Il COG (Race Organizing Committee) has announced the official calendar and structure of the Serie A Gold Baseballwhich will begin on Saturday 11 April 2026 with the first day of the championship and will end on the first weekend of September with the last scheduled matches of the Scudetto Final. I’m on my way 10 teamsdivided into two groups of five teams each. In the group A are inserted Parma Climate, Unipol Bologna, Neptune 1945, BBC Grosseto e Farma Crocetta, while in the B one are present San Marino, Hotsand Macerata, Big Mat Grosseto, Palfinger Reggio Emilia e Camec Collecchio.
The structure of the championship. The tournament is structured with a home and away format and a one-way inter-group which takes place over 2 weekly 9-inning games played on Saturday afternoon (starting at 3.00 pm) and Saturday evening (starting at 8.00 pm). Upon written request from both clubs involved, the Saturday afternoon match may be brought forward to Friday evening at 8.00 pm. The matches can be played on reversed fields, respecting the sequence of pitchers between games 1 and 2, and home team-visitor teams. The expected sequence of throwers is as follows: match 1 (reserved for AFI throwers or those with Italian citizenship) and match 2 (free).
The regular season calendar. The regular season will begin 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 play-off calendar The fight for the title then continues with the post-season. The Quarter Finals they are played in 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 the first, second and fifth games at home.
Game one (free throwers) will be played on Friday 31 July, game two (AFI or ITA throwers) on Saturday 1 August, game three (free throwers) on Wednesday 5 August, game four (if necessary, AFI or ITA throwers) on Thursday 6 August, game five (if necessary, free throwers) on Monday 10 August. The matches will start at 8pm.
The Semifinals they are played as a best of 7 games of 9 innings. 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 Scudetto 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 one (free throwers) will be played on Thursday 27 August, game two (AFI or ITA throwers) on Friday 28 August, game three (free throwers) on Wednesday 31 August, game four (free throwers) on Tuesday 1 September, game five (if necessary, AFI or ITA throwers) on Wednesday 2 September, game six (if necessary, free throwers) on Saturday 5 September and game seven (if necessary, free throwers) on Sunday 6 September. The matches will start at 8pm.
The first day of the Regular Season. In group A Farma Crocetta will host Unipol Bologna, while Parma Clima will face BBC Grosseto. In group B, however, Big Mat Grosseto will face Camec Collecchio in front of their fans and Hotsand Macerata will welcome the reigning champions San Marino. The inter-group match will be between Nettuno 1945 (group A) and Palfinger Reggio Emilia (group B).
THE COMPLETE GOLD BASEBALL SERIES SCHEDULE
Daniele Mattioli
In the cover photo, San Marino raises the 2025 title to the sky (Corrado Benedetti – Oldmanagency for FIBS).
