Perfect Italy surges into quarterfinals powered by caffeine and kisses

HOUSTON – After their enormous upset of the U.S. on Tuesday night, the members of Team Italy were just like the rest of us, learning about the mathematical tiebreakers that might decide their fate if they lost to Mexico the next night. The calculations came in and confirmed that Italy could lose that game and still move on to the World Baseball Classic quarterfinals if they allowed four or fewer runs.

They considered this for a while, before manager Francisco Cervelli chimed in on a group text with some salient advice.

“Don’t make math,” he wrote, “don’t think about numbers.”

In other words, why lose when you can win?

Team Italy did just that Wednesday night. Convincingly so. Behind a historic three-homer performance from team captain Vinnie Pasquantino, Italy beat Mexico, 9-1, to earn 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, Italy finished a perfect 4-0 in pool play to set up a date with Puerto Rico in Saturday’s quarterfinals (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.

“We are the Pool B champions,” said Pasquantino, “and that's pretty special.”

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.

“It’s just a headache,” Pasquantino said.

Winning is the antidote.

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.

“I just wanted to be efficient for Italy, and I wanted to get focused taking it hitter by hitter, how I always do,” Nola said. “It's kind of my goal every game, to slow things down and to command all my pitches. And it worked tonight.”

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.

This Italian team doesn’t have many big names, but it does have style and swagger. The players wear suits to and from the games. They drink those espressos after homers. They sample olive oils. They give out bottles of wine to game MVPs. They play Andrea Bocelli's "Time To Say Goodbye" as their victory song.

“It's culture, it's elegance, it's art,” Cervelli said. “So my guys, they dress well every day. They respect this. This is the highest level in the world. So why not create a tradition of, like, a Joe Torre tradition, that is respect this game and be a professional inside and outside the field?”

And yeah, why not win? It’s so much easier than calculating a quotient.