Last round of the first phase of the Serie A baseball championship. New Rimini, third in the standings, flies to Cagliari where they will face the team that follows Dorian Castro’s boys by one victory in the standings. 9-8 is the record of the Rimini team, 8-10 that of the islanders.
The match that New Rimini must recover in Ronchi dei Legionari, set by FIBS for Saturday 6 July at 15:00, is still pending.
It will be played, it seems, if the result determines a verdict in the composition of the groups for the second part of the season. It should be remembered that at the end of this phase the program includes a two-week break before the start of the relegation round.
The two matches in Cagliari are scheduled for 11.00 and 15.00.
In the standings, Rovigo leads (13-5) with two victories ahead of Crocetta (11-7), but there is a direct clash scheduled and therefore the final verdict remains to be defined. Only the first team will qualify for the championship. New Rimini will defend third place in Cagliari while, just below, another direct clash between Ronchi (6-11) and Padova (6-12).
In the first leg the match ended in a draw: 5-9 in favor of Cagliari in the afternoon match, 9-5 for New Rimini in the evening one. Cagliari is fresh from two defeats in Rovigo, but in the previous week they had defeated Crocetta twice in Sardinia, somehow determining the current gap at the top of the table. At home, Cagliari has lost only twice: on its debut against Padova and one match against Rovigo.
“The two victories against Padua – Manager Dorian Castro’s comment – they gave us morale and technical stimuli. We are working hard to play good baseball with aggression and balance, which are decisive factors for achieving good results. We end a tough group in Cagliari, which we knew was tough. Let us not pay attention to the composition of our neighbor, who is decisive for salvation, because it will always be complicated and we must prepare for this.
Are we at the desired point at the end of the first phase? We have had ups and downs, as is normal. We have adapted to playing guys out of position and injuries have not allowed us to have a clear base formation. The important thing is to continue learning, play hard, maintain the harmony that we have created since the first day of training and finish even stronger”.
