Nettuno, Parma and San Marino still battling it out
With just two game to go in the 2013 Italian Baseball League’s regular season, two teams are in, but still fighting for positioning, while there are still three teams that are battling for the last two postseason spots. Rimini punched their ticket just a week ago when they swept Reggio in a two game series, while it was Unipol Bologna’s turn to hop on the postseason train when they took care of San Marino in a home-away series this past Thursday and Friday. So who’s it going to be at the top, Rimini? Who will be taking on a team that will be fighting for their postseason lives, T&A San Marino.. Or Bologna? The club with the slightly easier road, as they will be taking on the Godo Knights. If Rimini wants that home field advantage they’re most likely gonna have to take two from San Marino because in the case of a tie at the top, its Bologna that has tiebreaker, winners of 3 of 4 in head-to-head action.
T&A San Marino has found themselves in quite the pickle after dropping two to Unipol on Thursday and Friday. With just two games left, the 2012 Champs will be trying to hang for dear life when they take on Rimini over the weekend. It’s going to be interesting to see how San Marino reacts after a devastating 12-11 extra inning loss to Bologna on Friday evening. It was a game that seemed to be clearly in the hands of T&A, the very team that was up 8-0 after two turns with the stick, and 11-5 at the end of the 5th with their ace on the hill, in their normally very consistent Da Silva. However, problems with control on the mound and 4 errors in the field all helped lead to the game ending drama that saw T&A’s manager Bindi get tossed, and the eventual disastrous 12-11 loss. The whole of Italy will be able to tune into game one of their two game set on Thursday evening in Rimini, which will be televised live on RaiSport 2 with start time of 21:00. Many question are yet to be answered on both sides of the ball, such as what kind of shape Da Sivla will be in for San Marino, will the Italian-American, Cooper, be on the roster for T&A (not active a week ago), and what is the rotation going to be like for Rimini in their quest for the leagues top spot?
Parma, a club that none thought had a chance to be one of the four finalists, is on the verge of doing just that. After escaping a couple of close matches over the past few weeks, of which include a 1-0 win over Novara on Friday evening, is now in search of two more wins in their ‘Derby’ to be played this upcoming Friday and Saturday evening against Reggio Emilia in a home-away series. A series sweep and their in.. anything else, well they’ll just have to wait and see what the likes of San Marino, and Nettuno do. Reggio’s going to be ‘no walk in the park’ for Parma, in fact look for their adversaries to fight till the end in hopes of stealing a game from their rival in order to finish off their 2013 campaign with at least a .500 record in the wins loss column. What about Nettuno, well, they have to win against Grosseto (current 28 game losing streak).. both games, and then wait to see what the other two clubs do, because if both Parma and T&A San Marino sweep both their series, they will be the odd team left out. However, if one or the other slips up just once and Nettuno sweeps, then they will have a chance at continuing their quest towards the 2013 championship.
Recap – If San Marino, Parma, and Nettuno tie, then Nettuno’s out. If Parma and Nettuno tie, Nettuno’s out once again. If Nettuno and San Marino tie, Nettuno is still the odd team out. If Parma and San Marino tie, then it’s Parma that will be left out of the postseason.
