With a narrow 3-2 Parma Clima completed the sweep on the field of Big Mat Grosseto, scored the seventh consecutive victory and reached Bologna and San Marino at the top of the standings after the success of Bindi’s team in the third game. To reach one of the first two positions it will still be necessary to win the series against San Marino in the next, and last, round.
In Grosseto, a game poor in technical content was played in which the errors committed by the defenses and the good performances of the pitchers were decisive. Figueredo toasted the sixth victory of the season at the end of a very positive performance while Perez boxed in his third personal salvation. The behavior of the offense was less brilliant, expressing only four valid with Angioi, Noel Gonzlaez, Desimoni and Ascanio.
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In Parma Clima the technical staff gave Monello an evening of rest using Ascanio as catcher, Astorri as first base and Flisi as designated hitter. Cuban starting pitcher Raymond Figueredo with Perez in the bullpen.
In the Big Mat house, the choice of Eddy Garcia Del Toro on the mound was almost obligatory with Luciani in the battery with Beau Maggi. Luciani returned to defend first base with Giordani, Leonora and Cinelli in the outfield line. Francesco Cappuccini was the designated hitter.
In the first two innings, Parma Clima was seen on the field far from the standards of the last games, very imprecise in the execution of the plays and rather indecisive in the baserunning. Angioi and Desimoni were caught far from the first base cushion after having made two singles, Battioni botched the execution of a bunt, Luis Gonzalez committed one of his rare errors during the execution of a double play and the Big Mat found himself in the lead by 1 to 0 after two quarters.
The Maremmani, however, lost the thread of the game and conceded three runs in the first part of the third inning, committing three errors. Ascanio opened the attack with a single to right and advanced to second after an error by the shortstop on a fielding choice hit by Astorri. At that point Flisi fielded a bunt with the intention of moving his teammates to second and third: Luciani played the ball well, taking the most advanced runner out, but a subsequent error gave Parma Clima the tying run.
Angioi led the way with a sacrifice fly to left and Noel Gonzalez drove in Battioni (on second with the third error of the inning) to make it 3-1 with a double to center. The game then suddenly came under the pitchers’ control. Artitzu relieved Garcia Del Toro (4rl, 3p, 0pgl, 4bvc, 0bb, 4so) and pitched three perfect innings to keep alive the hopes of reopening the game. Figueredo (5.2rl, 1pgl, 3bvc, 0bb, 4so) struck out 11 consecutive times and left the mound to Perez for the final four outs.
The ducal reliever went through a bad moment in the second part of the seventh inning, opened by a single by Mercuri roughly defended by Battioni that allowed the opponent to advance to third base. On the next hit by Sellaroli the ducal defense went haywire again, conceded the point of 3 to 2 and, above all, found themselves at first base with the potential tying run. Oldano, however, failed to execute a sacrifice, Ascanio produced the best play of the evening by striking Sellaroli at second base and Angioi closed the match with a comfortable assist at first base.
