San Marino climbs into top slot of IBL; Parma refuses to be counted out of playoffs

ROME – San Marino took advantage of the heavyweight battle that went on during Week 11 between that the Rimini Pirates and UGF Bologna.  As Bologna and Rimini slugged it out, San Marino moved to the top of the Italian Baseball League standings, after the baseballers from the Republic of San Marino just barely carried out a 3-game sweep, at home, of Dansi Caffe Nettuno, 3-2 (15), 3-2 and 3-0.

The results coming out of San Marino no doubt perched Cariparma Parma’s ears in Grosseto. The Pamagiani’s playoff hopes were put on life-support, but now there are signs that those playoff hopes have stabilized.  Parma executed a sweep of next-to-last-place Grosseto, 6-0, 10-5 and 5-1, thus gaining the maximum return on this weekend’s action and gaining three games on 4th place Nettuno, which is trying to secure the fourth and final playoff spot.  Entering Week 11, Parma had been 6 games behind Nettuno, but now Nettuno is guarding only a 3 game cushion with 9 crucial games remaining in the regular season.  Nettuno and Parma will face each other next week.  Nettuno has a “lite” Week 13 and 14, with series against rival Grosseto (8-25) and Godo (13-20).  Parma also has a series remaining with Godo, but the Parmagiani will have to close out the regular season against a heavy-hitting Rimini team.  

Rimini knocked down Bologna a notch, after having taken two of three versus Bologna.  Rimini took the first two games, which were played at Pirate Stadium in Rimini, but Bologna prevented a sweep with a 5-1 win, when the series shifted to Bologna for game three.

In Novara, the home team pulled out a 2-1, 13 inning thriller to give the home crowd a good note to finish on.  It was only Novara’s fourth win of the season. Godo succeeded in the first two games of the series, 13-2 (8) and 7-4.