WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL A - PANAMA VS ITALY

March 11, 2023

Mike Piazza

Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium

Team Italy

Postgame Press Conference

Panama 2, Italy 0

Q. Tough loss today. Were you impressed by your defense? Seemed like every inning, someone was making a great play. I think you guys turned like three double plays during the game. What did you think of that today?

MIKE PIAZZA: I mean, yeah, it seems last night we made some mistakes on the mound, and tonight, today, we threw the ball very well and caught the ball, made some great defensive plays and just couldn't seem to get that breakthrough hit.

It's frustrating for me because I've been there with the guys and it's kind of a tough feeling, seeing that guys go up there and pressing and not really getting their pitch. You know, we were what, 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. You're not going to win. I don't care who you're playing, where you're playing. You can't push some runs across in that situation, put pressure on the other team, you're just not going to win.

I mean, I feel like teams that are able to be successful in this tournament are able to do a combination of things, a bat of things, pitching, defense and offense, and so today, obviously, offensively, it was just -- it was a tough game for us.

But with that said, you know, I mean, there are some positives and we'll try to reflect on it and we'll find out what we're made of tomorrow. If we come out and play a good game, anything could happen. I just told the guys, you can't worry about scenarios and runs and all this stuff. Just go out and win tomorrow, win the day and see what happens.

Q. Before two games, batters did a great job but today, the catcher threw all the game. What do you think of the program?

MIKE PIAZZA: I think just sort of a little too anxious in those situations. Maybe lack of a plan, and just not really grinding out, you know, the at-bats that you have to, and what I mean by that is just really trying to concentrate and get a good pitch to hit and put it in play. I think the last three games, at least, we've been popping the ball up a lot and seems like guys today were just swinging so hard and trying to put the ball, you know, on the freeway instead of just putting the ball in play.

One thing I've tried to impress upon them in my experience is that when something is not successful, you have to do something different. You know, I don't care if it's move up in the box, move back in the box, choke up, hit the ball the other way to try to turn the momentum and do something different. Unfortunately today we just seemed to be caught into a pattern and just didn't take good at-bats. I mean, and that's not to -- not to not give credit to Panama. I thought they threw the ball very well and obviously after a tough loss yesterday, they bounced back.

So that's what this tournament is all about is being resilient. So yeah, you've got to give credit to them, as well.