Venezuela – Italy 7-6 (10)
ITA 010 002 100 2 6 9 1 VEN 100 100 101 3 7 12 1
Venezuela beat the rain and Italy 7-6 in ten innings on Sunday afternoon in Santiago, Panama to clinch a spot in the second round of the IBAF Baseball World Cup, while eliminating their opponents.
The outcome was decided in the first extra inning, when Venezuela answered Italy’s two runs with a pair of RBI singles by Ronald Acuna and Arturo Rivas and a run by Herbert Lara on a wild pitch. Rivas’s hit ended the game in walk-off style. Venezuela had tied the game in the ninth inning on a RBI groundout by Wuilliuans Vasquez, who is playing in the Italian Baseball League. He also hit a homerun in the game.
Italy had turned a 1-2 deficit into a 4-2 lead with two runs in the sixth and another run in the seventh. But it was not enough and the team of Marco Mazzieri dropped to 3-4 and out of the top four in Group 2. Giuseppe Mazzanti homered and drove in all four runs for the Squadra Azzurri. Nicholas Pugliese was charged with the loss.
