Vinnie Pasquantino<\/a> said with a smile.<\/p>\nSaturday\u2019s victory came after Italy handed the United States a surprising 8-6 loss in pool play The Azzurri followed with a 9-1 defeat of Mexico that provided the help the Americans needed to reach the quarterfinals. <\/p>\n
Cervelli and the players credited the win over the U.S. as the confidence boost this team needed in this history-making run.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key was the victory against USA,\u201d Cervelli said. \u201cThose guys beat one of the best teams in the world, best players in the world. Now they\u2019re gonna believe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Italy\u2019s success in this tournament is huge for a country in which baseball isn\u2019t nearly as popular as it is in many of the countries competing in the WBC.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it would be hyperbole to say this is the best day in Italian baseball history,\u201d Pasquantino said.<\/p>\n
The team has received some criticism because most of the roster is comprised of Italian-Americans, many of whom have never even been to Italy. The players have heard that and brushed it off, saying getting a chance to represent Italy in this tournament has helped them grow closer to their heritage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just trying to take in as much as I can because I know that there\u2019s a lot of people that are upset that we represent Italy, being Italian-American, but I take so much pride in it because it is my roots,\u201d Pasquantino said. \u201cMy family came over for a better life to America and, I honestly don\u2019t have any issue representing those members of my family and it\u2019s just super cool to be given this opportunity from these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrew Fischer, who drove in two runs in Saturday\u2019s victory, grew up on the Jersey Shore and is fiercely proud of being from New Jersey and of his Italian heritage. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s so proud being from New Jersey that he has multiple tattoos on his left arm paying homage to the state. While the tattoos are meant to highlight his home state, prominently featured in that ink is one of the most famous Italian Americans of all: Frank Sinatra.<\/p>\n
Fischer already felt close to his Italian roots before the WBC but says this experience has enhanced that feeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing here and representing it definitely has brought some light to it in my life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Now these plucky players will try to keep their undefeated run going and continue to impress the people in the country they represent. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe level of confidence it\u2019s growing and growing and growing,\u201d Cervelli said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to stay humble, concentrate and do what we know that\u2019s it. Play our game.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/p>\n
Kristie Rieken, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Warm up the espresso machine and chill the wine, Italy is heading to the World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-537031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}