Game of the week 30.07.2021 Vimpeli v Kempele

 

Kempele stun the home crowd to claim 2 vital points against the league leaders

Vimpelin Veto v Kempeleen Kiri

1-2s (8-2, 2-5, 1-4)

This week’s featured game is a matchup between 2 teams hoping to improve on last year’s performance. Vimpeli have their sights squarely on a championship, after claiming bronze in 2020 against JoMa. Kempele are entering the next phase of the franchise model; a playoff spot. Kempele had some great positives in 2020, but still fell short of a top 8 finish. In the off-season, some key moves (including Antti Korhonen from Sotkamo) have boosted their prospects somewhat.

As it stands going into this game, Vimpeli sit at he top of the table with Manse and KPL hot on their tails. Vimpeli have proven themselves this season so far with wins over Sotkamo and KPL, but some results haven’t quite gone their way (like the away game to Tahko at the beginning of the month). On the whole, Vimpeli are a formidable opponent, especially at the iconic Saarikenttä.

Kempele opened the season with a disappointing loss to Vimpeli before putting on a stunning performance at Kerubi that gained a point over JoMa (and very nearly the win). Kempele had lost 3 of the last 5 games coming into this matchup and desperately need a boost to their confidence to return to their earlier form this season. The 2 wins they had in their last 5 games included a 2 point win over struggling Hamina and 3 points against Koskenkorva. Kempele sat in 10th in the table coming into this game, some margin adrift of 8th place. But with Hyvinkää suffering 2 key injuries, they need to make the most of the opportunities they have to score 2 or more points per game. 

Janne Mäkelä opened the scoring for ViVe 

1st Jakso

Kempele won the hutunkeitto and put Vimpeli in to bat. Despite an energetic start to the inning, Kempele’s defence held strong an Vimpeli seemed to go a little flat. That is, until Janne Mäkelä came to bat (as their last batter). Lauri Vihriälä was on 2nd base and a deep hit to left field was expected to end the inning due to the fact that ViVe had run out of batters… Vihriälä had other ideas, and hustled from 2nd base to reach home, leaving Kempele stunned and 1-0 down.

With both sides looking to open up the game, the score remained 1-0 going into the 3rd inning, with only one 3rd base situation for Vimpeli (that resulted in the run in the 1st) and two for Kempele across the 2 innings. To start the 3rd inning however, Olli Heikkala scored a solo home run from a powerful hit to right field that narrowly landed in field before making its way towards the river. Kempele struck back in the bottom of the inning with a looping hit from Tommi Koivisto to right field that beat the diving fielder and saw Antti Korhonen score from 2nd base. 

Vimpeli turned up the heat in the 4th inning with Elmeri Anttila’s tight angled short bouncing double  seeing Jere Saukko score from 2nd base and setting up Veli-Pekka Yli-Hirvelä on 3rd. Janne Mäkelä gave Vimpeli their 4th run from a soft short hit that Yli-Hirvelä scored. The final insult to Kempele came moments later with the bases loaded, when Teemu Isoketo hit the ball deep to centre field and the outfielder misjudged the bounce, gifting the home side 4 more runs.

Despite being 7 runs down, Kempele battled on; however they only managed to score once more before the jakso was over. After 2 failed attempts from 3rd base, Kempele scored with a hit from Antti Korhonen to right field that gave Sami-Jukka Korvola enough time to score. The rally however never came and Kempele suffered their 3rd out moments later.

2nd Jakso

With the first jakso behind them, Kempele immediately set out to take control of the game. With Vimpeli turning a double play at the top of the 1st inning, things still looked firmly in Vimpeli’s favour; however Marko Pekkinen’s tight bounding hit along the left foul line saw Sami-Juska Korvola  score from 3rd base and Antti Korhonen from 2nd base as the ball was retrieved from the river. Kempele made it 0-4 in the 2nd inning with a 2-run looping hit from Matti Korhonen to left field. From there, Kempele remained firmly in control of the game and extra innings beckoned.

In the top of the 4th, Matti Korhonen extended Kempele’s lead to 5 runs with a hit to centre field that saw Markus Keski-Petäjä score. Vimpeli started to claw their way back into the game, with RBIs from Perttu Ruuska and Jere Saukko, but the task was just too much and the game was tied (one jakso each).

Supervuoro

Vimpeli put a marker down with Perttu Ruuska’s line drive to right field bringing Teemu Isoketo home to score. In the bottom of the inning, with the bases loaded, Antti Korhonen launched the ball deep to left field and bouncing past the outfielder for a 4 run home run. 

Analysis

After the first jakso it looked like Vimpeli had the game in the bag, but Kempele dug deep to blank the home side in the second jakso and force the extra inning. The loss for Vimpeli means little, as they are comfortably in the top 4 and likely to stay there - if anything, they probably had one eye on their upcoming game against sotkamo in a few days time.

When you break down the statistics, Kempele we’re the better side on the day - with 62% success rate at moving the point runner compared to Vimpeli’s 58%. Kempele also had more 3rd base situations, 21 to ViVe’s 16. 

In the first jakso, most of the runs came from runners starting on 2nd base! Kempele clearly are on a mission this year to reach the top 8 and have shown some great improvements year on year. Antti Korhonen’s bases loaded home run dominated Kempele’s stats, but a lot of the success was also shouldered by Matti Korhonen, who went 3/6 with runners on 3rd base. For Vimpeli, Teemu Isoketo’s bases loaded home run put Vimpeli firmly in the lead in the first jakso; however the team’s offence seemed to dry up in the second jakso.

Yet again it seems I picked an interesting game to review and it seems that the underdogs won once more! In fact there has only been one game this season that my chosen game hasn’t seen the lower ranked team win… sorry Vimpeli fans.

                                                                  

Game stats

Photographs 

Cover - (c) Kempeleen Kiri 2021

Photograph 2 - (c) Vimpelin Veto 2021