© Farma Crocetta
Farma Crocetta Baseball-Softball signed the infielder, born in 2002, Francesco Pomponi, last year in San Marino, after three seasons in Parmaclima and already in the senior national team with a view to qualifying for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The young pitcher grew up in the youth teams of Oltretorrente, with whose first team he made his debut in Serie A, standing out and earning the call of the Parmaclima managers who included him in the roster of the Parma senior team already in the 2020 championship , the one that began in July, during the Covid-19 pandemic, while also continuing to play for Ciemme in Serie A2. In 2021 he played the first part of the season with Parmaclima, playing the qualification round, in which he scored a batting average of .278, and the second phase of the regular season, also contributing to the conquest of the Champions Cup in Ostrava. He then played the Poule salvation with Ciemme.
In 2022, again in Parmaclima in the first phase of the season, then the move to Ciemme in view of a probable departure for college in the USA which, however, did not materialise.
In 2023 he was included full-time in the Parmaclima roster, eliminated in the Play-off semi-final by Bologna and defeated in the European Cup final by Hcaw Bussum, an event in which he was never used. Due to the little space he had in the last season in Parma, he accepted San Marino’s offers for the 2024 championship, which ended with the defeat in the Italian Baseball Series against Parma.
Despite not having had the opportunity to express himself continuously, he considers the last season “useful because it allowed me to deal with a professional reality and train every day with professional players and high-level and experienced coaches”. Likewise, he is satisfied with the experience he had in October with the Italian club in Arizona and Florida in view of the Olympic qualifiers: “Fundamental in my journey, as touching the lives of full-time professional players first-hand is an experience that It stays with you and helps you understand how to work.”
Today he arrives at Farma, for what can rightly be considered a real market coup for the San Pancrazio club, which does not hide its ambitions, as Sports Director Cristiano Ronchini explains: “We are proud to have managed to bring to Crocetta, one of the best young people in our area and others that we will announce shortly and we are happy to be able to give continuity to our projects. The company, from mini baseball to Serie A, has set itself the main objective of training players, therefore creating an environment that can give them the opportunity to grow and improve their technical skills. An environment where they can learn from important coaches that we have on staff. This engagement represents the closing of a circle, but the objective will remain the same in the coming years.”
Specifically, on the hiring of Francesco, an Italian pitcher who fills a missing space in the roster: “Our choices are always shared with the manager Gilberto Gerali, we always try to include interesting young people, we already have them on the mound and we Francesco’s inclusion completes a staff of very young Italian pitchers and represents a stimulus and an example also for the kids coming from the youth team. We want the first team boys to be an example, a goal for the youth boys to achieve.”
Francesco is enthusiastic about the choice made: “When the club illustrated its multi-year project to me, focused on the technical evolution of young players, I joined with enthusiasm – he explained – For me it is an important restart, given that I also have the aim to grow in the coming years”
He approaches the new adventure with the ambition “to have a good championship and to give one hundred percent for the team like all my teammates, every time I am called upon, regardless of whether I am asked to be a starter or a relief” .
In recent seasons he has been used both as an infielder and as a pitcher, at Crocetta he will be used almost exclusively on the mound: “I believe that my main characteristic is to attack the strike zone a lot and not give anything easy to beat to the opponents ”.
Next season he could face his brother Michele, last year at Ciemme, in 2025 probably in another team in the province: “It’s a challenge that fascinates me and I would like to experience – he smiles – we’re already joking about it in the family, we’ll see if we get the chance to play against it, it’ll be fun for sure. We can already feel the derby vibe!”
Obviously manager Gilberto Gerali is very satisfied: “Francesco is a talented boy, who adds quality to a young but already important team. He has already accumulated important experience with Parma and San Marino, so he will be able to help the younger players. I’m counting on him to help the team make a leap in quality.”
