The Italian Baseball League regular season came to a finish, and the four teams destined for the playoffs for most of the season finally are certain of their positions and semi-final matchups. Bologna had already clinched the top seed, but it took the final games of the season to sort out the order of the other three teams.
Parma, out of the playoff race for some time after early season struggles and injuries, proved to be the end of season story, winning five times out of six at the expense of Rimini and San Marino. After costing Rimini a shot at the top seed with a sweep the week before, Parma helped give the defending champions the number two seed and semi-final home field advantage by winning twice against San Marino. Too little too late for Gibo Gerali's Parma team, but since they made the roster move that got Rodriguez and Gonzalez as the foreign pitching pair, the team has really excelled.
Rimini meanwhile limped into the playoffs, following up their tough series with Parma with one win and two extra inning losses to a Bologna team with little to play for and resting players, especially pitchers. Despite their weak finish, they will have home field advantage in their semi final matchup with San Marino.
The semi-finals begin Thursday and Friday with Bologna hosting Nettuno, and Rimini hosting San Marino. Each series will continue in Nettuno and San Marino on August 1st, 2nd, and 3rd (if necessary), before returning to Bologna and Rimini for games 6 and 7 on August 6th and 7th if necessary. Bologna is clearly the favorite over Nettuno, having the strongest team and finishing on a roll, but it is never easy to take on the 17 time champs Nettuno once the playoffs start, especially for the games played before the rabid Nettunese crowd. Meanwhile San Marino and Rimini are two balanced teams who know each other so well that it is poised to be a tightly matched series that could very well go all the way to game seven, which would be exciting for both cities and all of Italian baseball.
