Perfect Italy surges into quarterfinals powered by caffeine and kisses

HOUSTON – Behind a “Mr. March”-like performance from Vinnie Pasquantino in the first three-homer game in the history of the World Baseball Classic, Team Italy has earned the top seed coming out of Pool B.

And one big “Grazie!” from Team USA.

One night after shockingly giving the Americans some mathematical agita, the Italians rode their captain Pasquantino to a power-packed and remarkably stress-free 9-1 victory over Mexico in the finale of pool play Wednesday night at Daikin Park.

Italy finished a perfect 4-0 for the pool’s top spot, eliminating Mexico and advancing to Saturday’s quarterfinals date with Puerto Rico (3 p.m. ET on FS1). It marks the third time Team Italy has advanced past pool play but the first time it has won its pool outright – a run that earned the club a shoutout on the floor of the Italian Parliament from prime minister Giorgia Meloni earlier in the day.

Just as meaningfully, a star-laden U.S. squad that had been put in a precarious situation by Tuesday’s loss to Italy has also advanced to the next round, lined up to face Canada here Friday night.

What’s more, there was no need to go to that three-team-tiebreaking quotient of runs allowed divided by defensive outs recorded.

But at least we’ll have the memories of memorizing it.

Mexico came into this game with the more rested and replete pitching staff. But Italy had its ace, Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola, on the hill, and that was quite the separator on a night in which every individual run carried added historical heft.

Nola turned in five efficient innings in which he allowed just four hits and a walk with five strikeouts. What few opportunities Mexico had to inflict damage upon him were snuffed out by great plays like young shortstop Sam Antonacci’s deft deke that doubled up Joey Ortiz in the third and catcher J.J. D’Orazio’s perfect strike to nab would-be base stealer Nick Gonzales in the fifth.

And of course, as has been tradition in this tournament, there was the caffeinated clout of the Italian bats.

Pasquantino got the paisan party started with a solo shot to the right-field corner off starter Javier Assad in the second. The Pasquatch is the heart and soul of this Italian squad, handing out celebratory espressos and doling out kisses on the cheeks to his homer-hitting teammates. But this was his first – and, it turns out, far from last – hit in this Classic.

Veteran infielder Jon Berti added a solo shot off Assad in the fourth to make it 2-0, and a little small-ball in the form of a well-placed sacrifice bunt from WBC revelation Dante Nori helped spark a three-run fifth that made it 5-0.

Pasquantino went deep again in the sixth, with another poke near the right-field pole. And yet again in the eighth with – you guessed it – a solo shot to his favorite corner, Italy further made its course clear.

Italy knew it was in with a win, and Team USA knew it was in with an Italian win. An Azzurri squad primarily made up of Italian-Americans ultimately helped both causes.