\n
<\/p>\n
The Italian national team has advanced to the semi-finals of the World Baseball Classic for the first time in the tournament’s history, in a landmark achievement for European baseball.<\/p>\n
The Azzurri secured their progression following a 8-6 victory over Puerto Rico at Daikin Park in Houston on Saturday, maintaining an unblemished 5\u20130 record and confirming their status as the pre-eminent dark horse of the 2026 competition.<\/p>\n
Italy’s triumph follows victories in recent days\u00a0over Mexico, 9-1, and the\u00a0shock defeat of Team USA, 8-6.<\/p>\n
Saturday’s encounter began with immediate pressure as Puerto Rico took an early lead through a leadoff home run by Willi Castro. Italy responded with clinical efficiency in the bottom of the first inning, however, scoring four runs to seize control of the\u00a0game.<\/p>\n
Team captain Vinnie Pasquantino initiated the comeback with an RBI single, while Andrew Fischer later provided a two-run double in the fourth inning to extend the advantage to 8-2.<\/p>\n
On the mound, Sam Aldegheri delivered a composed performance to earn the win, further validating the depth of Italian-born talent within the squad.<\/p>\n
Despite a spirited late-game resurgence from Puerto Rico, who narrowed the deficit to two runs during the eighth inning, the Italian bullpen remained resolute. Relief pitcher Greg Weissert executed a five-out save, forcing a groundout from Nolan Arenado to secure victory.<\/p>\n
The Italian squad now travels to Miami to face Venezuela – who defeated\u00a0the defending champions, Japan – for a semi-final clash at loanDepot park on Monday.<\/p>\n
Photo Federazione Italiana Baseball Softball<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Italy secures historic semi-final berth in World Baseball Classic after defeating Puerto Rico. The Italian national team has advanced to the semi-finals of the World Baseball Classic for the first time in the tournament’s history, in a landmark achievement for European baseball. The Azzurri secured their progression following a 8-6 victory over Puerto Rico at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[29410,1581,7217,2547,29588,3118],"class_list":["post-45406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eventi","tag-advances","tag-baseball","tag-classic","tag-italy","tag-semifinals","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}