Superpesis roundup

The regular season has ended and the top 8 teams now know their opponents for the first round.   (1) Manse PP v (7) IPV The star studded Manse side finished top in the regular season and gained the privilege of choosing their first round opponents before anyone else. Manse chose 7th place IPV ahead of the team that finished in 8th (PattU). IPV have had their greatest season in 28 years, when they last made it to the playoffs. The powerful Manse lineup is likely to obliterate IPV, but the reds are in high spirits and their story may continue if they pull off the seemingly impossible once again. Prediction: Manse 3 - 0 IPV (2) Vimpeli v (8) PattU Vimpeli have continued to look impressive at the plate and Sarrikenttä has been a tough place for opponents to visit - especially if they didn’t bring enough dry pairs of socks! PattU’s season has been fairly pedestrian and their final position in the top 8 came as a shock to many, in particular given the fact that they won their fina...

The second week of the regular season is now behind us, but who was top of the power rankings and who was left struggling? 1st Manse PP  Manse sit at the top of the table with Vimpeli, but have had a tougher schedule than ViVe. The jewel in the crown was a home win over Joensuu, where Manse took the full 3 points. even the win over Kempele was not a certainty, as Kempele’s much improved performance this season has meant that they are a more difficult team to beat. Henri Puputti led Manse’s offence in style against JoMa with a 4 run home run that took his career tally to over 700 RBIs. 2nd Imatran Pallo-Veikot IPV played only 1 game last week, but it was a significant result for the club, who many have predicted will fall way short of the battle for a post-season spot. IPV took the full 3 points against Hyvinkää, who finished 6th last season. Despite IPV losing a number of players to Kitee in the offseason from critical roles, the team are actually doing far better than Kitee...

  Sami Partanen and Tuomas Jussila were big names for IPV in 2020, but failed to secure a playoff spot Prior to the 2020 regular-season, things look positive for IPV. Many people speculated that they would make the play-offs last year, even at the expense of Kitee. As the regular-season came to a close however IPV fell short once again and failed to reach the play-offs. In this post I analyse the positives and negatives for IPV in the 2020 season and wonder how they failed to make the top eight. Pre-season The Halli-SM tournament was not a great success for IPV, but there was still a lot of promising signs for the coming season. Mikko Kosonen’s 8 RBI from 11 attempts was the second best conversion rate in the tournament with runners on 3rd base. When you factor in the fact that IPV’s group games included the seemingly impenetrable defence of Joensuu, this statistic starts to look very promising indeed. Similarly, Juuso Lattu and Teemu Nurmio’s 15 successful hits each were joint ...

If Rantakenttä was the field of dreams, Pihkala felt like the stuff of nightmares for Tahko’s poor defence Places 6-9 At the lower end of the top 8 there was a real scramble for the final playoff spots. This post  focuses on places 6 to 9 as they finished in the regular season and considers how 6th to 8th place performed in the postseason. Some general observations for 6th to 9th place: Hyvinkää had a wild ride this season, with moments that looked like they would be firmly out of the top 8 and talks of being a potential top 4 team. If there was one word that gave any Tahko fan a cold chill it was “defence”. In a park that has such wide open spaces beyond the outfield, Pihkala can become your own worst enemy if you have a leaky defence. The signs were there from the very build up to the season, with training games against KPL and Manse showing some fundamental flaws. But Hyvinkää have a pretty resilient batting lineup and with veteran Juha Korhonen leading the charge, they coul...

  KPL clinch victory with a strong performance in the kotiutuskilpailu Imatran Pallo-Veikot v Kouvolan Pallonlyöjät   1-2k (4-2, 1-3, 1-1, 1-4) KPL have been struggling of late and found themselves dropping firmly into 3rd place n the table. To make matters worse, KPL’s game manger Iiro Haimi suffered a head injury in Sunday’s game against Joensuu, which despite some strong performances ended 0-2 to JoMa. Haimi was absent from this game and recovering from the ball striking him behind the left ear. In his place, KPL’s captain Anssi Lammila took up the role for this game. Whilst KPL are in some distress and frustration, IPV were looking to celebrate Sami Partanen’s recent milestone of playing 600 games, but their last game against KPL was a shutout, where IPV only recorded 5 3rd base situations in the whole game. The first jakso started well for IPV and they immediately put runs on the board to put the visitors under pressure. Juho Toivola’s hit towards 3rd base bobbled an...

Dahlström scored 5 RBI against JoMa, but the reigning champions had the edge The big stories Game manager for KPL hit in the head during Joensuu game During the most anticipated game of the week, KPL’s game manager Iiro Haimi suffered a serious head injury during the game against Joensuu at Kerubi stadium that brought play to a complete standstill. During one of Joensuu’s innings, JoMa captain Aleksi Rautiainen reached out and swung at an intentionally bad pitch, only to see it strike Haimi behind his left ear. Haimi managed to walk off the field of play after initial treatment, before being taken to North Kyle Hospital for X-rays and a CT scan. Haimi was later discharged from hospital and advised to rest. As a result, Haimi will miss KPL’s next match against IPV and Anssi Lammila will take up the reigns.  I sincerely hope Iiro recovers well and my thoughts are with him at this time. Sami Partanen plays his 600th game in Superpesis There are not many players who can boast a...

IPV edged out Joensuu in the season opener Joensuun Maila v Imatran Pallo-Veikot 2nd July 2020 1-2k (0-1, 2-1, 0-0 1-2) Joensuu open their season in a very different way than it was previously planned; instead of playing KPL in Spain at Fuengirola, it is the start of July and IPV are their opponents. Joensuu had won 6 of the last 8 games against IPV and the stage was set for a tough start for the Reds, given their convincing Halli-SM loss to Joensuu just over 4 months ago. But with the impact of coronavirus on the sport, it meant that there has been an unusually long break in play and training. Both teams were wearing their new jerseys, Joensuu in their “single sponsor” jersey and IPV in their recently revealed all white away kit. Jussila was a big presence for IPV on his return to Kerubi In the first jakso very little separated the two teams, despite Joensuu stacking some of the leagues strongest players, this was definitely a defensive duel. The deadlock was finally broken in th...