The Rimini Pirates opened up the Italian Baseball Series with a 2-1 win over UnipolSai Bologna in Bologna on Thursday evening. Picking up the win for Rimini was a superb Alexis Candelario with his 6.1 innings of 1 run ball on the bump, while suffering the loss with his 6 innings of 6 hit, 2 run ball was Raul Rivero. Driving in the runs for Rimini were Spinelli with a single in the 2nd, which was then followed up by the decisive 2 out 2 strike single off the bat of Di Fabio in the top of inning number 5. Coming on in relief of Candelario were the duo of Escalona and Moreno, with Moreno picking up his 10 save of the season, while on the other side of the ball it was Rivero’s first loss in 2015.
Those expecting a pitchers duel last night between the the two best arms in the Italian Baseball League were satisfied to a certain extent, but let down in another. The satisfaction came in terms of the 2 to 1 final which saw Candelario out last his opponent, Rivero, with his 6.1 innings tossed up on the hill, while the delusion came as both of these dominant arms surrendered a combined 11 hits over the first six innings of the ball game (Candelario 5, Rivero 6). On the defensive side of the ball the Rimini Pirates most certainly out performed UnipolSai Bologna thanks to some spectacular glove work offered up by Romero (RF) and company, with one of the games spectacular plays coming in the bottom of the 4th when Romero ran down ball in foul grounds, which he turned into a double play, gunning down Rodriguez at 2nd as he attempted to tag up from 1st.
The first run game in the 2nd inning with two outs in the inning after Bertagnon was able to bang out a single to center and reach second on an error by Bologna’s center fielder, Ambrosino. Bertagnon then came around to score on a single off the bat of Spinelli for the 1-0 Rimini advantage.
In the bottom of the very same frame it was Bologna’s turn to tie the game up at 1-all after Candelario hit Suarez, then allowed consecutive singles off the bats of Vaglio and Rodriguez.
The game would stay 1-1 until the top of inning number 5 when with 2 outs it was Di Fabio that was able to bang a single up the middle off of Rivero on a 1-2 count mistake pitch that plated, once again, Bertagnon for what would be the decisive run of the ball game.
Coming on for the 4 out save was the veteran and ex Bologna closer, Victor Moreno… Moreno was able to get Suarez to ground out to short to end the 8th, while in the 9th he was able to get Vaglio, Rodriguez and Sambucci to all go down on strikes (swinging, looking, swinging).
Game two of this best of 7 series will get underway tonight in Bologna with the game’s first pitch scheduled for 9 pm.
