Giorgio Valli doesn’t trust Baldi Rossi and Pillastrini
CMT Orange Tools Pesaro, led by head coach Giorgio Valli, is preparing to face UEB Gesteco Cividale in a match counting toward the fifth round of the Serie A2 Old Wild West championship. The red-and-whites will take the court on Wednesday, October 21, at 8:30 p.m., in front of the home crowd at the Vitrifrigo Arena. The game will be officiated by a trio of referees consisting of Giovannetti, Centonza, and Lanciotti.
“The game in Ruvo di Puglia was physically demanding, so tomorrow night it will be important to manage our energy well. Cividale fields ten players who play at a high tempo and are capable of filling multiple roles. It will be a challenging match on our home court, and we’ll try to put our best foot forward,” emphasized the veteran Biancorossi coach. “In his debut last Saturday, Baldi Rossi made a significant impact, and he’ll undoubtedly be a key player in Pesaro as well. We’ll have to be careful with our opponents, especially considering the new lineups and rotations that a very experienced coach like Stefano Pillastrini is fielding,” added Valli.
Filippo Baldi Rossi, a forward from Modena born in 1991, is the latest addition to the Friuli team. A former captain of Tezenis Scaligera Verona, he played a key role in the team’s promotion to Serie A at the end of the 2025–26 season: in 34 regular-season games, he averaged 8.3 points, 3 rebounds, and 1.1 assists. His future in Verona had already seemed uncertain this past summer, and after holding talks with Aquila Trento—the club with which he had achieved promotion to the top flight in 2014 and for which he had played from 2013 to 2018—he found a new home in Cividale. During the summer transfer window, there had also been talk of a possible move to Pesaro, though that possibility never materialized.
His arrival represents a significant boost for a young and ambitious Gesteco team, which needs to find more consistency after a difficult start to the season: in the first three games, Pillastrini’s squad had managed just one win.
The two teams have already faced off this summer: on Friday, September 4, in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Pesaro and Cividale squared off in the Bortoluzzi Memorial-ButanGas Trophy, part of the Biancorossi’s preseason. Among the new additions to Valli’s roster is Andrea De Nicolao, a point guard born in 1991 who was signed in July after two seasons with Cantù and a successful Serie A2 playoff run in 2024–2025, a move by the club designed to combine the experience of veterans with the energy of young players.
The 2026–2027 Serie A2 season will feature twenty teams. The team finishing first in the regular season will be promoted directly to Serie A, while teams ranked second through thirteenth will compete for promotion through play-ins and playoffs, in a best-of-five series.
