A weekend of rivalries in the IBL
Weather permitting, on both Friday the 2nd and Saturday the 3rd all teams in the Italian Baseball League will be hitting the field in this second week of the Interleague play.
To get things going, T&A San Marino will host Rimini in what will be a rematch of both the 2012 and 2013 finals. The things haven’t necessarily been going as planed for either of these clubs, but for San Marino in particular the road thus far has been particularly tough, as the club currently sits two games bellow .500 after the first 4 weeks of play in 2014. At the moment T&A is going to still have to do without the likes of Cooper on the mound, and Bitter at short, along with Pantaleoni who is out after suffering a broken shoulder and trauma to his spleen in last weeks series against Parma. With the constant absences in San Marino’s lineup, the organization has gone out and picked up two new names to join the group, right handed pitcher Carlos Teran, and utility player Nick Morreale. On the other side of the diamond Rimini will once again have to do without their veteran righty, Roberto Corradini, which means that it will once again be Patrone who will get the nod in the Italian game, while in the foreigner game Ekstrom will head to the hill for the Pirates. Suspended for game one of the two game set is Rimini’s manager Chris Catanoso.
Also taking place this weekend is the two game series between UnipolSai Bologna and Lino’s Coffee Parma. It will be Parma that will take the road and heads to Bologna on both Friday and Saturday, a place that has historically given them problems. Bologna has gotten off to a great start thus far in 2014, as they currently at a 7 and 1 mark. Absent once again for Bologna will be right-handed pitcher Barbaresi, while Malengo is questionable due to a high fever. On the bump, Bologna’s manager Nanni has yet to decide the order in which he will send his two starters to the hill. Will it be Williamson or Panerati in game one? On the other side of the ball manager Munoz looks like he will wait till the last second to see what who he will be sending to the bump to counter. Most likely it will be Rivera who will match up with Williamson, while Sanchez will take the ball in the other.
Down south, Nettuno will welcome in Padova for two games. Nettuno’s two starters will be Lorenzo and Yuri Morellini, while on Padova’s side it will be Uviedo in the foreigner game and either Enrico Crepaldi, Medina or Faccini in the Italian game. Nettuno will be in search of expanding their one game lead on the rest of the division, while Tommasin Padova will look to the bats of Chapelli and Nosti to keep them afloat in Division A.
Finally the matchup between Godo and Nettuno2 may turn out to have big implications on Division A. Nettuno2 will be playing the series as the home team, while it will be the Godo Knights will be the visitors, all this due to the two game series being moved from Rome to Godo because of renovations being done to the field. Nettuno2 will be without the likes of both Mattia Mercuri (headed State side to begin his minor league season) and Andrea Sellaroli. On the hill for Nettuno2 it will be Gonzalez and Andrea Pizziconi. On Godo’s side it will be Calero in game one, while in game two, manager Fuzzi will hand the ball to Galeotti.
