This past Saturday, Aug. 31, Parma Clima became the champions of the Italian Baseball League. In five games, they defeated San Marino 6-0 to win the Italian Baseball Series. This is Parma’s first Scudetto championship since 2010.
Parma finished as the top seed in the regular season, earning them a bye in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Their first series was a three-game sweep of Nettuno. In the conference finals against Macerata, Parma took a 3-0 series lead in the best of seven. However, Macerata won three consecutive close games to extend the series to a seventh game.
In that seventh game, Parma was down 3-0 going into the bottom of the last inning. In one of the great European baseball comebacks, Parma scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh to walk off Macerata and clinch their spot in the championship series.
In the series, Parma carried over their momentum. They won the first game 4-2, the second game 9-7, and the third game 2-0. San Marino fought back to take the fourth game 7-5 and extend the series, but in game five, the Parma pitching staff was dominant, and the offense provided ample run support, allowing Parma to win game five by a score of 6-0 and, in turn, become the champions of the Italian Serie A in baseball.
This is Parma’s eleventh league title in franchise history. They also have a record 15 European Baseball Cup championships, most recently winning in 2022 and being the runners-up in 2023. Thanks to great additions and moves made by Parma manager Marcelo Saccardi and general manager Massimo Focchi, Parma is the 2024 baseball champion of Italy.
Image Courtesy of the FIBS.it
