Cipriano Ventura

Cipriano Ventura

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 7", Weight 154 lb.

• Born September 20, 1965

Olympics-Reference page

Biographical Information

Cipriano Ventura played in the Olympics and then starred in Italy.

Ventura pitched for the Dominican national team in the 1991 Pan American Games, when they nearly upset Team USA for the Bronze. In the 1992 Olympics, he was the Dominican ace at 1-0, 2.60. He pitched a four-hit, one-walk complete game gem to beat host Spain and future minor leaguer Xavier Civit. He carried a 5-3 lead over Italy and Fulvio Valle into the 9th but left with one out as Italy tied it; Roberto Casey took over and would get the win. He led the Dominican team in IP (17 1/3, 6 2/3 ahead of Casey), wins (tied with Casey), ERA (.78 ahead of Silvestre Popoteur) and strikeouts (12; the rest of the staff had 10 in 38 1/3 IP).

Signing with Taiwan's Chinatrust Whales for 1997, he was 6-12 with a 4.34 ERA. He led the league in losses, one ahead of Rafael Montalvo and Mariano De Los Santos. He then signed with Nettuno in Italy. In 1998, he was 5-3 with a 3.65 ERA in Serie A1. He was 2-1 with a 2.45 ERA in the semifinals then had a 2-0, 3.78 record in the 1998 Italian Series as Nettuno beat Rimini. During 1999, as Italy switched to wood bats, he became even more dominant. He was 11-3 with a 1.60 ERA, .84 WHIP, .182/.233/.230 opponent batting line and 120 K in 118 1/3 IP. He led the league in whiffs (14 ahead of Walter Cossutta), was 3rd in wins (behind Tista Perri and former major leaguer Tom Urbani), ranked 4th in ERA (between Daniel Newman and Roberto Cabalisti) and was second in opponent OBP (.016 behind Urbani). In the semifinals, he was 1-0 with a 1.20 ERA and .73 WHIP. In the 1999 Italian Series, he dropped game 1 to Rimini and Jody Treadwell. He came back in game 4 to even the Series with a 10-K, 3-hit, 4-walk gem in 8 innings (Massimiliano Masin closed it). In the finale, game 7, he relieved a struggling Paul Romanoli in the 3rd and fared well over the next 5 1/3, allowing one run as Nettuno took a 8-7 lead. He faded in the 9th, though, allowing two runs for a tough loss.

In 2000, he was 6-3 with a 2.19 ERA for Nettuno in the regular season, striking out 118 in 119 1/3 IP and allowing a .212/.272/.277 batting line. He was 5th in the league in Ks, tied for 9th in wins, 5th in ERA (between Cossutta and Cabalisti) and 3rd in IP (after Mario Sangilbert and Reggie Leslie). He was 1-0 with a 3.55 ERA in the semifinals, striking out 14 in 12 2/3 IP. In the 2000 Italian Series, he was 0-2, 5.11 as Nettuno got swept in a rematch with Rimini.

Ventura continued his solid work for Nettuno in 2001 - 7-4, 2.69 in the regular season. He was 3rd in strikeouts (129, after John Kelly and Guillermo Larreal) and IP (130 2/3, after Larreal and Luca Martignoni) but did not make the top 10 in either wins or ERA. He had a rough time in the semifinals (0-1, 8.31). In the 2001 Italian Series, though, he was 1-1 with a 1.59 ERA and 24 K in 17 IP, allowing only 8 hits and 2 BB. He lost Game 1 in a 2-0 duel to Tim Kester of (once again) Rimini but struck out 16 in a 4-1 win in a Game 4 rematch with Kester as Nettuno would take the Series in six games.

The veteran right-hander was 8-5 with a 2.26 ERA for Nettuno during 2002. He fell to 9th in strikeouts (tied with Newman at 113) and was 6th in ERA (between Otoniel Lanfranco and Newman). He had a 1-1, 5.25 record in the semifinals. The 2002 Italian Series featured the 5th straight match of Nettuno and Rimini. He had Rimini's number in a Game 4 win and had a 1-0, 0.60 record on the Series, but it was the only win for Nettuno.

In 2003, he moved to Modena and posted a 9-2, 2.34 campaign with 116 K to 20 BB. He was 3rd in Serie A1 in strikeouts (behind Sangilbert and Kasey Olenberger), tied Juan Carlos Vigna and Sandy Patrone for 3rd in wins, was 3rd in ERA (after Vigna and Cabalisti), allowed the 4th-lowest OBP (.277, between Rolando Cretis and Rusty Meacham), 1st in IP (126 2/3, 2/3 ahead of Sangilbert), tied for third in complete games (4) and was 5th in fewest BB/9 (between Shane Tonkin and Vigna). He was named the league's All-Star right-handed pitcher. He won all 3 games he pitched in the semifinals, with a 3.52 ERA. In the 2003 Italian Series, he faced Bologna and was 0-1 with a 5.79 ERA as Modena lost in five games. While he had appeared in six straight Italian Series, it was also his last one.

Ventura fell to 8-7, 2.51 in 2004, though he only walked 26 in 150 1/3 IP. He was 4th with 123 K, 9th in ERA (between Billy Horn and Carlos Richetti) and led in IP. He rebounded to 10-6, 2.00 for Modena in 2005. He was second with 110 strikeouts (31 behind leader Jesus Matos), tied for 3rd in wins, was 7th in ERA (between Julio Villalón and Alvaro Montes), 3rd in opponent OBP (.280) and 2nd with 135 IP (5 1/3 behind Franklin Torres).

Returning to Nettuno in 2006, the 40-year-old was 3-3 with a 1.88 ERA and walked only 9 in 52 2/3 IP in the regular season. Only Matos had a lower BB/9 ratio; Ventura was also 4th in ERA (between Roque Román and Victor Arias) and 4th in opponent OBP (.265, between Cabalisti and Román). He had a 3.38 ERA in two games in the semifinals.

He had gone 80-45 with a 2.48 ERA in 171 games (including 41 complete games) in Italy, allowing a .230/.281/.300 batting line. He struck out 1,095 and walked 285 in 1,215 2/3 IP. Through 2015, he was 34th in Italian history in wins (one behind Dario Bazzarini and 1992 Olympic opponent Valle, 3 ahead of Luca Spadoni), 24th in ERA (between Fabio Milano and Carlo Tagliaboschi), tied Maurizio Foppiani for 50th in complete games, was 29th in innings (between Renato Bava and Alfredo Lauri), 18th in strikeouts (between Fabio Betto and Matos), 17th in WHIP (1.19, between Romano Lachi and Martin Sanchez), 14th in K:BB ratio (3.84:1, between Juan Figueroa and Luis Lunar), 10th in fewest walks/9 (between Bob Galasso and Sanchez), 40th in fewest hits/9 (between Claudio Scerrato and Newman) and 26th in K/9 (between Tiago Da Silva and Enorbel Marquez).

Sources

• Old IBAF website
• Italian Baseball and Softball Federation
• Baseball.it
• Taiwan Baseball Wiki