The US hands Italy their first loss of the World Baseball Classic
Italy fell to the US (6-2) in front of 19,300 fans on Saturday night in their third game of the 2013 World Baseball Classic. However the supposedly underdogs of Pool D are the first to qualify for the second round of the tournament, going 2 and 1 with victories against Mexico and Canada.
 | The Italians got off to a quick start on Saturday night against opposing pitcher Ryan Vogelsong (San Francisco Giants), scoring one in the 1st and one in the 2nd, which put them up two-zip against the powerhouse team from the States. The youngster, Luca Panerati, went three strong frames for team Italy, giving up no runs and only three hits. However the tide changed in the middle of the game as the US scored one in the 4th and exploded for 5 in the 5th, including a grand slam off of the bat of supper star, David Wright (New York Mets), which put the Red White and Blue up for good.
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| Even with the loss to the United States on Saturday team Italy has qualified for the second round of this 2013 addition of the World Baseball Classic to be played out in Miami from the 12th to the 16th of March. The first and second seeds of Pool D will be determined on Sunday when Canada and the United States meet up in Arizona. A USA victory puts Italy in as the second seed but a Canadian victory would mean Italy would take the top seed of Pool D, a pool in which many wrote them off before some before play even began. |  |
