BARCELONA, Spain — Italy is going back to the Premier12.
A 5-0 win over Germany on Sunday morning sent Francisco Cervelli’s team to the 2027 WBSC Premier12, its first appearance since the inaugural tournament in 2015. Italy finished the Barcelona qualifier 2-1, joining host Spain, which clinched Saturday night.
Giacomo Taschin set it up. The right-hander went four innings, allowed three hits, walked nobody and struck out seven on 58 pitches. Five relievers followed and none allowed a run. Mattia Sireus got the win for 1.1 innings of relief.
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Italy took the lead in the second against Niklas Rimmel, the starter Germany manager Jendrick Speer had confirmed a day earlier. Renzo Martini reached on a throwing error, Jhorjan Guevara doubled down the left-field line to score him, and Gabriele Angioi dropped a bunt single in front of the mound to bring Guevara home. Rimmel lasted two innings, gave up five hits and took the loss.
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It stayed 2-0 until the seventh, when Alberto Mineo singled through the right side with the bases loaded to drive in two. Andrea Sellaroli added an RBI single in the eighth.
Germany had its chances and converted none of them. Luca Hörger went 3-for-4 with a triple, Billy Germaine and Simon Bäumer had two hits apiece, and the team left eight on base. The biggest came in the eighth: with two outs, Alex Bassani walked Yannic Walther, gave up a single to Germaine and hit Bäumer to load the bases. Cervelli went to Claudio Scotti, who got Finn Bergmann to fly to right on his first pitch of the inning. Scotti worked around a walk and a hit in the ninth to finish it.
Italy finished with 16 hits and no errors. Angioi, Sellaroli, Noel González, Giaconino Lasaracina, Martini, Guevara and Ricardo Paolini all had two. Sellaroli hit .429 for the qualifier, Mineo .400.
When it ended, Italy’s players stood with their hats off and their hands across their chests for the national anthem, a ticket-punched banner in front of them — the same way Spain had celebrated twelve hours earlier.
Germany goes home 1-2, a day after Christian Pedrol’s complete game against Colombia kept it alive.
The Premier12 berth is one step, not the last one. At next year’s tournament, one spot at the 2028 Los Angeles Games goes to the highest-finishing team from Europe or Oceania — a field that will include the Netherlands, Czechia, Great Britain and Australia alongside Spain and Italy.
One qualifier remains, in Zhongshan, China, from Nov. 26-28, with Nicaragua, Czechia, China and Great Britain playing for the last two spots in the 16-team field.
