The Maltese national cadets team was recently in Nettuno, Italy, for the second International Gala Youth Baseball Tournament, organised by the Italian Baseball Federation (FIBS).

In the early stages, the Maltese achieved wins against the Germans (6-1) and Lithuanians (7-5) and qualified for the play-off for 7/8th place against Israel.

Malta cadets were losing 7-1 early on but came back strongly in the sixth inning, forcing the game into three extra innings at eight runs each. The match went on for more than three hours until Israel scored the decisive run.

Besides winning two games and figuring in a nail-biting positional play-off, Malta cadets also achieved two individual awards, one for 'Leading Pitcher' and 'Best Win/Loss Average'. These were claimed by 14-year-old Michael Bartolo.

Cadets squad

Pitchers/catchers: Mark Buttigieg, Matt-hew Degiorgio and Michael Bartolo.

Infielders: James Bartolo, Steve Ritchie, Darren Borg, Malcolm Muscat and John Bartolo.

Outfielders: Clint Grima, Robert Attard, Steven Attard, Daniel Calleja, Martin Axisa, Mitchell Buhagiar and Ben Custò.

National coaches: Victor Calleja and Patrick Pace.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.