Vinnie Pasquantino recorded the first three-homer game in the 20-year history of the World Baseball Classic, and Italy earned a 9-1 victory over Mexico on Wednesday in Houston, capturing first place in Pool B while helping the United States advance.
Pasquantino, who was 0-for-12 entering the game, earned himself three celebratory shots of espresso by going deep to lead off the second, sixth and eighth innings.
Jon Berti also homered to lead off the fourth inning for Italy (4-0), which banged out 10 hits to join the United States (3-1) in advancing to the quarterfinals. Italy will face Pool A second-place team Puerto Rico (3-1) on Saturday, while the Americans will square off against Pool A first-place side Canada (3-1) on Friday.
Jakob Marsee ripped a two-run single, Andrew Fischer had an RBI double and Jac Caglianone scored on a sacrifice bunt by Dante Nori in the fifth inning for Italy.
Aaron Nola scattered four hits and struck out five batters over five scoreless innings as Italy eliminated Mexico (2-2) from the tournament.
Pasquantino opened the scoring by depositing a 0-1 cutter from Chicago Cubs pitcher Javier Assad just over the wall in right field.
Pasquantino was far from done, however. The Kansas City Royals slugger sent a 0-1 slider from Daniel Duarte just inside the right field foul pole to give Italy a 6-0 lead in the sixth inning. He then crushed a 3-2 slider from Robert Garcia in the eighth to complete the hat trick.
Berti gave Italy a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning, sending a 2-2 fastball from Assad over the wall in left-center field.
Caglianone walked to lead off the fifth inning and promptly stole second base. The Royals outfielder advanced to third on J.J. D’Orazio’s single to left field and came around to score on Nori’s bunt.
Italy extended its lead to 5-0 after Marsee of the Miami Marlins ripped a single to right field that plated both D’Orazio and Nori.
Sam Antonacci scored from first base in the seventh inning after Mexico center fielder Alek Thomas was unable to cleanly field the ball on Berti’s single.
Thomas’ soft grounder to first base scored Joey Meneses in the seventh inning for Mexico’s lone run.
