Italy, historic affirmation in the Netherlands

Historic affirmation for national team

Day six and the fifth engagement, the last of the first phase, for Italy at Haarlem Baseball Week 2022, against Cuba, still stalled in the tournament.

On the strength of an excellent Gabriele Quattrini on the mound and a consistently timely defense, Mike Piazza’s National Team conceded no runs, capitalized on the two patiently constructed runs scored in the second and fifth innings, and waited to know their opponent for the second phase of the tournament.

For Italy, it is the second historic victory against Cuba in an official competition, after the one obtained in Haarlem Week itself in 2018 (against 50 losses and one tie), and allows Italy to confidently await the results of the other two games of the day that can guarantee it access to the semifinals.

The first Italian to indulge in the microphones is Gabriele Quattrini himself: “It is a great satisfaction, I honestly did not expect it. Today I got on the mound ready to sacrifice because I knew we were short in the bullpen. My focus was to get ahead right away against opposing hitters and the rest came by itself.”

Mike Piazza also did not hide his satisfaction: “It was a great performance by our mound and defense today. We did what we needed to do on offense, putting runners on base, and we did a good job with bunts and forwards, and when you do the simple things well, there are always prerequisites to do well.”

On small ball: “I may sound a little retro, but I think putting runners in point position and putting pressure on the defense is a good way to play, because then anything can happen.”

On Quattrini: “He did a good job, threw strikes, except for a few bases conceded, induced a lot of bounces to opponents and worked quickly, then a couple of double plays helped him. We needed a test like that, to give the bullpen a breather and to come out on top tomorrow.”