Twenty-two years later the Italian flag was brought back in triumph, full of emotions and history, the trophy raised to the sky, the great party. Parma Baseball won the European Cup for the fourteenth time in its history.
A success that allows President Meli’s team to overtake Real Madrid (stopped at 13 Champions League) and thus become the most successful team on the continent. Coach Poma’s boys overcame the Germans in Bonn 6-4 in the evening, on the diamond of Ostrava (Czech Republic).
THE CHRONICLE: The start was not the best, the strong storm that hit the city of Ostrava delayed the playball by a quarter of an hour and weighed down the pitch, making it difficult to tame the mound. Mattia Aldegheri knows something about it, who in the first inning puts the runners in the corners with an out and concedes the first point of the game on a crazy pitch. A line between left and center by Wilson Lee then allows the German 2-0 while another crazy pitch, at the first pitch on Danny Lankhorst (later eliminated by a splendid hold in the center winger by Sebastiano Poma), allows the Bonn Capitals to go 3-0.
Things change overwhelmingly in the lower part: Sasha Koch, starting pitcher of the Capitals, lasts just 10 pitches and suffers two singles from the first two batting (Stefano Desimoni and Tommaso Battioni) before leaving the mound, due to injury, to the Austrian left-handed Christian Tomsich after the first launch (strike) on Noel Gonzalez, left to the plate by Tomsich himself just before collecting a three-point home run by Leo Rodriguez who impacted the game.
Parma Clima tries to continue with a double from Cesare Astorri, but the time is not yet right. Mattia Aldegheri throws well in the second but leaves Danny Rondon with two eliminated and a runner on third base. The newcomer inaugurates a streak of seven consecutive eliminations that stops only in the fifth inning, which is the only inning of real difficulty for Rondon who suffers a single from Adrian Stommel and then leaves Eric Brenk to the plate and hit Joseph Wittig. The inning ends thanks to the clever play of second baseman Ricardo Paolini who drops a short parable by Vincent Ahrens to give way to a decisive double game.
In the meantime, the music changes: after having tried it in the second inning (where Parma leaves the runners at the corners with an out) and in the third inning (bloody double game beaten by Astorri), Alex Sambucci takes his hands by the hand and on a left-handed throw Tomsich leads Parma forward in the fourth inning with a leadoff home run – his third home run in five European Cup games (6-17, 2 doubles, 3 home runs and 7 home runs) – over the right fielder’s wall. In the fifth inning, against the new entry Samuel Steigert, Parma scores two more points, with two eliminated, with the doubles of Cesare Astorri and Alex Sambucci, then dragged to home base by a deep serve by Giulio Monello who is eliminated in second only after the sixth white and blue point.
The Capitals try to raise their heads in the sixth inning with a leadoff home run by Terrell Joyce, but it is only a flash in the pan: Danny Rondon easily closes the inning and leaves room for Julio Vivas, who leaves no breath for the German pitchers for two resumed with a total of three rounds and the participation of Giulio Monello and Cesare Astorri, protagonist in the pick-off on Wittig for the last out of the eighth inning while José Campos takes care of the last, historic and suffered three outs. (Fibs.it)
(Photo by Facebook Parma Baseball)
