National Team in Paterno'

The Maltese national team was recently in  Sicily where they were hosted by the Paterno’ Warriors of the Italian Serie A1 baseball league.

The  two day trip featured two friendly games played on the baseball grounds of the Warriors who have become the first team to represent Sicily in the Italian Serie A1.

For Malta, playing with probably the best national squad to date, the outcome was exceptional.   Taking the second of the two games played by a score of 13 – 6 proves once again that the level of baseball in Malta is fast becoming recognized on an international level.   

Malta’s offense faired well in the first game against the Paterno’ but the defense started out shaky.  In the 2^nd inning 16 runs came around for the Warriors who held on for a 16 – 8 victory.  The 16 run inning really overshadowed a repectable performance by  Malta pitcher  Jeff Tabone who gave up those runs many of them unearned, due to poor defense played behind him. The other 5 innings pitched in Jeff’s complete game, were all scoreless.  Malta all-star Keith Bartolo went 3 for 3 with a walk to extend his consecutive string of reaching base safely in as many international plate appearances to 11.  In that stretch. Keith had gone 7 for 7 with 4 walks, 2 doubles, 5 singles and 6 stolen bases.

 Game two was a gem.  Malta led 13 – 0 after 5 innings with big hits from the offense and a masterful pitching performance from pitcher Nicky Bartolo.  Nicky held the Warriors hitless after 5 innings with a clever mix of pitches and a wicked curveball that fooled the Warrior batters all day.  Nicky had no problem in getting quick run support from the offense as the Malta batters  hit 3 homeruns in the first 2 innings of play off the bats of Patrick Pace, Keith Bartolo and Trevor Shaw.  Keith hit a long grandslam over left center field in the second  inning.  The slam was a bit of redemption for Keith, who after grounding out in the 1^st inning, ended his consecutive streak of getting on base at 11 games.  He continued to have a superb day going 4 for 5 with a double, homerun , 5 RBI’s and a stolen base.  Another fine performance came from left fielder Charles Attard who went 2 for 3  including a double and triple.  By the 6^th inning Paterno’ capitalized on a few botched plays by the defense and several walks to score 6 runs.  In the 7^th and final inning the Warriors were held scoreless and Malta held on to win by a score of 13 – 6.