The Roundup - 29th June to 5th July 2020

Men’s Superpesis is back! And the season starts with a few surprises

The big stories

Superpesis is back

Finally the wait is over and the season has started! The early results have thrown up a few surprises, including home losses for Sotkamo, Vimpeli and Joensuu in their opening games. The season will include 24 games for each team and a reduced post season where series are decided on a “best of 3” basis. Check out our “Around the league” posts for reviews on recent games.


Joensuu appoint a new CEO

Earlier this year Superpesis announced that Joensuu’s CEO, Jonne Kemppainen, would become the new Sales Director for the league. In the lead up to opening day, Matti Lindholm was announced as the new CEO for Joensuu with immediate effect.


Lindholm comes to Joensuu in high regard, from KooKoo (Ice Hockey team) where he was sales and communications director. Matti Lindholm has worked in KooKoo since spring 2014. Prior to this, he has worked as an entrepreneur in the communications industry, for example, for the Baseball Association.


"JoMa has been doing great work for a long time both on and off the pitches. I'm going to go with great pleasure and full of enthusiasm to continue this job in my turn. Sport of all kinds has always been my passion, and now it's interesting to switch from ice hockey to baseball again,"

Matti Lindholm (Translation by Google).



Ossi Muurainen reaches 500 career games as a men’s Superpesis umpire 

With the threat of cancelling the 2020 season now behind us, Muurainen prepared for his 22nd season as a Superpesis umpire and a staggering 500 games. This phenomenal feat is just a few games behind the current record holder Matti Lähteenmäki who has 507. 


Some highlights of his career include:

  • The first match in the men's Superpesis Kitee-Kouvola (Tue 18 May 1999), judged by Paavo Pitkänen
  • The first match in the men's Superpesis with Tommi Nupponen as a pair of judges Kouvola-Imatra (Sun 22.8.1999)
  • Judge of the Year 2007
  • Golden Whistle (Best Judge Voted by Players) 2010
  • Referee in men's finals in the seasons 2001-2019, a total of 23 matches, judged by Tommi Nupponen (statistical top Matti Lähteenmäki 27 finals)
  • Men's East-West match senior judge 2003 and 2017, judge Tommi Nupponen
  • 500th match as a referee in the men's Superpesis Joensuu-Imatra (Thu 2.7.2020), as a pair of judges Tommi Nupponen

Around the league

Sotkamo come back to life in the second jakso
to win against PattU
On 5th July we saw the final opening games of the week with Pattijoki hosting a dejected Sotkamo after their home defeat at the hands of Kempele. PattU started the game with great energy and the home crowd really pulled out the stops to show their support. In the first jakso Sotkamo looked the far less competent team. PattU ran rings around the visitors and were very slick in fielding. Despite the first jakso loss however, the Sotkamo offence started to break through in the second jakso that culminated in a 2-6 score line to force the supervuoro. With the wind in their sails, Sotkamo card their momentum into the supervuoro and scored 3 unanswered runs to win the game. 


In Tampere, Manse took on KPL in a reverse of their opening loss to the 2019 bronze W medalists. Manse went toe-to-toe with KPL in the opening stages of the first jakso, with the score tied at 3-3 going into the 4th inning; however Jere Dahlström who started a 3 run rally to win the jakso. The second jakso was again fairly tight, with just 1 run separating the two teams. KPL’s Jere Dahlström celebrated his 500th career game in Superpesis with a solid win over a feisty Manse. Considering how much firepower KPL have in their lineup and the fact that this was Manse’s second Superpesis game ever, you have to give some thought as to how far they may go this season. 


The final game of the weekend saw Kitee take on IPV at a refurbished Rantakenttä. IPV took a victory against Joensuu on 2nd July; however it was Kitee who edged this game for the win. With the first jakso tied 2-2, Kitee opened the second jakso with 5 runs, 4 of which came from home runs (kunniajuoksu). There was little IPV could do in the face of this score line and the home side secured 2 points for their win.


The table as it currently stands:


O3p2p1p0pJuP
1 KPL2110021-165
2 Veto2101024-204
3 Tahko210019-83
4 KaMa210018-93
5 KeKi2011025-203
6 Sojy2011016-123
7 PattU2011010-143
8 KiPa101009-42
9 JymyJussit101008-102
10 Siilinjärvi2010118-232
11 IPV201016-112
12 JoMa100102-21
13 Tampere2001116-211
14 KoU1000112-140

Photographs:
Cover - (c) Siilinjärven Pesis 2020 (Juha Leskinen)
Photograph 2 - (c) Joensuun Maila 2019
Photograph 3 - (c) Sotkamon Jymy 2020

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