{"id":534527,"date":"2026-03-12T01:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T01:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/534527\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T01:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T01:56:14","slug":"usa-beaten-by-italy-as-hosts-face-possible-elimination-how-can-they-still-qualify-italy-vs-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/534527\/","title":{"rendered":"USA beaten by Italy as hosts face possible elimination, how can they still qualify, Italy vs Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

Italy pulled off a stunning 8-6 upset over the United States in the World Baseball Classic, leaving the star-studded hosts facing possible elimination from the tournament.<\/p>\n

Italy \u2014 whose team is made up mostly of American players with Italian heritage \u2014 roared into an 8-0 lead after home runs from catcher Kyle Teel, shortstop Sam Antonacci and outfielder Jac Caglianone.<\/p>\n

The US rallied in the late innings to set up a nervy finale, but Italy held on to seal a famous win in Houston.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Vinnie Pasquantino #9 of Team Italy celebrates a 8-6 victory against Team United States after the game during the 2026 World Baseball Classic at Daikin Park.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n

The result means the USA, one of the favourites for the tournament with a team packed with Major League Baseball stars, are now sweating on the outcome of Italy\u2019s final Pool B game against Mexico on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

A win for unbeaten Italy in that game would see them advance to the last eight along with the United States.<\/p>\n

If Mexico beat Italy, three teams will finish the group with a 3-1 record, meaning a complicated tiebreaker system based on runs allowed per defensive out among the tied teams will determine who advances.<\/p>\n

In a further twist, USA manager Mark DeRosa had started the day believing his team had already reached the quarter-finals following Monday\u2019s win over Mexico.<\/p>\n

He admitted later that he had misunderstood the qualification scenarios.<\/p>\n

\u201cI misspoke,\u201d DeRosa said. \u201cI completely misread the calculations.\u201d <\/p>\n

Italy\u2019s starting pitcher Michael Lorenzen laid the foundation for the upset, muzzling the USA\u2019s fearsome batting lineup through four scoreless innings.<\/p>\n

At the plate, Italy\u2019s sluggers soon began attacking the US pitching, with Teel opening the scoring with a solo home run off Nolan McLean in the second inning.<\/p>\n

That was followed by Antonacci\u2019s two-run homer to make it 3-0, and the Italians then tacked on again in the fourth with Caglianone\u2019s two-run shot making it 5-0.<\/p>\n

USA stars Aaron Judge #99 and Bobby Witt Jr.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Three more runs followed in the sixth inning to leave Italy sitting on an 8-0 advantage.<\/p>\n

The USA gradually began to fire up in the sixth, with Baltimore Orioles slugger Gunnar Henderson\u2019s solo shot making it 8-1, before Pete Crow-Armstrong\u2019s three-run shot cut the lead to 8-4.<\/p>\n

The US added another run in the eighth and Crow-Armstrong homered again in the bottom of the ninth to make it 8-6, before the US rally stalled, with captain Aaron Judge striking out to Greg Weissert to end the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italy pulled off a stunning 8-6 upset over the United States in the World Baseball Classic, leaving the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[6097,2620,51350,64,63,1186,265293,265291,12541,265294,75990,5145,253669,5882,139948,2184,152349,591,265292,265295,85,126137,3370,2614],"class_list":{"0":"post-534527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-aaron-judge","9":"tag-agence-france-presse","10":"tag-american-players","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-baltimore-orioles","14":"tag-complicated-tiebreaker-system","15":"tag-facing-possible-elimination","16":"tag-famous-win","17":"tag-fearsome-batting-lineup","18":"tag-home-runs","19":"tag-houston","20":"tag-italian-heritage","21":"tag-major-league-baseball","22":"tag-mark-derosa","23":"tag-mexico","24":"tag-michael-lorenzen","25":"tag-mlb","26":"tag-qualification-scenarios","27":"tag-sam-antonacci","28":"tag-sports","29":"tag-starting-pitcher","30":"tag-texas","31":"tag-united-states-of-america"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}