The Panamanian national team defeated Italy 2-0 to keep alive their hopes of advancing to the next round of the World Baseball Classic, which is played in Taichung, Taiwan, and incidentally secured their direct pass to the next 2026 Classic.
Extraordinary pitching work by starter Harold Araùz who walked for 4 innings without allowing annotations and only gave him 2 hits, who also received the help of Humberto Mejía, who worked a 2-inning shutout, the same as Alberto Baldonado, while Javy Guerra saved the game in the ninth inning for the save.
On offense, José Ramos went 2-for-4 including a solitary homer in the second inning and Allen Córdoba went 1-for-3 including an RBI double in the seventh.
In this way, the Panamanian team ends with a 2-2 record and is waiting for their pass to the next round of the event, which will be played next week in Tokyo.
The victory against Italy also represents a direct pass to the next World Baseball Classic, which means that our country will not have to go to any qualifier like it did last year to be here.
