Francesco Petruzzelli

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 183 lb.

• Born October 24, 1962 in Cerignola Italy

Biographical Information

Francesco Petruzzelli played for the Italian national team, including in the Olympics.

He was with Italy for the 1991 Intercontinental Cup, splitting catching duties with Elio Gambuti and Roberto Bianchi. He went 3 for 10 with a double, three walks, five runs, two RBI and a sacrifice fly, handling 17 putouts with no errors and allowing two steals in two attempts. He won Gold in the 1991 European Championship. He backed up Gambuti in the 1992 Olympics, being retired by Taiwan's Chao-Huang Lin, Cuba's Rolando Arrojo and Japan's Tomohito Ito. He had two putouts. He was 2 for 13 with two walks, two runs and two RBI as Italy's starting backstop in the 1993 Intercontinental Cup, fielding .976 and throwing out 6 of 13 who tried to steal. At the 1993 European Championship, he played regularly in right field for Italy and hit .421/.476/.579 with six runs and six RBI in six games, while handling three putouts with no errors for the Silver Medal winners. Had he qualified, he would have been 4th in the 1993 Euros in average (behind Johan Hasselström, Antonio Salazar and Paolo Ceccaroli). He tied for fifth in doubles with Philippe Bonnery, Stephan Jäger, Eddy Dix, Félix Cano, Frank van Droogenbroeck and Craig McDonald.

Unfortunately, the Italian Baseball and Softball Federation erased decades of historical data, so as of 4/1/22, his Italian Serie A1 stats are harder to come by.