The Under 21 Italian National Baseball team improved their first round record to a 2 and 1 mark at the World Cup tournament in Taiwan after they took down Mexico by the final of 5 to 1 on Sunday. The win was a big one for Italy, keeping them to within striking distance of a second round bid with just the Czech Republic on Monday and the highly favored Chinese-Taipei on Tuesday left to play.
Picking up the win for Italy out of the pen in relief of Gabriele Quattrini was Matteo Bocchi with 3.2 inning of work. Bocchi allowed just 2 hits and walked none in his scoreless outing on Sunday, an impressive outing to say the least before he was relieved by Enrico Varin in the 9th who successfully shut the door on Mexico.
Mexico got the scoring started first in this one with their only run of the game in the top of the 2nd inning, however Italy was quick to return the favor in the bottom half of the frame with a run of their own that came off of an RBI groundout by Poma, plating Celli from 3rd. Italy tacked on another run in the 5th to take the lead thanks to a hit by pitch that forced home Poma for the lead, a lead that they'd hold onto thank to a strong mound. The Italians were able to put some more distance between them and the team Mexico with 2 more runs in the 7th and finally 1 more in the bottom of the 8th. At the plate Mineo picked up his 6th two-bagger of the tournament, a 2 RBI double to center in the 7th for the 4 to 1 lead. Celli also had a nice day with a 2 for 4 performance in the DH spot for the Italians.
Up next on Monday will be the Czech Republic (0-3). Monday’s game is an important one for Italy in their push towards the second round of this inaugural Under 21 World Cup of Baseball.
