When the dust settled on Saturday evening in both Parma and Rimini it was the Rimini Pirates that came out one game ahead of T&A San Marino in the final push towards the 2014 Italian Baseball Series. The finals birth was not earned by way of a ‘W’, but by way of a San Marino walk off loss at the hands of Lino’s Coffee Parma.
UnipolSai Bologna came out victorious on Saturday evening over the Rimini Pirates thanks to a late homer off the bat of Oeltjen, which put the scoring at 3 to 2. The win was picked up by Rivero out of the pen, while the loss went to Del Bianco. The Pirates were out hit in this one 11 to 5, but were able to keep it a game till the very end. Even with the loss suffered by the Rimini Pirates they were able to hang onto their one game advantage over T&A San Marino (lost to Parma 5-4 on Saturday), which means they will be the ones heading onto the Italian Baseball Series for the third consecutive year.
T&A San Marino battled to the very end in their game against Lino’s Coffee Parma, coming from behind to tie the score on three separate occasions, however when the dust settled it was a walk off bottom of the 9th that was the back breaker for T&A and their shot at a 4th consecutive title. With the basses loaded in the bottom of the 9th and Cooper on the bump for San Marino, Desimoni chopped a ball to 1st where he was retired after Avagnina stepped on the bag for the second out of the inning, but on the play Ugolotti came onto score ahead of Avagnina’s throw home for the win.
