(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Rimini rallies in 9th inning to even Italian Series
Nederlands
 BOLOGNA (Italy) -
Reigning Italian champion Pirati dei Rimini scored three runs in the ninth inning on Friday-evening (August 12) in the second game of the Italian Baseball Series against UnipolSai Fortitudo Bologna to even the best-of-seven final at 1-1.
Bologna opened the Championship Series on Thursday with a 6-2 victory.
The next three games will be played on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Rimini.
An eventual sixth and seventh game will be played in the weekend of August 20 and 21 in Bologna.
At Stadio Gianni Falchi in Bologna, the home team opened the score in the bottom of the first inning off of starter Carlos Richetti.
Bologna then trailed 2-1 halfway the sixth, but scored twice to re-take the lead.
However, in the top of the ninth, Rimini rallied for three runs to turn the game its way and even the Series.
All five Rimini-runs were unearned, as Bologna comitted four errors.
In the first inning, Richetti walked lead-off hitter Juan Carlos Infante, who then moved on a sacrifice bunt by Ronny Cedeno and scored on a 2-out single by Alex Sambucci.
...Stefano Desimoni batted in the tying run...
...for Rimini in the third inning...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Bologna-starter Luca Panerati retired the side in the first and second inning, but then gave up two runs in the third on three consecutive errors.
Luis Serafin de Camargo led off with a single, then reached second base safely when a throwing error by the catcher followed on a fielder's choice-bunt by next batter Riccardo Babini.
The bases then got loaded when Panerati made a throwing error on a following sacrifice bunt by Lorenzo Di Fabio.
Hereafter, the third error in the inning was made, this time at second base on a force play-grounder by Stefano Desimoni.
That kept the bases loaded and enabled Serafin to score the tying run.
Another force play-grounder followed, this time hit by Ennio Retrosi, but now the Bologna-defense did made an out at second base.
However, it also led to a run, as Babini scored to give Rimini a 2-1 lead.
The inning then ended with a double play.
Since giving up the run in the first inning, Richetti retired seven batters in a row, then was supported with a double play in the bottom of the fourth.
But in the fifth, Bologna scored twice with two outs to re-take the lead.
Alessandro Grimaudo led off with a single.
He moved on a sacrifice bunt, then scored the tying run on a 2-out single by Ronny Cedeno.
That led to a pitching change, as Richetti was relieved by Yomel Rivera.
He hit veteran Claudio Liverziani with a pitch, then gave up a runscoring single to Osman Marval that made it 3-2 in favor of Bologna.
The inning wasn't over yet, as a wild pitch led to runners on second and third base.
Rivera then walked Alex Sambucci intentionally to set up a force play.
With the bases loaded, another pitching change followed, as Roberto Corradini took over for Rivera.
He was more successful, as he saw Alessandro Vaglio hit a foul-fly to end the inning, meaning three runners were left behind.
That was costly for Bologna, as it was held scoreless in the remainder of the game by Corradini.
Bologna left two runners behind in both the seventh and eighth inning.
In the meantime, Bologna turned a double play in the top of the sixth, then three batters of Rimini were retired in order in the seventh, while that team stranded a runner on second base in the eighth.
Rimini then struck in the top of the ninth.
Riccardo De Santis, who had taken over the pitching in the eighth, gave up a lead-off single to José Flores, then walked Daniel Mayora.
Filippo Crepaldi then took over the pitching for Bologna.
With two outs, the bases got loaded when the Bologna-defense committed another error on a force play-grounder.
Luis Serafin de Camargo grounded towards second base, which resulted in an error and three baserunners.
The error was very costly, as pinch-hitter Lino Zappone then connected for a baseclearing, 3-run double!
The three runners all scored, but Zappone was eliminated himself trying to reach third base.
However, Rimini now led 5-3 and needed three outs to even the Series.
In the bottom of the ninth, Corradini gave up an one-out single, but Rimini then turned a double play that ended the game.
(August 12)
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Game Two best-of-7 Italian Baseball Series.