UnipolSai Fortitudo Bologna vs. Curaçao Neptunus (bronze medal game)
Bologna-starter Matteo Bocchi retired the side in the top of the first inning.
Moments later, his teammates scored four runs in the bottom of the first off of Neptunus-starter Orlando Yntema.
All runs were unearned, as the Neptunian defense committed two costly errors.
Yntema walked lead-off hitter Juan Carlos Infante, then second baseman Dwayne Kemp made a throwing error on grounder by next batter Martin Mondino, which led to runners on first and third base.
Infante then scored then first run when short stop Stijn van der Meer made a fielding error on a following grounder by Claudio Liverziani.
With runners on first and second base, a flyout followed, but then Bologna scored another run on a double by Tyler La Torre.
With two outs, Bologna lifted the lead to 4-0 when Paolino Ambrosino brought in two runs with a single.
Hereafter, Yntema and the Neptunian defense recovered and held Bologna scoreless in the next six innings.
Yntema retired the side in the second and third inning.
The righthander gave up a lead-off double to Alessandro Vaglio in the fourth, but eliminated the next three batters.
In the fifth, Juan Carlos Infante led off with a single, but was caught stealing after a pick-off.
With two outs, Claudio Liverziani singled, but was forced out.
In the meantime, Mateo Bocchi dominated for the Italians.
He not only retired the side in the first, he did the same in the next three innings.
After the first 12 batters had been retired in a row, Neptunus reach base for the first time in the fifth inning when Gianison Boekhoudt led off with a single.
Next batter Rien Vernooij flied out, then a pitching change followed.
Andrea Pizziconi took over and began with a walk for Christian Diaz.
Hereafter, Shadrach Meulens grounded into a double play to end the inning.
With that, Pizziconi closed the inning well, but he was less successful in the next at bat.
Trailing 4-0, Neptunus scored three runs in the top of the sixth.
With two outs, Dwayne Kemp and Stijn van der Meer both singled.
Shortly hereafter, both scored, as Railey Legito followed with a 2-run double.
Gianison Boekhoudt then added a runscoring single to narrow the deficit to 4-3.
Yntema retired the side again in the bottom of the sixth, then Neptunus left a runner in scoring position in the seventh.
Steven Wharwood, who had entered the game defensively in the sixth, led off with a single in his first at bat in the tournament, as he hadn't played in the previous games.
A sacrifice bunt-attempt by next batter Shadrach Meulens then ended in a flyout and so, Wharwood stayed on first base.
Meulens also played in his first game of the tournament.
He started today as catcher, taking over from powehitter Dashenko Ricardo, who surprisingly didn't play in this game.
With two outs, Wharwood advanced on a single by Urving Kemp, but both runners were left behind.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Steven van Groningen took over for Yntema.
He gave up a lead-off single to Alessandro Grimaudo (who advanced on a passed ball), then walked Juan Carlos Infante with one out.
But a force play and groundout followed.
Neptunus was retired in order in the top of the eighth by new pitcher Nicholas Pugliese, then Bologna added two runs in the bottom of the eighth to take more distance.
With one out, Van Groningen walked Tyler La Torre and with two outs, he also walked Paolino Ambrosino.
A 2-run double by Alessandro Grimaudo followed to make it 6-3 in favor of the Italians.
It then became a complete new ballgame in the top of the ninth inning, as Neptunus scored three unearned runs, thanks to three errors by the Italian defense.
Pugliese hit lead-off hitter Rien Vernooij with a pitch and was replaced by Brent Buffa, who had been the starting pitcher for Bologna on Friday-evening in the semi-final against Rimini and then had pitched three innings.
Buffa got three force play-grounders, but two of them ended in errors.
First, Vernooij was forced out successfully on a grounder by Steven Wharwood.
Hereafter, another force play-grounder followed by Shadrach Meulens, but that ended in a throwing error by second baseman Martin Mondino.
With runners on first and third base, Meulens was forced out on a grounder by Shaldimar Daantji, but a throwing error by short stop Alessandro Vaglio followed trying to complete a double play.
With that, Daantji reached second base, while Wharwood scored to make it a 6-4 score.
Next batter Urving Kemp then reached when Vaglio made another error, putting runners at the corners.
Dwayne Kemp and Stijn van der Meer followed with runscoring singles that made it a 6-6 score!
Two runners stranded when Raily Legito grounded to Vaglio, who this time made a successful defensive play.
As suddenly as Neptunus had come alongside, the game ended just as suddenly moments later.
Van Groningen walked lead-off hitter Juan Carlos Infante, who then advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Martin Mondino.
To set up a force play, Claudio Liverziani was walked intentionally, but the bases then got loaded when Alex Sambucci singled.
That brought Tyler La Torre in the batter's box, who delivered a walk-off single that gave Bologna a 7-6 victory and the Bronze Medal.
|
Neptunus finishes in fourth place in European Champions Cup
RIMINI (Italy) -
Curaçao Neptunus ended up empty-handed in the Bronze Medal-game of the European Champions Cup on Saturday-afternoon (June 4), losing 7-6 to UnipolSai Fortitudo Bologna from Italy.
With that, Neptunus finished in fourth place, while Bologna captured third place.
Last year, Neptunus won the best-of-three final against Bologna to win the European Champions Cup.
After winning the European Cup for the fifth time in a row in 2004, Neptunus has not been very successful in European competitions in following years, except for last year when it won the Cup again for the first time in eleven years.
Bologna finishes in third place; Neptunus finishes in fourth place.