Matteo Nava

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born November 8, 1981 in Modena, Modena Italy

Biographical Information

Matteo Nava pitched in Serie A1 and for the Italian national team.

He debuted in 1998, going 1-2 with a 5.46 ERA for his hometown Modena club at age 16. He slipped to a 6.45 ERA in 1999 and 0-3, 7.09 record in 2000. He was 2-7 with a save and a 4.94 ERA in 2001 and struck out 83 in 85 1/3 IP He pitched 3 1/3 shutout innings as Italy's top hurler in the 2001 Baseball World Cup; Ilo Bartolucci was next at 1.29. He retired 3 of 4 batters in his first outing, versus Taiwan.

In 2002, he was 1-0 with a 2.87 ERA for Bologna. He had a 9.64 ERA in 3 outings in the 2002 Intercontinental Cup but still beat the team mark of a 9.73 ERA. He went 8-4 with 5 saves and a 3.67 ERA for Bologna in 2003. He was 10th in strikeouts (82), between William Lucena and Martin Sanchez, and tied for 6th in wins. He was two saves behind leader Fabio Milano. He was 1-0 with a save and a 1.04 ERA in the 2003 European Championship. He saved Lucena's 7-5 win over Great Britain by striking out both batters he faced and allowed one run in 8 to beat Spain's José Taveras.

The right-hander returned to Modena in 2004 and had a 1-2, 4.05 record, followed by 1-6, 4.45 in 2005. That concluded his career in Italy's top league; he had gone 14-24 with 9 saves and a 4.53 ERA in 123 games.