Kempeleen Kiri, who was successful in his tactics, will play again for men’s medals in baseball.
Last time in 2008, Vimpelin Veto’s men, who were left out of the Superpesis medal games, had a streak of 15 consecutive seasons in the semifinals, which ended with a home loss to Kempeleen Kiri on Sunday.
A year ago, KeKi, who won the club’s first SC medal in bronze, advanced from the quarter-finals with a 3–2 win, while ViVe suffered only its third home defeat of the season by 1–2 (1-4, 11-1, 0-5).
The match will be historic because KeKi missed the last two innings of the second period.
– The necessity was to somehow break the opponent’s good mood and surprise them, summarized KeK’s game director Mikko Korhonen the background of the solution in an interview with Ruuttu.
The decision was also influenced by the fact that KeK’s most important man in the outside game Tuomas Jussila already injured his ankle in the opening period and clearly played with his foot carefully. Jussila still made eight hits in the outdoor game and even brought in three runs after the injury. The people from Vimpeli made Jussila angry by knocking him down due to an injury to advance to an empty field.
– This was an absolutely amazing series. Last year, they won the quarter-final tie against JoMa, and now this one. Playing the next series was bad for us, but we have seen quite a level rise from the team, Jussila beamed.
Jussila, 35, who won the championship in Pattijoki, Joensuu and Tampere, has never finished in the quarterfinals.
The Netherlands ran to the top in the ViVe super
Among the away teams, only Sotkamo’s Jymy had won at Saarikenta this season.
KeKi won the opening period in the last inning of the period with a 42-year-old Sami Haapakoski hitting the winning run. In the middle of the second period, the situation was 9-1 for ViVe, when fan man Korhonen started his tactical game.
KeKi shut out the hosts with a five-run display to open the super innings. Number one of the individual runs Teemu Holland brought as many as three.
– If the opponent of such a super draws, there’s not much left to worry about. The disappointment is raw. To take it deep, described ViVe’s captain Janne Mäkelä42.
You can make it to the finals with three wins. Kouvola’s Ballonlyöjät and Sotkamon’s Jymy start their semi-final series on Tuesday, Manse PP and KeKi on Wednesday. The match series continues for three games on alternate days until Sunday.