Panama entered its Saturday matchup in Pool A of the World Baseball Classic wanting to win the game to keep its dream of reaching the quarterfinals a reality while losing, would hurt Italy’s dream too. Due to this, both teams played like their survival was on the line.
After a stiff, competition between defensive pitchers’ Panama won the game, 2-0.
There were four pitchers who put zeros on Team Panama’s scoreboard – Harold Arauz; went four innings fulfilling his manager Luis Ortiz’s hope – striking out three, giving up only two hits. Humberto Mejia went two more and Alberto Baldonado scored two more. Javy Guerra ended things out in the ninth.
For a greater part of the game, Italy’s crew measured up to Panama’s. Michele Vassalotti the starter, went four innings, struck out three and gave up only two hits. One of the two hits was a mammoth homer; with a mammoth bat flip by Jose Ramos the Dodgers’ prospect.
Italy’s defense was also impressive. It was as if every inning a player was making a run-saving play. Dominic Fletcher made a running, Willie Mays-syle catch in right and Robel Garcia made a diving stab at third.
The best play was probably Nicky Lopez’s full-out dive and flip to begin a rally-killing double play in the fourth. All three plays saved runs.
“Yeah, it seems last night we made some mistakes on the mound, and today, we threw the ball very well and caught the ball,” Italy manager Mike Piazza recounted after the game. “We made some great defensive plays and just couldn’t seem to get that breakthrough hit.”
Italy relievers Sam Gaviglio and Matteo Bocchi gave up one run over four, Gaviglio allowing Allen Córdoba’s RBI single in the seventh.
“Hitting is hard when you face good pitching,” Panama’s manager Luis Ortiz stated. “It’s hard to scratch a couple runs. But we did. We got that solo jack and we manufactured another run.”
Another thing Panama had was outstanding defensive play by one of its star players here this week, Rubén Tejada. The former met went into the hole on a hard grounder delivered by Miles Mastrobuoniand fired for the out at first. Italy kicked against the play, because, it was almost impossible to accept that a player could pull off something like that.
“The performance of this team is outstanding. I’m proud of these guys,” Ortiz said. “We came here with that in mind. We had to win a couple games to change the perception of people in baseball. We got good players, and we proved that in this four-game stint.”
Panama completed play and now has a 2-2 record. Italy advances to 1-2 with one game pending against the Netherlands (2-0). Both teams are still eligible to advance. Italy faces the Dutch on Sunday (7 a.m. ET, FS2).
Chinese Tapei (1-1) and Cuba (1-2) are in Pool A too. Each team plays against the other four in round-robin play, with the pool’s winner and runner-up moving to the quarterfinals in Tokyo against the top teams from Pool B.
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