(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Ezio Ratti/World Baseball Softball Confederation)
     Italy and Spain open Premier12 Qualifier with wins in thrillers
Nederlands
 BARCELONA (Spain) -
On Friday (October 9), Italy and Spain both came from behind to win their first game of the Premier12 Qualifier in Barcelona.
Both teams had their hands full with their respective opponents Colombia and Germany, who both failed to hold onto a lead.
In the afternoon, Italy recorded a come-from-behind 4-3 win against Colombia after trailing 3-1.
And in the evening, another thriller followed, as Spain turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 win against Germany in 10 innings.
To prepare for the Qualifier, Italy traveled to the Dominican Republic, where it practiced and played six practice-games against teams of the Dominican Professional Winter League (Liga de Béisbol Profesional de la República Dominicana, LIDOM).
Spain played four practice-games against France in Barcelona.
In the afternoon on Friday, Italy opened the score in the third on a single by Giaconino Lasaracina, but the team also stranded three runners.
In the top of the fourth, Colombia rallied for three runs off of starter Matteo Bocchi.
Colombia got the bases loaded quickly via Carlos Andres Arroyo Padilla (hit by pitch), Guillermo Enrique Quintana Avila (single) and Daniel Andres Vellojin Ramirez (walk).
Arroyo then scored the tying run when Bocchi also hit next hitter Carlos Mario Martinez Miranda.
Hereafter, Dario Andres Borrero Briceńo delivered a 2-run single to put Colombia ahead, 3-1.
...Gabriele Angioi celebrates his deciding double...
(© Photo: Ezio Ratti/World Baseball Softball Confederation) |
Italy was limited to only three basehits by four pitchers in the first seven innings.
Trailing 3-1, Italy struck in the bottom of the eighth inning, thanks to a crucial error, which decided the outcome.
Kevin Andres Escorcia Torres, who had taken over the Colombian pitching with two outs in the previous at bat, gave up singles to Alberto Mineo and Renzo Martini.
After the latter was replaced by pinch-runner Williams Wong, both runners scored when Escorcia made a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt by next batter Noel Gonzalez, who ended up on third base.
With the score now at 3-3, Ezequiel Antonio Zabaleta Vasquez took over the pitching and struckout the next two batters.
But he then gave up a double to Gabriele Angioi, which enabled Gonzalez to score the go-ahead run.
Now with a 4-3 lead, Claudio Scotti took the mound for Italy in the ninth.
He began with a walk, but then was supported with a double play.
A flyout ended the at bat and the game.
In the evening, Germany led 2-0 halfway the seventh inning against Spain, but ended up empty-handed, also as the result of late inning pitching-problems.
Let Colombia slip away a 3-1 lead in the eighth inning in the afternoon, Germany failed to hold onto its lead in the evening.
Germany opened the score with one out in the top of the first inning when Yannic Walther homered off of starter Elián Leyva Delgado.
The Cuban-born righthander recovered, retired nine batters in a row and didn't encounter much problems.
Until the top of the seventh when he gave up a lead-off homerun to Finn Bergmann, which was only the fourth basehit Leyva gave up.
And that made it 2-0 in favor of Germany, while Leyva was relieved one batter later.
In the meantime, German starter Markus Solbach did well.
Although he gave up nine hits, he also struckout eight batters and held Spain scoreless.
Spain had runners on 2nd and 3rd base in the first inning, runners on 1st and 3rd base in the third and a runner on 2nd base in the sixth.
With a 2-0 lead, Solbach struckout the first two batters in the bottom of the seventh, but then got two baserunners when he issued his first walk to Frank Hernandez and gave up a single to Luis Miguel Guillorme González.
American-born Dalton Von Schamann then took over from Solbach, but he got the bases loaded when he hit Edison Valerio with a pitch.
Hereafter, Von Schamann gave up a single to Omar Hernández, which tied the score.
...Spain celebrates the win vs. Germany...
(© Photo: Ezio Ratti/World Baseball Softball Confederation) |
In the eighth, Spanish reliever Ruben Jesús Menes Gómez saw the first two batters reach, but followed with three strikeouts!
In the ninth, Menes added two strikeouts and Germany stranded runners on 1st and 2nd base.
In the bottom of the ninth, Spain left a runner behind on third base.
In the top of the tenth, the two German tie-break runners advanced on a sac-bunt and an intentional walk loaded the bases.
The three runners were left behind, as a foul-fly and strikeout followed.
In the bottom of the tenth, off of reliever Noah Lindt, the two Spanish tie-break runners also advanced on a sac-bunt.
Next, the bases were also loaded via an intentional walk.
Lindt's next delivery was a wild pitch, which enabled Luis Miguel Guillorme González, the runner on third base, to score the winning run!
An action at the plate followed, but Guillorme touched the plate in time, just before Lindt received the ball from catcher Maurice Bendrien.
Although Guillorme slid by Lindt's glove, German Manager Jendrick Speer challenged the safe-call from Italian Home Plate Umpire Edoardo Ruffo, but the video-review confirmed the decision.
The six games in Barcelona are played in Camp Municipal de Béisbol Carlos Pérez de Rozas, which is located in the Olympic Ring (Anella Olímpica) on the hill of Montjuic.
The stadium was the main-site during the 2007 European Championship, which also served as Qualifier for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing (China).
In 2009, one of the group-stages of the Baseball World Cup was played on Montjuic.
The stadium, which opened in 1990, is named after Carlos Pérez de Rozas y Sáenz de Tejada (1920-1990), a wellknown sports photographer and a baseball advocate.
The three-day tournament in Barcelona is the first of two Premier12 Qualifiers.
The second one will be held on November 26-28 in Zhongshan (China).
Participating in Barcelona will be Colombia (13 on WBSC world ranking), Germany (18), Italy (14) and host Spain (26, wild card).
The two highest ranked teams will play two home-games.
Participating in Zhongshan are host China (17), Czechia (15), Great Britain (19, wild card) and Nicaragua (16).
The teams in first and second place of both tournaments will qualify for the 4th WBSC Premier12 in 2027, which will be expanded to 16 participating countries.
In the first three editions (2015, 2019, 2024), twelve teams participated.
The twelve highest-ranked National Teams, based on the WBSC World Rankings, as of 31 December 2025, already qualified to participate in the group stage of the Premier12 in 2027.
The countries ranked 13-18 and two wild cards will play in the two Qalifiers to determine the other four participants in the group stage.
The countries that already secured their participation in the Premier12 are Australia (11th on World Ranking), Chinese Taipei (2), Cuba (10), the Dominican Republic (12), Japan (1), Mexico (6), the Netherlands (9), Panama (8), Puerto Rico (7), the USA (3), Venezuela (5) and South Korea (4).
(October 9)
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