European Champion Cup Final Four review

Four of the best club teams in Europe produced an entertaining weekend of baseball in Barcelona, Spain, at the European Champion Cup Final Four. 

Danesi Caffe’ Nettuno confirmed their position as the top team in the continent by defending their title with a tense win against Fortitudo Bologna, while Corendon Kinheim won the battle of the Netherlands in the bronze medal game against L&D Amsterdam Pirates. 

Saturday’s games

The games on Saturday matched the two Italian teams against the two Dutch teams.  Fortitudo Bologna and Danesi Caffe Nettuno upheld Italian honour by relegating the Dutch to the bronze medal game. 

Bologna qualified for the final by defeating L&D Amsterdam 6-0. Their victory was built on a strong pitching performance by starter Jesus Matos.  He pitched eight scoreless innings, allowing just five base runners (3 hits, 1 walk, 1 HBP) while striking out eight. Bologna’s batters backed their pitcher by taking a 2-0 lead in the second inning.  Catcher Juan Pablo Angrisano singled in a run and was later brought home via a Daniele Frignani sacrifice fly. 

Amsterdam’s Australian starting pitcher, Adam Blackley, recovered from that setback, but the Pirates were unable to make any impact against the impressive Matos.  Bologna tacked on four insurance runs in the final two innings to seal a comfortable victory.

The second semi-final between Danesi Caffe Nettuno and Corendon Kinheim was a much closer affair.  The two starting pitchers, Carlos Richetti and David Bergman, traded zeroes through the first five innings before the defending champions Nettuno broke the deadlock in the top of the sixth.  The two Mazzanti’s, Giuseppe and Leonardo, both drove in a run. Giuseppe doubled in centre fielder Juan Camilo, while Leonardo took a curveball back up the middle for a single to plate Giuseppe.

With a lead to play with, Richetti appeared ready to hammer home Nettuno’s advantage in the bottom of the inning when he struck out Rombley and Rennick after the lead-off hitter Draijer had reached on an error.  However, Kinheim launched an incredible fight back, capped off by a bases loaded triple by Rafael Jozefa that gave the Dutch team a 4-2 lead.

Yet Nettuno had fought hard in 2008 to win the inaugural competition and they were not about to give up their crown lightly.  They responded immediately by scoring four runs in the top of the seventh and Giovanni Carrara pitched 3.1 shutout innings in relief to secure a 6-4 win.

Bronze medal game

Corendon Kinheim came from behind to defeat L & D Amsterdam 3-1 in a ten-inning game that lasted less than two hours.  Danny Rombley was the hero for Kinheim, bringing in the tying run in the eighth inning on a sacrifice fly and then hitting a two-run homer in extra innings.

There was a danger that the game for third place would turn into little more than a friendly knockabout.  Both sides’ batters were swinging early in the count and there was a relaxed atmosphere between two teams who know each other well from the Dutch Hoofdklasse.  The opposing teams shared plenty of smiles at first, but as the game wore on their competitive nature came to the fore.

Amsterdam took a 1-0 lead in the third inning after an error by second baseman Cremer kept the inning alive with two outs.  Rombley’s eighth-inning sacrifice made sure that play wasn’t decisive, but an error by Amsterdam’s shortstop Marvin Bleij, who saw a groundball keep low under his glove, proved to be the turning point.  The mistake allowed the fresh-faced Kevin Weijgertse to reach base to lead off the tenth.  Reliever Kenneth Berkenvosch got the next two batters out, before Rombley stepped up to the plate and hit what turned out to be the game-winning runs.

The final

The tournament deserved an exciting final and the two Italian teams did not disappoint.  Nettuno edged the game 1-0, but the low score reflected the fact that these were two closely matched teams. 

Such games are normally decided by a moment of brilliance or a mistake.  Unfortunately for Bologna, it was an error by their catcher Matthew Stocco that proved to be their downfall.  Nettuno’s Giuseppe Mazzanti led off the second inning with a walk and he thought about heading to second base during the next at-bat when a pitch got away from  Stocco.  The catcher pounced on the ball and would have picked Mazzanti off at first if his throw had reached the first baseman’s glove. 

Instead, the ball sailed down the right-field line, allowing the base runner to advance all the way to third.  Manuel Gasparri singled Mazzanti home for an unearned run that would end up being the only time home plate was crossed in the game.

Bologna had chances to score some runs of their own, most notably during the first two innings when they left men stranded on the corners both times.  Nettuno’s starting pitcher Jeff Farnsworth soon settled into the game after those early scares and he struck out fourteen Bologna batters during his eight innings of work.  Several times he got ahead of the batter with a well-located fastball for a strike on the outside corner and then made them swing through his curveball.   

Bologna tried to rally in the bottom of the ninth and it was Stocco who led the charge, desperate to atone for his earlier error.  He started the inning with a double that chased Farnsworth from the game.  Carlos Pezzullo was summoned from the bullpen to save the game and he did just that, striking out Luca Breveglieri on three pitches to finish with a flourish.

Tournament coverage

The final was broadcast off tape on Eurosport2 in an abbreviated form on Monday evening and there will be repeat performances later in the week.  It was great to see European baseball represented on the channel and hopefully this will become a more regular occurrence.

The tournament organizers also utilised the Livestream.com system to broadcast the tournament online. 

As you would expect from a free system, it wasn’t always perfect.  The picture went through phases were it seemed to buffer every five seconds or so, yet for the majority of the time it worked well.  It was good to hear Team GB player Ian Young doing some co-commentary in the Bologna-Amsterdam game, while the Kinheim-Nettuno game gave us the delight of listening to foreign commentary sprinkled with the occasional English baseball phrase (‘broken bat’ and ‘foul territory’, for example).

It was definitely an idea worth repeating in the future. Providing free access to the games was a great way to promote European club baseball, not just to the rest of the world but also to the many Europeans who primarily focus on Major League Baseball.

The European Champion Cup Final Four was a success not only for Danesi Caffe’ Nettuno, but also for European baseball more generally.

For full details on the tournament, visit the official website.