Women’s Superpesis 3rd final match Manse PP – Lapuan Virki on Saturday, September 7. Broadcast of the match on TV2, Areena and the app from 12:45.
Manse PP will go for the second Finnish championship in their history in front of their sold-out home crowd on Saturday. It leads Lapua Virkiä with match wins 2–0.
Superpesis’s six-time queen of progress Virpi Hukka33, is already hunting the fourth Finnish championship in his career and the first in the ranks of the team from Tampere.
– Can’t wait for that. I would really like to be able to play it. One more victory should be taken, Hukka tells Urheilu.
Did you mean to leave?
The journey of Huka, twice chosen as the baseball player of the year, has taken its toll.
A ball hitting him in the eye almost took Huka’s sight a couple of years ago. Due to various injuries, he underwent as many as seven surgeries in the course of four years. Despite everything, Hukka still gets a lot from baseball.
– Baseball has had an enormous impact on my life. Thanks to it, I have grown as a person and as an athlete during all these years. Thanks to it, I have also gained community and people in my life.
Hukka is one of the few in the women’s Superpesis. Only a handful of players over the age of 30 play in the main league.
The average age of female players in the main league is currently 22.1 years. Superpesis has stated its goal to extend the careers of women players.
From a beloved hobby to a profession
Kerava Pesis’s upbringing says that during his youth there was no opportunity to play for Superpes in southern Finland.
– When I started, the salaries didn’t really entice me to go and build a life alone somewhere completely different.
Currently, 90 percent of women’s Superpesis players get paid for playing. 30 percent of female players receive a salary of more than 5,000 euros per season. The goal of the increase in player fees is to influence the players to continue their careers longer.
Besides baseball, Hukka works at a local sports center.
Hukka admits that he hasn’t always lived as an athlete should. The choice of sport, in which you have not made money by playing, has contributed to this.
– I didn’t always know what it takes to be a top player until I experienced it myself. You don’t want to be satisfied with being a top player either, there is always something to improve. That’s why baseball is a really interesting sport – you’re never ready, says Hukka.
Breakthrough in Jyväskylä
Hukka first realized that he could play baseball professionally when he got to play his first games in the major league.
– It became a kind of spark for me when I realized that I didn’t fit into the playing lineup. I wanted to show everyone and above all myself that I have what it takes to be a top player.
– A certain goal-orientedness and stubbornness have always driven me forward. When I decide something, I also want to achieve it, Hukka emphasizes.
While playing in Jyväskylä’s Kirittäri, Hukka became the star player of the series. That is evidenced by, among other things, the six-time victory of the pioneer queen.
– Back then I was already a really good player. In Jyväskylä, I was honed into a top player.
A busy time in Tampere
– It’s tough, but extremely comfortable, Hukka describes his four years in Tampere.
Manse PP has celebrated its only women’s championship so far in 2017. The team has reached SM silver in the previous two seasons.
Last fall’s final series against Pori’s Pesäkarhu stretched to the fifth game. Päsäkarhut was more advanced in the end. Mansen’s team has remained the same since last season, and last year’s final loss has motivated the group.
– In a certain way, the final loss has taught us and united us as a team. I feel like we’re more ready for this series. The games have shown it as well.
Lapuan Virki has won nine championships. However, nine years have passed since the last SM gold.
Hukka goes with confidence to the third and possibly decisive final to be played in Tampere on Saturday.
– Autumn games are such that you have to be able to play in that moment. Usually, the team that succeeds better wins.
The people of Tampere have a chance for a double championship, when the men of Manse PP also play in the finals. The team faces the reigning Finnish champion Sotkamon Jymy.
In the double championship pursued by Manse PP, throughout history, Lahti’s Mailaveikot (1931), Jyväskylä’s Kiri (1957), Helsinki’s Pallo-Toverit (1959), Hyvinkään’s Tahko (1979) and Oulun’s Lippo (1994) have been successful.
will show the final matches on TV2 and Areena from the 3rd final match onwards.
The men’s finals are followed from the first match as a live audio broadcast in Areena.
Ladies:
3rd final: Manse PP–Lapuan Virkiä, 7.9. at 12:30 p.m
4th final: Lapuan Virkiä–Manse PP, 8.9. at 13:00 (if necessary)
5th final: Manse PP–Lapuan Virkiä, 14.9. at 12:30 (if necessary)
Gentlemen:
1st final: Manse PP–Sotkamon Jymy, 7.9. at 4:30 p.m
2nd final: Sotkamon Jymy– Manse PP, 8.9. at 16:00
3rd final: Manse PP–Sotkamon Jymy, 14.9. at 16:00 (starts at 15:00 if there is no need for a fifth match in the women’s finals)
4th final: Sotkamon Jymy– Manse PP, 15.9. at 15:00 (if necessary)
5th final: Manse PP–Sotkamon Jymy, 21.9. at 15:00 (if necessary)