After upsetting Mexico and destroying Canada, Team Italy is advancing to the second round of the 2013 World Baseball Classic as a cinderella, and has moved from the opening round in Phoenix to a tough group in Miami with the USA, Puerto Rico, and today's opponent the Dominica Republic.

Italian hero Alex Liddi continued his impressive start to the season.  Liddi belted his first homerun of the season as the Mariners topped the Tigers 7-4.  Liddi had three hits to raise his team leading average to .368 with a team leading 1.008 OPS in limited plate appearances.

Liddi only 23 years old was expected to start the season in triple-A.  He was added to the extended opening day roster for the Mariners' trip to Japan after a hot start, and has stuck with the team playing both 3B and 1B, and making the most of his limited playing time.

View Liddi's homerun

After an amazing season as the first Italian player in triple A, in which he became the second player in Tacoma Rainiers team history to score 100 runs and drive in 100 runs (he added 30 HRs too), he got the call to the big club and could make his debut Thursday against the Anaheim Angels.

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Italian born Mariners prospect Alex Liddi continues to shine and make the most of his opportunities after being invited to Major League Spring Training and being added to the 40 man roster.

In the seventh inning of a spring training game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, with his team leading 4-1, Liddi crushed a full count fastball to deep left for a grand slam.

Watch the video of Liddi's Grand Slam

Since the Italian Baseball League moved to the 8 team format a few years ago, there has been a clear division between the top six teams (Parma, Bologna, Rimini, San Marino, Grosseto, Nettuno), and the bottom two teams have generally struggled.

More specifically, none of the bottom two teams have won more than 10 games (including the 6 times the bottom two play head to head) or finished closer than seven games behind sixth place.  Godo has been joined in the bottom by Redipuglia, Reggio Emilia, and Catania in the last three seasons, but now that there is no longer relegation or promotion between the IBL and the Serie A, the bottom teams would be fixed in theory.

But this off season, rumors circulated that both Godo and Catania would leave the IBL, and a number of Serie A teams were asked if they would be interested in taking their places.  In the end, Godo was able to stick around for at least another year through their partnership with Verona, while Catania has returned to the serie A leaving an opening which will be filled by Novara.

Without the risk of relegation, Novara so far seems focused on their core team from the second division last year, and would appear destined to win very few games and remain at the bottom.  But the goal of the franchise seems to be to patiently bring top level baseball back to the Milan area, something that Catania failed to do in Sicily for a variety of reasons, but most notably problems with the ballpark.