Around the league - 18th August 2020
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| Kempele blast Seinäjoki in front of the home crowd for 3 well earned points |
Kempeleen Kiri v Seinäjoen JymyJussit
2-0 (8-3, 3-1)
Whilst Kitee have been gaining momentum towards the end of the season, Seinäjoki seem to have stalled and are starting to slip from what seemed like an almost inevitable 5th place. Seinäjoki had a tough 2 games on the road leading to this matchup, having lost to KPL and Vimpeli 2-0 in each game. The matchup between these two teams favour Seinäjoki and the last game against Kempele was only 1 week ago with a solid 2-0 win for JymyJussit. Kempele have been trying to reignite the spark that they had at the stat or the season, but in their last 5 games they had lost 2-0 in 4 of them. The other game in Kempele’s last 5 was against a struggling PattU, so it is hard to gauge whether that would give much confidence to the team.Kempele set to work immediately, with 3 runs in the 1st inning. Matti Korhonen’s hit to the midfield line was mishandled and saw the first runner come home. Ossi Meriläinen added runs 2 and 3 with hits to the 3rd run coming off a high hit that dropped into centre field safely and allowed Marko Pelkonen to stretch his legs and splint home. Seinäjoki cut down Kempele’s lead to just 1 run with by the end of the 1st inning. Jukka-Pekka Vainionpää’s hit to left field inevitably led to the first run, but seconds later it was Toni Marjamäki’s hit to the left shortstop that gave Teri Tyynelä the chance to score. The hit was stopped by the fielder’s outstretched glove, but by the time it was fielded, Tyynelä was already half way from 3rd base to home. In in instant he game was 3-2.
Seinäjoki added a 3rd run in the 2nd inning thanks to another Jukka-Pekka Vainionpää hit, but Kempele instantly came back in the game with Ossi Meriläinen’s 3rd RBI of the day in the 3rd inning. In the 4th inning Kempele put the jakso out of reach for Seinäjoki with 4 RBIs, including 2 more from Meriläinen and finished off by Onni Määttä’s 2 run home run from a hit that cleared the catcher and bounded off through right field.The second jakso started tentatively, but it was Kempele that broke the deadlock with Ossi Meriläinen striking again with a hit to left field finding a huge gap by the left shortstop in the bottom of the 2nd inning. Jussi Korhonen made it 2-0 before the inning was over and put pressure on Seinäjoki to respond. Meriläinen capped off his day with his 6th RBI in the 3rd inning to leave Seinäjoki searching for 4 runs in the final inning to try and salvage the game. Seinäjoki could not rise to the challenge and Jukka-Pekka Vainionpää’s RBI in the 4th inning was nothing more than a consolation prize in this game.
Whilst Kempele seemed to have strong performances across their batting lineup, nobody compared to Ossi Meriläinen’s 6 RBI. Meriläinen’s hits came at crucial moments in both jakso and pegged Seinäjoki into a corner. Overall it was the sheer volume of oportunities mixed with Meriläinen’s fine form that won the day for Kempele, who had 21 3rd base situations compared to JymyJussit’s 13.
A gulf is starting to appear between Seinäjoki and Kitee who sit in 5th place; as a result, Seinäjoki are starting to slip into a very competitive group of teams fighting for the remaining 3 playoff spots. Kempele all of a sudden find themselves just 2 points behind Seinäjoki and are 8th in the table. As time starts to slip away and the post season is drawing near, it is performances like this that will make or break a team’s season.
Kempeleen Kiri
pj:1.pj Petri Pulliainen 2.pj Juhani Ojala
3-tilanteet:21, harhat:0, vapaat:0
| # | Pelaaja | Up | Ly | Tu | KL | 1% | 2% | 3% | K% | KL % | P | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Seinäjoen JymyJussit
pj:1.pj Jussi Parvi 2.pj Markus Kettunen
3-tilanteet:13, harhat:0, vapaat:0
| # | Pelaaja | Up | Ly | Tu | KL | 1% | 2% | 3% | K% | KL % | P | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Elsewhere in the league
18th AugustKitee showed that they can win against any of the top teams with a supervuoro win over Sotkamo. Jesse Eskelinen was phenomenal across the board in this game, with 100% success rate at moving the point runner, a home run and a solid performance as pitcher. For Sotkamo, things were going well until Kitee’s offence erupted in the 2nd inning of he second jakso, with 6 runs! Aapo Komulainen got the start as pitcher and gave a solid performance in both offensive and defensive aspects of the game.
Kankaanpää almost pulled off the impossible against KPL, narrowly losing by a single run over the whole game. KPL’s Toni Kohonen and Jere Dahlström bagged to RBI each to claim victory, but Kari Kellokoski levelled the score for Kankaanpää in the second jakso to deny KPL 3 points. Despite their efforts, KaMa take no points from the game, but there will be a certain amount of confidence they can take from their performance.
Vimpeli blitzed Koskenkorva and earned 3 points against a team that has started to click towards the back end of the season. Perttu Ruuska obliterated KoU’s defence in this game, with 7 RBI from 7 attempts. In the field, Vimpeli were composed and Koskenkorva were scoreless in the first jakso, silencing the deadly Patrik Wahlsten until the 4th inning of the second jakso.
Sotkamon Jymy v Kiteen Pallo -90
1-2s (5-2, 2-6, 2-3)
Kankaanpään Maila v Kouvolan Pallonlyöjat
0-1 (2-3, 3-3)
Vimpelin Veto v Koskenkorvan Urheilijat
2-0 (9-0, 7-3)
Hyvinkään Tahko v Joensuun Maila
1-2s (2-4, 4-3, 0-5)
Photographs
Cover - (c) Kempeleen Kiri 2020
Photograph 2 - (c) Seinäjoen JymyJussit 2020
Photograph 3 - (c) Hyvinkään Tahko 2020
Cover - (c) Kempeleen Kiri 2020
Photograph 2 - (c) Seinäjoen JymyJussit 2020
Photograph 3 - (c) Hyvinkään Tahko 2020
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