The Roundup - 22nd to 27th October 2019

Sami Haapakoski slides into a new role with a new club after a decade at Vimpeli
The roundup
22nd to 28th October 2019

The big stories
Sami Haapakoski and Severi Piispanen join Pattijoen Urheilijat
Raahe have added a huge name to their roster for 2020 in Sami Haapakoski, who returns from Vimpeli after 10 seasons to the local area for his breeder club. Haapakoski has had a massive impact for Vimpeli over the years and boasts a career 694 total games at the top level with 259 runs batted in and 1314 runs scored. Haapakoski has won the championship gold in 3 seasons, silver 5 times and bronze 3 times.

Raahe also add Severi Piispanen from to their ranks to complete their lineup for next season. Piispanen played for Alajärvi in 2019 with a success percentage of 60.2% over 30 regular season games. 

Siilinjärvi make some final moves to finish their lineup for 2020
SiiPe has signed up Kimmo Lukkari for an extension to his contract to 2020. Lukkari was a key player for SiiPe in 2019 and lead the team in runs batted in (2 kunniajuoksu and 57 other runs batted in). Mikko Hakomäki has also resigned for the club for 2020, hoping to progress his career and build on a solid 2019 performance across all 30 regular season games. 

After securing SiiPe’s continuation in Superpesis, head coach Perttu Westersund will remain at the helm for 2020 in the hope of even bigger things. SiiPe’s coaching staff has been reinforced with signings and now boasts Tommi Luostarinen (Coach), Riku Tolonen (Coach) and Atte Hartikainen (physiotherapist). Despite locking in place 15 players their are still a few players in negotiations before SiiPe are signing off their roster for next year, so watch this space. 

“There was a lot to learn from last season, which is now being used in winter training and next summer's games. I believe that these lessons will also be reflected in team training in the winter. In the upcoming season, I will try to apply versatility to my selection of beats”

Kimmo Lukkari - translated by Google.

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