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World Baseball Classic Morning Recap: Italy upsets United States to set up a hectic final day
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Photo credit: © Thomas Shea-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Mar 11, 2026, 09:00 EDTUpdated: Mar 11, 2026, 08:07 EDT
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The final day of the group stage is going to be a crazy one in the World Baseball Classic.
Entering Wednesday, only five teams have punched their ticket to the knockout stages. All three games on Wednesday’s slate are incredibly important, two of which determine who’ll be the final three teams moving to the quarterfinals, while the other one is a matchup to determine who finishes first in a group.
However, it’s only a big day because of Tuesday’s results, so let’s take a look at how Tuesday’s games shaped up.

Canada 3, Puerto Rico 2

There’s a strong chance that if you’re reading this, your rooting interest lies with Canada. Well, the good news is that they picked up their second win of the tournament, a 3-2 victory over Puerto Rico.
It was actually Puerto Rico that jumped out to an early lead, but the Jays drew two walks with the bases loaded to take the lead, then added an insurance run in the following inning. Puerto Rico added a run in the bottom of the fourth after a rain delay, but Canada’s bullpen locked them up for the next five innings for the victory.
While a win over the hosts is nice, and leaves them the potential of finishing first in Pool A, the job isn’t finished. Wednesday’s game is a must-win game for Canada due to their loss to Panama on Sunday. If they fall to Cuba on Wednesday, their tournament is over. If they win, they’ll finish first in the group.
Who Canada will play is yet to be determined due to a result in Pool B.

Italy 8, United States 6

Who had Italy defeating the United States on their Bingo card? Well, they did just that on Tuesday, beating the favourites 8-6. Italy took a 3-0 lead thanks to back-to-back home runs for Kyle Teel and Sam Antonacci in the top of the second, took a 5-0 lead in the top of the fourth, and an 8-0 lead in the top of the sixth.
USA rallied in the late innings, scoring a run in the bottom of the sixth, three in the bottom of the seventh, and one in each the bottom of the eighth and nine. While they didn’t win, an embarrassing result, they did put themselves in a slightly better position to not be eliminated, even if it’s not in their hands.
If Italy beats Mexico on Wednesday, they’ll finish first in the group, meaning a matchup against Puerto Rico if Canada wins on Wednesday or Cuba if they win on Wednesday. That would also mean Mexico is eliminated, and USA finishes second in the group, taking on the winner of Pool A.
Where things get a bit confusing is with the tiebreaker. If Mexico wins and six or more runs, they and the United States move on to the quarterfinals. If they win and score less than five runs, it’ll be Mexico and Italy moving on to the quarterfinals. Finally, if Mexico wins by five runs, other tiebreakers will be in play. Ideally Mexico wins 4-2 or something.

Japan 9, Czechia 0

Moving to the two games that don’t matter for seeding, but had a Blue Jay player involved, first we have Japan’s 9-0 victory over Czechia. Kazuma Okamoto batted sixth in Japan’s lineup and went 1-5 with a double and a strikeout.
Japan’s spot was already secured before this game was played, so it was basically a tune up game for the reigning World Baseball Classic victors. Japan will take on the runners up of Pool D, which will be determined between Venezuela and the Dominican Republic at 9:00 PM ET on Wednesday.

Israel 6, Netherlands 2

Like the Japan/Czechia game, this game didn’t have any stakes, as both Israel and the Netherlands had already been eliminated. Israel ended up winning 6-2, with Blue Jays’ prospect RJ Schreck going 1-4 with an RBI single.
He ended his tournament batting .182 with an .855 OPS thanks to a home run. Both Israel and the Netherlands avoided finishing fifth in their group, meaning they automatically qualify for the next World Baseball Classic.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.

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