Performance rankings - 13th to 19th July 2020

It’s all smiles and sunshine in Kouvola


As teams start to find their rhythm and get back to playing pesäpallo regularly, we are starting to get a true measure of their performance. Here are last weeks performance rankings.


1st Kouvolan Pallonlyöjat

Last week KPL beat IPV, Kitee and Vimpeli, taking 8 out of a maximum 9 points on offer. If it wasn’t for Sotkamo keeping pace, KPL would be running away with the league. Jere Dahlström has scored the most RBI so far this season and has had some mammoth games last week, combining for 13 RBI. KPL this week face Joensuu and there will be a level of anticipation in the game - are KPL able to topple the current champions? Are Joensuu getting back to form? 


2nd Joensuun Maila

Whilst the start of the season has not gone according to plan for Joensuu, last week’s results were significant and pull them back towards the top end of the table. Kempele have been a difficult team to play against so far this season and shocked the league with a season opening win over Sotkamo. Joensuu’s other win last week was against Pattijoki, who have been on solid form (albeit they haven’t taken 3 points in any of their games). Aleksi Rautiainen’s 14 RBI (including a home run) over 2 games was fundamental in games where their opponents have put up big scores this season.


3rd Sotkamon Jymy

Sotkamo give way to KPL and Joensuu this week as their results are less favoured in the performance rankings.  Whilst Sotkamo celebrated a big win over SiiPe, it doesn’t earn them much prestige in our rankings; likewise with Seinäjoki, a tied second jakso let them down a little when it came to the rankings. That is not to say the wins didn’t mean a lot, as Sotkamo stay within touching distance of KPL at the top of the table. Sotkamo are a very strong team who are consistently at the top end of the performance rankings - some weeks their opponents will not offer them such prestige in these rankings (unlike last week where Sotkamo took maximum points against Vimpeli twice!).


Worst performance - Siilinjärven Pesis

SiPe were one of two teams that failed to score any points last week, the other surprisingly being Kempele. Despite some solid jakso against Kitee and Pattijoki that ended in a tie, Siilinjärvi haven’t been able to make that extra step and take some points. In the Sotkamo game on 14th July, they were obliterated 11-2, 9-2.


Worthy of note - Kankaanpään Maila

Kankaanpää haven’t featured in our performance rankings this season and seemed to pick up points here and there; however this week they performed almost equally as well as Sotkamo and Joensuu according to our ratings. The come back win against IPV was inspiring - having been 9-4 down in the first jakso. The real power performance however was the 2-0 win over Seinäjoki where Kankaanpää outscored their opponents 13 runs to 5 overall. This result was significant as it derailed Seinäjoki on their march to the top 4 spots in the table.


Photographs

Cover - (c) Kouvolan Pallonlyöjät 2020

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