Inside Brescia Baseball’s DIY Survival: Seven Years on the Road and a 21-Meter Tunnel

Emergency breeds resourcefulness. When that emergency becomes a chronic, seven-year structural exile, it forces a community to engineer its own survival. For the players, coaches, and families of Ecotherm Brescia Baseball Softball, the lack of a regulation home facility has transformed every training session and weekend fixture into an exercise in logistics and grit.

Since the closure of the CUS Brescia facility in 2019—displaced to make room for padel courts—the club has accumulated a staggering and unique Italian record: 550 consecutive away matches. Without a regulation diamond to call their own, the club's senior squad and youth ranks have been forced into a nomadic existence, relying on the hospitality of rival Serie B clubs to host matches they are technically scheduled to play at home, with the nearest venue located in Lodi and some trips stretching as far as Mondovì.

Faced with space so constrained that a temporary arrangement on a local hockey pitch resulted in endless lost softballs, the club's collective family took matters into their own hands. In a matter of days, players, executives, and supporters constructed a fully functional batting and pitching tunnel right inside the hockey field.

As explained by club vice-president Stefano Sbardolini, the construction was a communal effort:

Si è mobilitata la grande famiglia del Brescia Baseball Softball e ognuno ha fatto il suo. La rete protettiva, ad esempio, è stata messa a disposizione dal papà americano di un nostro giocatore, se l’è fatta arrivare dagli Stati Uniti, dove costa meno. Ai tubi e all’erba sintetica hanno provveduto amici e sponsor.

Stefano Sbardolini

Measuring 21 meters long, 3.5 meters high, and 6 meters wide, the DIY structure allows players to at least practice hitting mechanics and throwing drills. Yet, as the club emphasizes, it is an imperfect fix for a sport that relies entirely on expansive spatial dimensions. Tactical drills remain largely theoretical, and the inability to host matches locally stunts youth recruitment. Parents face grueling weekend tour de forces driving young children hundreds of kilometers away just to play, leading to high attrition and the eventual shuttering of entire youth categories in past years.

Despite the severe handicaps—which eventually contributed to their relegation to Serie B—the technical standard of the club remains intact under the guidance of experienced manager Lisandro Corba, an Argentine coach deeply rooted in the city. The club continues to produce talent that is routinely lured away by Serie A sides, while core veterans like longtime captain Giovanni Alloisio—who notched his twentieth consecutive season and won the 2025 Brescia Sports Oscar—provide an anchor of continuity.

With national league play underway and a formal appeal delivered to Palazzo Loggia asking municipal leadership for a dedicated facility, Brescia Baseball continues to represent its city proudly on the jersey. The 21-meter tunnel stands as a testament to their resilience, but the underlying demand remains unchanged: Brescia needs a diamond.