Bouncing back from a devastating mercy-rule loss to Germany which kept the Italians from advancing to the U23 European Baseball Championship semifinals two days prior, Team Italy settled for a fifth -place finish after an exciting 11-7 extra-inning victory over Czech Republic on Saturday, August 12, 2023.
Azzurri U23 manager Alberto D’Auria called on starter Mattia Sireus, who allowed two runs on two hits with three strikeouts and three walks in three innings of work. Reliever Juan Carlos Infante Jr. entered the contest in the top of the fourth inning and gave up an unearned run on one hit after an infield error was followed by an ensuing wild pitch.
Ion Doba pitched a scoreless fifth inning with one hit and two strikeouts before being relieved by Francesco Pomponi, who threw scoreless sixth and seventh innings. The young and talented pitcher was not so lucky in extra innings as he surrendered two runs in the top of the eighth inning before reliever Marco Artitzu was brought into the ballgame. An RBI single followed by an infield error yielded the Czechs another two runs to give them a 7 to 3 advantage heading into the bottom of the eighth inning. An explosive 8-run offensive fury by Team Italy resulted in the 11-7 extra-inning victory for the Azzurri.
The Italians went right to work in the bottom of the first inning and scored twice. Tommaso Battioni led off with an infield single, and slugger Lorenzo Morresi hit a two-run home run over the right field fence off Czech starting pitcher Ondrej Vonk.
Czech Republic scored two runs in the top of the second inning. Team Italy regained a slim 3-2 lead in the bottom of the third inning when Samuele Gamberini blasted a solo homer to right field.
After walks to Daniel Monti and Vince Cimini, Czech Republic summoned Petr Vojta from the bullpen to strike out Niccolò Cinelli and limit the damage. The Czechs tied the game 3-3 in the top of the fourth inning.
Czech Republic went to the bullpen again in the bottom of the sixth inning and brought in reliever Tadeáš Kalcev to successfully keep the Italians off the board. However, after issuing a walk to Tommaso Giarola in the bottom of the seventh inning, he was replaced by reliever David Mergans. The Italians were unable to take advantage of the free pass. Tommaso Giarola advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Lorenzo Moressi, moved on to third base on a foul out by Samuele Gamberini but was left stranded after an inning-ending strikeout of Daniel Monti.
The Czechs put up four runs in the top of the eighth inning, but the Italians answered with eight runs of their own to win the extra-inning contest by a score of 11 to 7. Team Italy enjoyed a change of scenery when reliever Šimon Blazek entered the game. The offensive rally was fueled by an RBI double by Mattelo Oldano, a sacrifice fly from Niccolò Cinelli, a double by Samuele Bruno, a textbook RBI bunt single from Tommaso Giarola and culminated with a grand slam by Samuele Gamberini.
ITALY-CZECH REPUBLIC BOX SCORE
VIDEO REPLAY
U23 EUROPEAN BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS
U23 EUROPEAN BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL STANDINGS
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Forza #Italia!
by Roberto Angotti
