 5 defeats.
“We are coming off a difficult weekend and we know we have an equally complicated one ahead of us. We are facing a high-level team that, after last year’s excellent season, has strengthened a lot, entering to all intents and purposes among the teams competing for the title” commented manager Daniele Frignani who continues: “We know we have a lot to work on, it will be important this weekend to play one inning at a time, raising the quality of our game. We will have to be good at not getting too excited in the positive moments and remaining united in the more complicated ones.”
The technical staff will evaluate the rotation of pitchers for this weekend game by game, as well as the physical conditions of Lorenzo Dobboletta and Junior Martina, both in doubt for these three games. Hotsand Macerata arrives at this appointment riding an open series of four consecutive successes thanks to the 4-0 defeat against Parma and the hat-trick of victories last weekend on the pitch of BBC Grosseto. Manager Javier Perdomo Castillo can rely on an important battery of foreign hitters led by Dudley Leonora and Jesus Carrera (best batting average with .333); but how can we not mention the former Major League ace Roger Bernardina, author of a home run last weekend, or Manuel Joseph, protagonist with the Parma uniform in recent years. On the pitching mound, well-defined hierarchies in the starting spot: Moreno Gomez (0.67 average pgl, the best pitcher in the championship so far) and Correa will man the mound in the two games with free pitcher; Gabriele Quattrini will instead be the starter in Saturday afternoon’s match. In the available findings, we will certainly see the great former player Jo Cuomo, who faces his former team for the first time with which, last season, he became Italian champion.
The weekend program
5th day of the first leg of group A:
Friday 24/05 (8pm) Hotsand Macerata–UnipolSai Bologna, Parmaclima–San Marino, Big-Mat Bsc Grosseto–Bbc Grosseto;
Saturday 24/05 (3pm and 8pm) Hotsand Macerata–UnipolSai Bologna, San Marino–Parmaclima, Big-Mat Bsc Grosseto–Bbc Grosseto.
1st day return
Gir. B: Saturday. Comcor Modena – Tecnovap Verona. Sunday. Platform-TMC Poviglio – Camec Collecchio, Milan 1946 – Seventh;
Gir. C: Saturday. Gereon Ronchi – Itas Mutua Rovigo, New Rimini – Farma Crocetta, Padua – Cagliari;
Gir. Q: Saturday. Marshes – Nettuno 1945. Sunday. Athletics Bologna – Godo Baseball, Lions Dolphins Nettuno – Lupi Auto Fiorentina;
Gir. Is Saturday. Campidonico Turin – Senago, Ciemme Oltretorrente – Catalana Bs. Sunday. Ciemme Oltretorrente – Catalana Bs, Codogno ’67 – Palfinger Reggio E.
