Sotkamo’s Jymy and Vimpel’s Veto meet after a gap of years in the men’s Superpesis finals. Sotkamo beat Kempelee Kirin 3–1 in the semi-final series and Vimpeli defeated Mansen by the same score.
The men’s Superpesis semifinal series were decided every half hour on Tuesday in favor of the early favorites. Sotkamon’s Jymy beat Kempeleen Kiri in the away match 1–0 (3–3, 4–3) and Vimpel’s Veto defeated Manse PP in the away match as well 1–0 (10–3, 3–3). The match series went to the traditional clubs with victories 3–1.
This season’s surprise team, Kempele, played a strong semi-final series until the deciding match. However, Hurmos didn’t carry it until the end, because the batsman joker Roope Korhonen in the lead, Sotkamo was stronger in the decisive moments.
The opening period of the fourth semi-final match ended with runs 3–3, but Korhonen at the start of the second period fired the Sotkamo residents into a run away. He hit two runs in his last at-bat in the starting position and Kempele was no longer in the winning battle.
Korhonen got into a tough mood as the match series progressed. In the deciding match, he hit six runs. Kempele’s star player Tuomas Jussila ignited the 42-year-old Korhonen’s screen desires at the beginning of the match.
– I rarely say this, but today Jussila woke up with her own ventilation after the first shift. It’s not worth waking up a bear if it’s sleeping, Korhonen told in an interview after the match.
Korhonen scored a total of 13 runs in the last two semifinal games.
The pennant was decided in the last moments
For a long time, Manse PP was about to take the fourth match to the super innings, but Vimpeli finally watered down the dreams of the people of Tampere. The away team Veto won the opening period by as much as 10–3, but after the break the Tampere team raised their level in front of their home crowd.
The home team led the second half with runs 3–1, but Jukka-Pekka Vainionpää hit third with a tiebreaker Olli Heikkalan home nest. In the end, with the equalizer of the fourth Janne Mäkelä discharged the 23-year-old Elmeri Anttilanand the Pennant party began.
– You have to rely on your best shots, the harder the place is. Probably the best overtime bowler of the summer, Mäkelä repeated his shot worthy of a place in the final in the second overtime.
Vimpeli and Manse met in the finals last year. Mäkelä said that the people of Tampere have caught Vimpel’s lead. Last year Veto won the finals cleanly 3–0.
– This was a much tougher series than last year’s.
The 41-year-old hitter has won four Pennant championships in the 2000s. Vimpeli and Sotkamo met in the finals no less than seven times in the 2010s.
– We were a fierce fighting couple in the early 2010s. Shouldn’t we go for the gold again, Mäkelä said and referred to the teams’ previous final encounters from 2016 and -17, which ended in Vimpel championships.
According to Roope Korhonen, Sotkamo must play a better outside game in the finals than in the semifinal series. The accuracy of the throwing game in particular caught the attention of the hitter king of the regular season.
– Today and in the whole series, we threw an extraordinary amount of stray throws, even though there haven’t really been any during the whole summer.
Korhonen, who found his swing after two low-scoring semifinal matches, said that the beginning of the series was too much to think about with the stick. After this, he simplified what he did.
– I decided to loosen the handbrake completely and just let it burn. Good things happen when you dare to do things on the field, Korhonen emphasized.
The 12-time Finnish champion emphasizes that the finals are completely different games than the previous matches of the season. He expects a high-quality outdoor game from the final series.
– You can’t get runs there except by doing things of high quality.
According to Korhonen, the public plays a significant role in the deciding games.
– When the voice of the audience joins in, you don’t even want to hear a false cry, Korhonen sets the mood for the climax of the baseball summer.