© Lauro Bassani (Photobass.eu)
Outfielder/first baseman Andrea Pasotto and pitcher/infielder Francesco Pomponi have reached an agreement with 1949 Parma Baseball for the upcoming competitive season.
Andrea Pasotto, Milanese born in 2001, he has played in Collecchio in recent seasons obtaining increasingly important results. He finished the 2020 season with 14 hits in 55 rounds (.255 average) while in the 2021 championship he expressed himself with 24 hits in 82 rounds (.293 average). His 2022 season numbers are excellent, as he finished with 41 hits in 126 games (.325 average), including eleven doubles and a home run. He attended the Tirrenia Academy in 2017/18 and wore the uniforms of the national youth teams on several occasions. In 2017 he took part in the Under 18 World Championships and in July 2021 he was called up for the first time to the senior national team by participating in the Grosseto meet. Last November he was called by the blue staff for the Future Star Game which took place in Arezzo.
“I’m coming to a club with big ambitions, I know we’ll play for important goals. Personally I think this is a great opportunity to keep improving, I will do everything to help the team. I know some teammates well, especially those who have played in Collecchio in recent years such as Battioni, Flisi, Fabiani… I also know Saccardi well, I worked with him in the Under 15 national team and it was he who asked me in the past for my willingness to move to Collecchio where he trained me for a couple of years.”
Francesco Pomponi, parmesan born in 2002, he has instead already worn the Parma Clima uniform, winning the Champions Cup on the Ostrava diamond in 2021. In the last season he started the championship with the ducal team but then moved to Oltretorrente in view of a possible departure to the US colleges. Francesco split into the role of fullback and pitcher, actively contributing to the salvation of the yellow and blue club. On the mound he had two wins against seven losses with a 3.34 average per game on 88.1 innings while in the plate he had 28 hits in 79 rounds with an excellent .378 average. His past in the national youth teams is important. In 2017 he was selected for the Under 15 national team, in 2019 he participated in the MLB European Development Tournament and in 2019 he was called up for the national selection of the Olympic Probables. In recent days, together with his brother Michele, he received the Oltretorrente Special Award for the baseball category.
“Francesco asked us to be used both as a pitcher and as a defensive utility – explains Maurizio Renaud, Sports Director of Parma Clima -. We welcomed his request as we consider him a very important wildcard for the present and for the future of our team ”.
