It was 22:12h when the German hopes for the semis were crushed by Alberto Mineo’s walk-off-homerun with two outs in the ninth Inning. Italy beat Germany 7:5 in the last quarterfinal of this years European Baseball Championship in Bonn. The host will now face France on Saturday (11h) to battle out fifth place and the final spot for the Olympic qualifier with Belgium and the Czech Republic.
At the beginning of the evening it looked like Italy could face its first and potentially costly loss of the tournament. The German squad tagged Italien starter Alessandro Maestrifor four hits and four runs, including a towering Homerun by Pascal Amon. On the other side, German starter Luke Sommer, took control early and kept the Italiens off the scoreboard until the fifth inning, when the favourite brought in two runs to cut the German lead to 5:2. Once the Italien offensive motor got running the Azzuri had tied the game in the sixth against reliever Samuel Steigert.
Both sides could not cross home plate in the following Innings, that is until Alberto Mineo’s swing capped the German’s hope for the semi-finals. Tomorrow Italy will face Israel (19h) to fight for the finals.