The 26th Baseball Championship for the Blind was awarded on October 1st.
At the end of a regular season consisting of a single group with one-way matches between the 11 participating teams to move on to the Final Four were: Lampi Milano, Fortitudo Bologna White Sox, I Patrini Malnate and Umbria Redskins. Based on the placement in the standings, the two Semi-Finals were Lampi Milano vs Umbria Redskins and Fortitudo Bologna White Sox vs I Patrini Malnate.
On the weekend of September 24th and 25th, the Bolognese and Varese players were the first to go down in the diamond with the victory of the 2021 Italian Champions who won 5 to 1 on the team of Manager Volo. On Sunday, however, the Lampi Milano had the best comeback 7 to 6 on the revelation of the Umbria Redskins championship. The Final was, therefore, a remake of last year’s one, namely Lampi Milano vs Fortitudo Bologna White Sox.
Compared to 2021, however, it was the venue of the meeting that changed as the post of the traditional Leoni di CastelDebole the last act of this competitive season took place in Milan to highlight the “Baseball For All” project: an initiative carried out by Lampi Milano, Thunder’s Five Milano and Milano 1946 with the aim of making the first diamond in the world dedicated exclusively to AIBXC Baseball AND a regular softball court for each category.
The Final was brought forward in the morning by the presentation of the new book by Carlo Lucarelli. The event took place at 11:00 at the tensile structure adjacent to the Kennedy diamond. To do the honors of the house was the President of Milan 1946 Alessandro Selmi who passed the baton to the journalist Claudio Arrigoni who moderated the subsequent interventions. The author of the book Carlo Lucarelli then intervened, illustrating his new literary work entitled “Leon”. After the writer, Roberto Red Sox Mantovani, Taxist from Bologna who with his Bologna 5 was an important character in the novel, Francesco Cusati President of the Blind Milan Onnis Sports Group as well as historical column of the Thunder’s Five Milan, Matteo Briglia Ambassadors of blind Baseball in the United States and Alberto Mazzanti President of LIBCI.
At the end of the presentation, the President of Lampi Milano Giuseppe Allegretta handed a cap of his team to the author of the novel.
At 2.30 pm the delivery of the individual prizes for the 2022 season took place. To be awarded in presence or with subsequent sending were: Gaetano Casale dei Patrini Malnate as best man hitter and MVP of the regular season Umberto Calzolari trophy, Arjola Dedaj of Thunder’s Five Milan as the best female hitter, Ivan Nesossi of the Thunder’s Five Milan as the winner of the HR ranking, Giangiacomo Bonomo of the Umbria Redskins as the player who has beaten the most points at home, Giuseppe Allegretta dei Lampi Milan as the best man defender, Daniela Demelsa Romano of the Thurpos Cagliari as best female defender, Giorgio Catalano of the Umbria Redskins as best sighted player on second base and Valeriano Augusto ravasio Nanque of Lampi Milano as best rookie Rookie of the year.
At 15:00, after Sara Mancini performed the Anthem of Mameli, it was Carlo Lucarelli who delivered the first ball of the match to the lead-off of the Fortitudo Bologna White Sox Fatty. A pleasant temperature and a sky clear of clouds that had discharged a huge amount of rain on the eve welcomed the two teams. Red earth and grass in good condition despite the weather uncertainties of the previous days.
The Lampi Milano, thanks to the best placement in the regular season, were home team and lined up the following line-up: Allegretta (Center Winger), Dieng (Third Base), Abate (Designated Hitter), Toigo (Left Winger), Parravano ( Right winger) and Comi (shortstop as mandatory defender). Lorefice was the sighted defender on second base.
Fortitudo responded with: Fatty (Shortstop), Napoli (Third Base), Sahli (Center Winger), Yemane (Designated Hitter), Leonardo (Right Winger) and Carrieri (Left Winger as Mandated Defender). Leoni was the sighted defender on second base). Ravasio was absent from the ranks of the Milanese, while Mbengue was not present among those from Bologna.
Start of the match balanced with the defenses to be the master. Manager Lanzarini’s players were the authors of a few too many strikes to the pot while those of Manager Molon were unable to materialize a couple of favorable situations. The balance was broken in the high of the fifth inning with Fatty managing to score the point of advantage for his team.
The extraordinary shortstop of Fortitudo also signed the doubling in the high of the sixth round beaten at Home by the perfect long line of D’Angelillo who took over from an imprecise Yemane. Captain Di Flaviano and his teammates were also good at closing any attacking gap to opponents who, unlike de Petronians, were unable to be more incisive at the plate. The Fortitudo therefore dropped a trio of points in the high of the ninth inning, turning the game definitively in their direction. Captain Comi who took over from Abate in the low of the ninth round scored the only point for his team but the last out made by the Bolognese interiors triggered the party for the Bologna team with 5 to 1 as the final result.
The Fortitudo Bologna White Sox was reconfirmed by winning the flag dragged by the interiors Fatty (3 out of 8 with 14 assists), elected MVP of the Final and Napoli (3 out of 8 and a point beaten at home with 8 assists) supported by a productive Sahli (3 on 8 and 2assistances). A complete performance in every phase where the accuracy of the shots at second base stands out.
Laudable proof of the Milan Lampi even if not so incisive in attack but to underline what Parravano did (1 out of 6 with four assists).
Match excellently directed by the referees: Pasquali, Casiraghi, Alberto and Bertacche with Meli in the role of classifier. The event was broadcast live on social by the editorial staff of BXC Stories.
After the troubled 2020 and a cautious 2021, 2022 offered a complete season as regards the Championship with a return to excellent levels as regards the technical aspect. Now a long Winter awaits us to dedicate to training the fundamentals in anticipation of the Spring with all the teams in pursuit of the Italian Champions.
Matteo Comi
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Other galleries of the Giorgio Pini event of nonsolovolley.it https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057280906967&sk=about
