In the quarterfinals of the WBC (World Baseball Classic), the Japan national team, who won Group B in 1st place with 4 wins, will face 2nd place in Group A, Italy.
Japan's quarterfinals will be held on the 16th of this month at Tokyo Dome at 7pm.
Italy has qualified for the WBC five times in a row, and it has been the first time since the 3rd World Cup in 2013 that they made it through to the first round.
Directing the team is Mike Piazza, who hit a total of 427 home runs as one of the major league hitters.
Coach Piazza is familiar to Japanese baseball fans as he teamed up with Hideo Nomo in the Dodgers when he was active, so it will be interesting to see what kind of match he will show.
The team is made up mainly of Italian-American players, and the focus is on Major League Angels Shohei Ohtani and teammate David Fletcher.
An infielder with brilliant defense and aggressive batting, he played in only 61 games last season, but in the year before this season, he played in 157 games and had 164 hits.
Ohtani is the same age as Otani at the age of 28, and he made his major league debut in 2018, so they are known to be on good terms.
Finished in 2nd place in a crowded Group A
Group A in the first round was a close battle with all 5 teams tied with 2 wins and 2 losses, but Italy, who was the 1st place in this group, Cuba, and Valentin who was active in professional baseball and Yakult. We won from the Netherlands, which we had.
In total, Italy scored 20 goals in four matches and conceded 17.
The difference in "percentage conceded", which is the number of goals conceded divided by the number of defensive innings, is second only to Cuba, and has decided to advance to the quarterfinals.
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