After winning game one on Thursday evening in Bologna, the Rimini Pirates were right back at it with the sticks on in game two of their three game set, leaving Fortitudo Bologna once again scratching their heads at the plate. The final in this game was 7 to 1, as for the second straight evening Bologna’s offences was only able to accumulate three hits on the evening. Picking up the win for Rimini was Ekstrom, while the loss was suffered by Panerati for Bologna. At the plate Giuseppe Mazzanti had a big day, going 3 for 4 with 1 run scored and 3 RBI’s. The one bright sport of Bologna came their new Australian slugger, Oeltjen, banged out a solo shot in the top of the 4th, which broke up the shutout.
UnipolSai Bologna was able to salvage game three on Saturday evening when the series shifted back to Bologna with a huge thirteen to nothing win on the back of Baez, who went five innings of scoreless ball before handing the game off to Rivero and then Crepaldi. Bologna scored big in the first three frames, of which included 4 in the 1st, 6 in the 2nd, and finally 3 in the 3rd that came off of a three run shot by Rodriguez. With the win Bologna was able to hang on to a share of the top spot along side T&A San Marino who dropped game 3 of their three game set to Parma.
T&A San Marino took game one of their three game set against Lino’s Coffee Parma on Friday evening. The game went by the final of 2 to 1, with San Marino walking off Parma in the bottom of the 9th on a wild pitch. It was a game that featured both teams aces, Guerra for San Marino and Sanchez for Parma. After T&A got on the board in the 1st they would not be able to cross another run until Parma’s reliever, Toledo, threw a wild pitch in the bottom of the 9th, which allowed Macaluso to score from third.
San Marino also took game two of this three game set in San Marino on Saturday afternoon under a hot summer’s sun. Going into the 8th it looked as if Parma was going to be able to walk away with the win after they were able capitalize on some shaky defense offered up by San Marino. However in the bottom of the 8th, T&A once again got to Toledo for the second consecutive day, scoring a total of 7 runs in the frame to take the 8 to 4 victory. Chis Cooper picked up the win for T&A out of the pen while the save went to Cubilan. With the stick it was Duran and Imperiali that lit up the hits column with three apiece.
In game 3 Lino’s Coffee Parma finally came up the answer to T&A when after a first inning two run homer off the bat of Marval it was Yomel Rivera that stole the show, tossing up 9 innings of shutout ball, allowing just 4 hits and 2 walks. On T&A’s side of the ball Valerio Simone also pitch a good game, allowing his club to stay in it till the end, however the game closed at 2-0 with Rivera needing 119 pitches on the evening to pick up the first win of the second half for Parma.
