NFL
By: Jason Gulden
Following the excitement that we experienced with the USA teams in the Olympics, it was time for the USA baseball team to take on the world.
In the pool that they were in, we would face off against Brazil, Great Britain, Mexico, and Italy. All the games in this pool would take place down in Houston at Daikin Park, home of the Houston Astros. The top 2 teams would advance to the quarterfinals of the WBC.
The USA’s first game took place on March 6th, when they took on Brazil. The USA would have no issues as they cruised to a 15-5 win. Aaron Judge would tally the first score for the USA with a 2-run homer in the 1st. Roman Anthony would add 2 RBIs and went 2-4 at the plate. Brice Turang went 3-for-6 with 4 RBIs.
The USA was led on the mound by Logan Webb, who went 4 innings, allowing 1 run on 1 hit while striking out 6. That one run Webb gave up was off the bat of a former Major League Baseball player’s son, Manny Ramierez. His son, Lucas Ramirez, had 2 home runs in the game.
Game 2 of this round for the USA would come against Great Britain on March 7th. The USA would have to come back and win this game as they trailed 1-0 after the first batter of the game when Nate Easton would hit a lead-off homer for Great Britain off reigning AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal. Skubal would rebound and finish 3 innings, striking out 5 batters.
Kyle Schwarber would hit a 2 run homer, along with going 2-4 at the plate. Alex Bregman would go 1-3 with 2 rbi’s. Garrett Henderson would have a day at the plate. He would go 4-5 with 2 rbi’s.
With the victory, the USA would move to 2-0 in pool play.
The USA would have Sunday the 8th off before returning to the field on Monday the 9th against Mexico.
Following 2 easy wins, this game seems tough for the USA. It was not a cakewalk, as they earned a 5-3 victory over Mexico. All 5 of the USA runs came in the 3rd inning as Aaron Judge would hit a 2-run homer and Roman Anthony would hit a 3-run homer.
This game was special for two USA players. Griffin Jax and Paul Skenes both pitched in the game with the Air Force Academy Baseball team in attendance. Paul Skenes and Griffin Jax paid for the Air Force tickets so that they could attend the game.
The reason it’s special is that Griffin Jax is the first MLB player to graduate from the Air Force, and Paul Skenes started at the Air Force before transferring to LSU before his Junior year.
Paul Skenes was in mid-season form as he went 4 innings, allowing 1 hit and striking out 7.
Heading into the final USA game of pool play, manager Mark DeRosa said that the USA was all but a lock to make it to the 2nd round. With that in mind, he decided to rest a couple of his stars in the game against Italy. Unfortunately for the USA, that wasn’t the case as they would fall 8-6 to Italy.
Pete Crow Armstrong was the big hitter for the USA in the game. He went 2-4 with 4 RBI on a pair of homers. However, for Italy, the big star of the game is new Colorado Rockies pitcher Michael Lorenzen. He would manhandle this nasty USA lineup with 4.2 innings pitched, allowing just 2 hits while striking out 2.
If Michael can pitch that well in Colorado this year, the Rockies might have finally found a gem for that pitching staff.
Following the loss USA would end pool play at 3-1. Heading into the final game of Pool B, the USA still didn’t know whether they would advance to the quarterfinals. Their fate would come down to the Mexico-Italy matchup on March 12th
There were three scenarios that USA fans across the nation were paying attention to during this game.
- Italy wins, then Italy, and the USA would move on to the quarterfinals with Italy winning the pool
- Mexico wins and scores 5 runs or more than Mexico and USA would move on
- If Mexico won and scored 4 runs or fewer, then the USA tournament would be over, as both Mexico and Italy would advance.
Aaron Nola, pitcher for Italy and Philadelphia Phillies, would take care of the bats of Mexico by going 5 innings, allowing 0 runs on 4 hits while striking out 5. The Offense of the game came off the bat of Vinnie Pasquantino, first baseman of Italy and the Kansas City Royals, who would have not 1, not 2, but 3 home runs on his way to a 3 RBI game. That’s all Italy needed as they would beat Mexico 9-1.
Italy would win Pool B with a 4-0 record, and with Mexico’s loss, Team USA would advance to the quarterfinals with a 3-1 record.
Team USA’s next game will be tonight when they face their previous opponents in hockey—that’s right, Canada. Can the USA make it 3-0 against our neighbors to the north in just a couple of weeks? The remaining games are do-or-die. If the USA wins on Friday, they’ll play again on either Sunday or Monday. If they win that game, they’ll compete for the WBC championship on Tuesday, March 17th.
Let’s continue rooting for the USA as they continue their journey in the WBC. Will be back next week to recap the rest of the tournament for the USA. Talk to you all then.
