Vinnie Pasquantino had the World Baseball Classic’s first three-homer game, leading Italy over Mexico 9-1 on Wednesday night to win Pool B and advance the United States to the quarter-finals as group’s second-place team.
Italy’s victory ended a day of uncertainty for the Americans, who needed help to reach the quarter-finals after losing to Italy 8-6 on Tuesday night.
Pasquantino, who opened the tournament 0 for 12, homered leading off the second, sixth and eighth innings to propel Italy to the quarterfinals for a third time and the second tournament in a row. Jon Berti also homered for Italy to help build a big lead early.
The Italians will face Puerto Rico in the quarter-finals in Houston on Saturday, a day after the US play Canada, which advanced past the first round for the first time.
Mexico’s loss eliminated it from qualifying for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, a disappointment for a team that finished third in the 2023 WBC, losing to eventual champion Japan in the semi-finals.
Italy went 4-0 in pool play after no other European team had won more than two WBC games in a row.
Pasquantino celebrated with an espresso shot from the dugout machine after each homer, Italy’s fitting celebration after home runs.
He tried to bunt on his first pitch, then homered to the first row of the right-field seats off Javier Assad in the second inning. Berti’s shot to to left doubled the lead in the fourth.
Dante Nori’s run-scoring sacrifice bunt extended the lead in a three-run fifth capped by Jakob Marsee’s two-run single for a 5-0 lead.
Pasquantino homered starting the sixth against Daniel Duarte and again off Robert Garcia in the eighth.
Winner Aaron Nola allowed four hits and struck out five in five scoreless innings. Assad took the loss, permitting four runs and four hits in four and one-third innings.
Mexico loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh but managed just one run on a groundout by Alek Thomas.
Canada advanced past the first round of the World Baseball Classic for the first time, beating Cuba 7-2 Wednesday in a winner-take-all game at San Juan, Puerto Rico, behind Abraham Toro’s homer and Otto Lopez’s two-run single.
Brothers Bo Naylor and Josh Naylor drove in runs, Owen Caissie had two RBIs and reliever James Paxton struck out six over two and two-thirds scoreless innings for Canada (3-1), which eliminated the Cubans (2-2) and won Group A over Puerto Rico (3-1). Cuba were knocked out in the first round for the first time.
Canada and Puerto Rico will play quarter-finals in Houston this weekend.
Cuba finished with three errors, and left fielder Ariel Martinez allowed Toro’s catchable fly starting the seventh to fall for a double. The Canadians broke open the game with a three-run sixth inning that included a dropped popup, a foul pop that fell, a wild pickoff throw and a catcher’s interference call on Andrys Perez, whose passed ball led to Canada’s first run.
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