It was a close game for 7, then Bologna opened the floodgates

Unipol Bologna took care of T&A San Marino 14-4 in 8 innings on Wednesday afternoon in Regnesburg, Germany. Things started off well for San Marino, up 4-0 with Chris Cooper on the mound, as the lefty didn’t give up a single hit to Unipol over the first four. Bologna did however climb back in the game and eventually run away with it thanks to some timely hitting and an alarming 6 errors committed by San Marino’s defense. Bologna closed this one out early in a run rule with a 9 run 8th off of 3 T&A relievers (Ercolani, Bazzarini and Spadoni) that were only able to record one out before it was all said and done.

It was a pleasant day in Regnesburg when the two IBL teams faced off in a European Champions Cup game on Wednesday afternoon. The game featured Roger Luque on the bump for Bologna and the lefty, Chris Cooper for San Marino. T&A got out to an early lead off of when they scored two in the first thanks to a lead off double by Avagnina, what was then followed by RBI’s by Ramos and Mazzuca, which put San Marino up 2-0. Luque went onto give up 2 more runs on the afternoon, as the Venezuelan lefty wasn’t, so to say, at the top of his game. One of the runs came in the 2nd and the other in the 5th thanks to a leadoff double by Albanese down the left field line who eventually scored on a wild pitch by Luque.

Bologna finally got things going offensively in the in the bottom half of the fifth off of Cooper. It was Nosti driving in Unipol’s first run on a liner up the middle, with Ermini also adding to the run count when dropped a ball into left in front of Vasquez that helped to end Cooper’s day on the bump. Things didn’t get better for Bindi’s club after that. Before the 5th concluded, the 4-0 leaded turned into a 5-4 deficit with Cooper runs crossing the plate on Luca Martignoni’s watch. 

San Marino came close to tying the game in the top of the 8th, but when they failed to do so Bologna completely put the game out of reach in the bottom half of the frame. Unipol’s offense absolutely crushed T&A’s bullpen on their way to ending the game in a 10 run rule that was highlighted by a three run blast of the bat of Infante that landed in the parking lot beyond the right field fence. The combined efforts of Alessandro Ercolani, Simone Bazzarini and Spadoni were only able to come up with a single out before the game came to an end on an RBI single by Malengo.