The roundup - 6th to 13th July 2020


As if there could be any other top story!

The big stories

Sami Haapakoski reaches incredible milestone

With only a few games played this season so far, PattU’s Sami Haapakoski reached a phenomenal and never before seen milestone - 1000 runs. This feat surely secures his place in the history books, if it was ever in doubt, and is likely to be a milestone that will never be beaten. The run came in the first jakso against Kempele in what turned out to be an exceptional game from Haapakoski. It was a perfect moment for the veteran, who returns to his original Superpesis club after a decade with Vimpeli, as well as the fact that brother Jussi Haapakoski is PattU’s game manager. 


Sami Haapakoski was the subject of one of Valtteri Karjula’s fantastic player biography articles earlier this year and I highly recommend a read (although you will need to use a translation programme if you don’t speak Finnish). Known as “Sigge” to friends and fans alike, Sami has had a sparkling career in Superpesis, including 3 championships, 5 silver medals and 3 bronze.


I want to congratulate Sigge for reaching this amazing milestone and all the great memories he has given to so many people along the way. I can’t wait to see what this season and the future holds for him and PattU, no doubt there is so much left to be written in Sami Haapakoski’s saga.


The link to the biography piece is:

http://www.pattijoenurheilijat.fi/yleinen/pattu-blogstory-series-2020-henkilokuvassa-sami-haapakoski/


Jari Törmänen injures his toe and requires season ending surgery

It was certainly a mixed week for PattU as one moment legendary runner Sami Haapakoski reaches a significant milestone and the next the team are reeling from injuries.    At the end of the game against Kempele, Törmänen injured his to, snapping the tendon and requiring surgery. The veteran joker is a key part of PattU’s offence and he will now miss the remainder of the season. PattU are currently missing Paavo Pelto, Harri Kolehmainen and Teemu Juntunen through injury; however managed to win their most recent game against SiiPe. With 4 wins out of 5 for Pattijoki, early points will help in their quest for a championship year.


I want to take this opportunity to wish Jari a speedy recovery and hope that he will return to the pesäpallo fields again soon.


The hut is back!

I am sat here editing a bonus episode of the podcast which will be out shortly and I get to the conversation I had about the current Coronavirus rules, when all of a sudden I received an alert that from 14th July the National Pesäpallo Federation (Pesäpalloliito) has decided that some of the rules can be relaxed further; importantly the hutunkeitto will return! 


“However, unnecessary risks should not be taken. We can all do our part, take care of hygiene for our part and keep the infection rates low”

Mikko Huotari, director of the Baseball Association's sports unit (translation by Google)


When the changes originally came in I wrote a piece about them which can be viewed here:

https://superpesisroundup.blogspot.com/2020/06/changes-to-game-for-2020.html


I also ran a twitter poll asking people for their thoughts on the hutunkeitto and responses were rather mixed - many people it seems were eager to keep it, whereas an equal number of people wanted to move to a coin toss. From a personal point, I am pleased the hutunkeitto makes a return; I think a coin toss lacks the drama, suspense and spectacle that the hutunkeitto brings. It is a unique and traditional element of the game and something that helps to define the identity of the sport.


(Note: if you use translation programmes to translate “hutunkeitto” it keeps talking about “Hut soup” which can be quite confusing)


Around the league

The only game played on Saturday was Koskenkorva v Seinäjoki. Despite having greater success at moving the point runner, Seinäjoki powered through to take 3 points. On Sunday Koskenkorva traveled north to Kempele to take on a much improved KeKi side. As with most of Kempele’s games this season, the game was high scoring both in terms of runs for KeKi and against. Koskenkorva were never in the lead during the game and remain the only team without any points so far this season. KoU are in a curious position where one of their players leads the league in RBIs (Patrik Wahlsten with 15 from 4 games), yet they have lost all of their games without winning a jakso. 


Joensuu left it late to take 2 points against Kitee at Rantakenttä and salvaged the game from an 5-3 deficit in the bottom of the 4th inning in the second jakso to force extra innings.   Kitee have enjoyed a fair degree of fortune in their results with a number of home runs (kunniajuoksu) so far this season.


Sotkamo travelled to Vimpeli in the “main event” of the weekend. Sotkamo struck the ball well and won both jakso to end the week with maximum points from their games played. Despite a tight start to the game with nothing separating the two teams, Sotkamo continued to apply pressure in the defensive game and kept adding regularly to the scoreboard thanks to Antti Korhonen (4 RBI from 5 attempts) and Lauri Rönkkö (3 RBI from 3 attempts, including a home run). 


KPL also continued their form and maintain top spot in the table after their 3 point win against Kankaanpää. The game was not always in Kouvola’s favour however and a huge 6 runs in the 4th inning of the second jakso avoided the game going into extra innings. Sasu Toikka and Juho Hacklin both had big games going 8/10 at moving the point runner and 3 runs batted in each. Toikka also scored 3 runs. 


Manse gave IPV a scare on Sunday when they won the first jakso; however the Reds turned up the pressure and outscored Superpesis’ newest team 6-1 to force a supervuoro. Juha Niemi put Manse on the scoreboard in the supervuoro but Juho Toivola and Sami Partanen both scored RBIs to end Manse’s dreams of an away win.


Pattijoki and SiiPe clashed at Rännärin in Raahe, with PattU picking up 2 points in a supervuoro win. SiiPe had a strong showing, but in the end the home side had the edge, with Topi Kosonen scoring both of PattU’s extra-inning RBIs.


The table as it currently stands:

O3p2p1p0pJuP
1 KPL5410056-3114
2 Sojy5311041-2212
3 PattU5041034-339
4 JymyJussit4210127-248
5 KiPa4031037-257
6 Veto5201236-387
7 KeKi5112150-457
8 JoMa4112028-277
9 Tahko4110220-225
10 IPV4020218-204
11 KaMa5101326-414
12 Tampere5012231-434
13 Siilinjärvi5011330-483
14 KoU4000429-440

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Playoff previews 2021: Semifinals

Image
The semifinals promise to be action packed and full of surprises… The first round of the playoffs are now over and the semifinals are set. Here is my preview of the last 4: (1) Manse PP v (4) Sotkamo Both of these teams played a tough series to reach the semifinals. Manse almost became the victims of a surprise series win by IPV; however Manse came back from losing their opening 2 games and won in 5 games. Sotkamo’s road to the semifinals had a substantially more threatening roadblock in the form of a hungry Joensuu side. If JoMa had home field advantage for the series, or the ball had bounced a certain way, this semifinal would look very different. Sotkamo’s regular season games against top 4 sides were not great and they lost more games than the other 3. Despite a dazzling performance at Kaupi on 30th July, Manse still got the better of the reigning champions in their most recent matchup. Manse now have to prove that they are the championship contenders they claim to be. Expect th
Read more

Finals review 2021

Image
In 5 games we were treated to some tense games and superb defence, but in the end Manse PP managed to break through and seal their first men’s championship in the club’s history in a 1-0 win over KPL. Manse finished top of the league in the regular season and soon became favourites to reach the final; however they were soon faced with elimination from the playoffs when they unexpectedly lost the first 2 games of their quarterfinal series against IPV. In the end, neither IPV or reigning champions Sotkamo could stop the star-studded team from securing their first final in only their second season in Superpesis. In my predictions going into the final, I struggled to pick a clear winner, but ended up backing KPL. At that point, I was convinced that Manse hadn’t reached their true potential this season and thought KPL would exploit that. A few weeks later and it seems that Manse did indeed unlock their potential and showed the strength of their defensive game in ways we rarely got to se
Read more

Suomi Tour 2021: Game review Tahko v Sotkamo 12.08.2021

Image
Tahko couldn’t build on their rally in the second jakso as a controversial call cast a shadow over the game Hyvinkään Tahko v Sotkamon Jymy 0-2 (1-2, 3-4) The next regular season game that I attended was the matchup between Tahko and Sotkamo. Despite a strong first jakso in their last game, Tahko were overwhelmed by Manse’s firepower. Whilst Sotkamo does not have the same style of offence as Manse, Sotkamo has consistently manufactured runs. Lauri Rönkkö has had a strong season so far and Toni Laakso has slotted into the lineup well. Sotkamo’s last game against Seinäjoki however proved that defensively they can be vulnerable, as they almost blew a 4 run lead in the 4th inning of the second jakso.  In Tahko’s last game, Manse took great pleasure in exploiting the inexperience of Joona Iivonen and put 19 runs past them across the 2 jakso. The team needed to reset and focus on this game, as the struggle for a top 8 spot intensifies. Tahko were 7th in the table going into this game, w
Read more