Towards the 2026 season, the COG (Race Organizing Committee) has announced the format and calendar of the maximum Italian baseball championship: which will be called Serie A Gold. It will start on April 11th and will end in the first ten days of September
There will be 10 participating teams, divided – at least initially – into 2 groups of 5 each: home and away matches and “a one-way intergroup which will take place over 2 weekly matches of 9 innings which are played on Saturday afternoon (starting at 3.00 pm) and Saturday evening (starting at 8.00 pm)”.
The schedule and format of the regular season
The regular season will start on Saturday 11th April and will then continue on the 18th and 25th of the same month. In May the games will be played on the 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th of the month, while in June the teams will take the field on the 6th, 13th and 20th. After the break for the Elite National Team’s commitments (27th June and 4th July) the championship will resume on the 11th of July and will continue until the 25th of the month, before the start of the play-offs. In case of repechages, they will be played on Sunday or not immediately following Tuesday or Wednesday.
At the end of the regular season the top four teams in each group advance to the quarter-finals, while the last two teams will be relegated to the 2027 Serie A Silver.
THE COMPLETE GOLD BASEBALL SERIES SCHEDULE
I playoff
We start from the quarter-finals which are played as the best of 5 games of 9 innings, between the first four classified in groups AB according to the following scheme: 1st classified in group A – 4th classified in group B, 1st classified in group B – 4th classified in group A, 2nd classified in group A – 3rd classified in group B and 2nd classified in group B – 3rd classified in group A. The best classified team will play first, second and fifth at home match.
Game -1 (free throwers) will be played on Friday 31 July, game -2 (AFI or ITA throwers) on Saturday 1 August, game -3 (free throwers) on Wednesday 5 August, game -4 (if necessary, AFI or ITA throwers) on Thursday 6 August, game -5 (if necessary, free throwers) on Monday 10 August. The matches will start at 8pm.
The semi-finals the best of 7 games of 9 innings will be played. The composition will see the winner of quarter-final A facing off against the winner of quarter-final D and the winner of quarter-final B against the winner of quarter-final C. The best-placed team at the end of the regular season will play games -1, -2 and any games -6 and 7 at home.
Game one (free throwers) will be played on Friday 14 August, game two (AFI or ITA throwers) on Saturday 15 August, game three (free throwers) on Tuesday 18 August, game four (free throwers) on Wednesday 19 August, game five (if necessary, AFI or ITA throwers) on Thursday 20 August, game six (if necessary, free throwers) on Sunday 23 August, game seven (if necessary, free throwers) on Monday 24 August. The matches will start at 8pm.
The championship final it is played in a best of 7 games of 9 innings series between the two winners of the semi-finals. The criterion that will define the field factor will be based on the group that won the All Star Game, which will be played during the match of the Elite National Team, in the event of a match between teams from different groups of the regular season. The other criteria will be based on the ranking position in the event of a match between teams from the same group in the regular season and by draw.
Game -1 (free throwers) will be played on Thursday 27 August, game -2 (AFI or ITA throwers) on Friday 28 August, game -3 (free throwers) on Wednesday 31 August, game -4 (free throwers) on Tuesday 1 September, game -5 (if necessary, AFI or ITA throwers) on Wednesday 2 September, game -6 (if necessary, free throwers) on Saturday 5 September and game -7 (if necessary, free throwers) on Sunday September 6. The matches will start at 8pm.
