Nettuno BC 1945 is an Italian

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

club located in

Nettuno Nettuno is a town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Lazio region of central Italy, south of Rome. A resort city and agricultural center on the Tyrrhenian Sea, it has a population of approximately 50,000. Economy It has a ...

, a ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' of the

Metropolitan City of Rome Metropolitan City of Rome Capital () is an area of local government at the level of metropolitan city in the Lazio region of Italy. It comprises the territory of the city of Rome and 120 other ''comuni'' (: ''comune'') in the hinterland of the c ...

. The club competes in the first division (Serie A) of the

Italian Baseball League The Italian Baseball League (IBL, ), officially known as the Serie A (), is the top-level baseball league in Italy. Founded in 1948, it is governed by the Italian Baseball & Softball Federation (FIBS), which has its headquarters in Rome. Many o ...

. Training and home matches are held at

Stadio Steno Borghese Stadio Steno Borghese is a baseball stadium located in Nettuno, Italy. It was built in 1991. See also *2009 Baseball World Cup External links Sito della squadra ospitanteItalian Baseball and Softball Federation
{{coord, 41, 28, 8, N, 12, ...

, which has a capacity of 10,000. The club currently holds the Italian baseball record for most league titles (17).

History

The spread of baseball and the craze for it in Nettuno is attributable to the number of U.S. military bases present in the area after the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. U.S. soldiers stationed at the bases often played

and

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

and involved many local Italians in their games. One of the Italian baseball pioneers, Alberto Fasano, was a Nettunese. Fasano and his friend Julius Zerella eventually founded Nettuno's first softball team – called ''Nettuno PS''. The team's first players were: John Petrelli, Luciano Serpe, Luciano Verlezza, Manrico David, Fulvio Verlezza, Tonino Marcucci and Sergio Serpe. Their official debut was in 1946 in the First Division Male Softball championship against

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. The nettunesi won by a score of 32–7. ''Nettuno PS'' won its first title in 1949. In 1950, ''Nettuno PS'' became ''Nettuno USMC''. In its first championship, the club finished second, with 12 wins out of 14. Over the next four years (1951, 1952, 1953, 1954), ''Nettuno USMC'' won 4 consecutive championships, making the Lazio region most titled of the Italian championship, with 17 league titles. The team won its first

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

in 1965, and has since won the Cup five more times. The team won the CEBCup 3 times (1993, 1995 and 2000) and the

Italian Cup Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

in 1970, 1995 and 1998. In the 2007 and 2008 seasons, they advanced to the finals seven of the Italian Baseball League Series, but lost the title to the Grosseto BBC in 2007 and the San Marino BBC in 2008. This club has most of the times made the

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

. The club did not make it to the Playoffs only in 2003. During the 2009 season, the club was defeated on 11 April in a home match against Godo. The club bought Manuel Gasparri from

Fortitudo Bologna Fortitudo Pallacanestro Bologna 103, commonly known as Fortitudo Bologna and currently known as Fortitudo Flats Service Bologna for sponsorship reasons, is a basketball club based in Bologna, Italy and currently plays in the second division. H ...

, Manny Alexander from Rimini BC, and other important players from Central America, including Abraham Núñez. Within Europe, Nettuno won the 2009 European Cup in Barcelona, first defeating Haarlem Kinheim and then triumphing in an all-Italian final against Fortitudo Bologna with a result of 1–0, winning the European Champions Cup for the second time in a row.

External links

Stadium picture

Club logo

References

{{Italian Baseball League Baseball teams in Italy Sport in Lazio Nettuno Italian Baseball League teams