With an extraordinary proof of James da Silva and an ever-satisfied line-up capable of putting together 14 hits (Albanese 3/4, Angulo 3/5), San Marino shakes the Scudetto from the UnipolSai Bologna jerseys after three consecutive successes and brings it back to Monte Titano at a distance eight years old, when he won it with the Italian-Brazilian on the mountain and the manager Doriano Bindi on the bench. For the 36-year-old pitcher from Sao Paulo, who arrived in Italy in 2005 to play for Redipuglia, time seems to have stopped: after his experiences in Mexican triple A and in the Mexican professional league he returned to his San Marino and within a week is returned to being a leader: in game 1 he came out of the dugout to save the advantage in the last two rounds, but in the end he supported his teammates in the three extra innings. Wednesday night was perfect for four innings, he had a slight decline in the fifth, but he climbed back to the chair until the eighth inning (leaving the closure to Mazzocchi), with a super roll: 4 hits and 12 strike outs. Tiago changed the face of the Italian Baseball Series, giving the right thickness to the Italian mountain and winning the seventh and eighth personal victory in the Italian Baseball Series. Inevitable the awarding of the MVP award by the press.
Bologna, which had never lost a Scudetto final against San Marino, managed to recover from 0-3 to 3-3 on Wednesday night at Serravalle, but had to give up definitively on Tromp’s home run. closed the race if. The heavy 12-3 final then came on the bad evening of the Bolognese reliefs.
Compared to the lines of race3, the reigning Italian champions renounce the bruised Van Gurp, replaced by Agretti. The starters are instead those announced, Tiago Da Silva for San Marino, Claudio Scotti for UnipolSai Bologna. The Italian-Brazilian shows up with two strike outs and an F3, the Roman pitcher throws four balls to Tromp, who reaches third with one steal plus error, but closes the first round with three strike outs. At the 2nd the Titans pocket the first two points: with two eliminated, Epifano receives the base ball and runs home on the triple of Reginato, who bypasses the outside Leonora who tried to catch the fly. A crazy pitch also scores the locals 2-0. Bindi’s boys stretch with the first man of the third attack, Leonardo Ferrini, who sends a throw from Scotti over the fence. The Bolognese starter makes two eliminations, then puts Sechopoulos (hit) and Giovanni Garbella (valid in front of Doboletta) on the base. At this point Frignani calls, after 63 pitches by Scotti, Alex Bassani, who closes the inning by putting a strike out of Epifano,
At the 5th inning the match returns in perfect equality. A double from Osman Marval breaks Da Silva’s perfect game after 12 consecutive eliminations. An error on Loardi and Agretti’s double allow Bologna to score the first point of the game. Liberatore’s single makes Loardi and Agretti run home. At first Zannoni calls the out at home, then thanks to the instant replay he corrects the decision which is worth 3-3.
San Marino begins to smell the fifth scudetto in the lower part of the sixth inning, thanks to three very heavy points: with Garbella caught on the fly by Leonora, Epifano sends the ball very far in the center and stops in second, Reginato takes it to the third, Simone Albanese pushes home the 4-3 with a single on the left. The long home run by Jandijdo Tromb from two points makes the locals fly to 6-3. At the 7th San Marino spreads, taking on 11-3, taking advantage of the difficulties of the pitchers. It all started with the validity of Celli, who convinced Frignani to remove Bassani; Zotti remained on the hill three men, to whom he granted a valid and two bases; Crepaldi put an end to the interminable recovery, but after having fine-tuned four other riders. At the eighth Oscar Angulo put his signature on the title with another home run, the seventh in the series for San Marino and this speaks volumes about the merits of the titan line-up.
Ionline Baseball series. UnipolSai Bologna-San Marino 1-3 (4-6 to 12th, 17-7, 3-5, 3-12). San Marino champion of Italy 2021.
On the cover the San Marino Scudetto party (photo K73 / NADOC)
from San Marino, Maurizio Caldarelli
