MIAMI — Alek Jacob’s experience was Italy’s experience.
“Definitely exceeded expectations,” Jacob said Monday afternoon. “This experience has been incredible.”
A few hours later, time expired on the new Azzurri.
A 4-2 comeback victory by Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic semifinal game ended the improbable run of Team Italy.
Venezuela will play the United States in Tuesday’s WBC final, looking for its first WBC title. The United States, which won in 2017, will be trying for its second championship.
Jacob and fellow Padres reliever Ron Marinaccio will be back in camp in Arizona later this week.
They were part of a baseball comet that captured the attention of a soccer-crazy country where the term Azzurri is applied to its national sports teams and almost always conjures images of a sport played on a pitch, not a diamond.
The Italian players spent the past 2½ weeks learning about their heritage, embracing dressing in fine suits and guzzling espresso in the dugout after home runs and in the clubhouse any time.
“It’s a good group,” Jacob said. “A lot of people didn’t expect us to be here. I think it helps we’re a young, high-energy group. We’ve got the caffeine running in the clubhouse. Everyone is fueled up, ready to go. We did a good job bringing everyone together to play for the front of the jersey.”
Like most of his teammates, Jacob is a U.S. citizen. His grandfather, Mario Pettoello, was born in Basiliano, Italy.
Just three Italian players were born in Italy. Two were born in Venezuela, as that country has millions of descendants of Italian immigrants, and one is from Canada. Manager Francisco Cervelli, who coached the Padres’ catchers in 2022, was also born in Venezuela.
Jacob has one year and 59 days of MLB service time accumulated between his six stints with the Padres over the past three seasons.
That was also fairly typical of the Italian team.
Four Italian starters had never played above Double-A. Jon Berti and Vinnie Pasquantino were the only position players in the starting lineup to have even two years service time in the big leagues.
Five Venezuelan starters have been in multiple All-Star games. All had at least two years of service time and just four had less than four full years in the majors.
“We’re a bunch of guys who haven’t made a name,” Italy third baseman Andrew Fischer said before the game.
The Milwaukee Brewers’ first-round pick last summer was headed back to minor-league camp and will be likely be playing for the Single-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers next month.
Fischer drew a walk that loaded the bases in the Italians’ two-run third inning.
His base on balls followed one by Jac Caglianone (118 days in the big leagues) and the single by Zach Dezenzo (one year, 55 days in the big leagues) that preceded it.
Italy’s two RBIs came on a walk by JJ D’Orazio (Double-A in 2025) and a fielder’s choice grounder by Dante Nori (Double-A in ’25).
The semifinals were the furthest Italy had ever advanced in any of the six WBC tournaments. Three of their appearances ended in pool play.
Baseball by its capricious nature requires multiple games between teams to determine a legitimate victor. The best teams lose a lot, relative to the best teams in other spots. And the lesser teams win a lot, relatively speaking.
So when it comes down to a tournament format with advancement depending on a single contest, the normal measurements and prognostications can be moot.
That helps explain how Italy beat the United States 8-6 in pool play. They also beat a Puerto Rico team full of major leaguers 8-6 in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
Unlike many Cinderella teams, there was almost no one rooting for Italy. At least not in person.
The crowd inside loanDepot Park was almost as large as for the previous night’s semifinal between the U.S. and Dominican Republic. And it was even less evenly split than the pro-Dominican gathering had been.
As it has been for every one of their games in the tournament, Italy was the other team.
The joyous thunder for the mere mention of a Venezuelan player contrasted with the silence when Italian players were introduced or even did something extraordinary.
There was more tension than cheering for the Venezuela faithful as MLB veterans Aaron Nola and Michael Lorenzen kept Italy ahead through six innings.
Nola allowed only Eugenio Suarez’s fourth-inning home run and departed after that inning with his team up 2-1.
Lorenzen took over to start the fifth and made it through two scoreless innings before a walk and four singles took Venezuela from down a run to up by three.
Jacob did not pitch Monday. He allowed two runs in 2⅓ innings in his three WBC appearances. Marinaccio worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning and finished the WBC having allowed one run in 2⅓ innings in his three appearances.
Like many of the Italian players, Jacob expressed appreciation for the opportunity to learn more about his ancestral home. He picked up some Italian. He loved the meals.
He contributed to something bigger.
“I wanted to put together something that had staying power,” said Ned Colletti, the Italian general manager and a former longtime MLB executive.
Cervelli and Italian players talked about getting texts and social media messages from relatives and friends and new Italian fans talking about their games. For just the second time ever, games from this WBC have been broadcast nationally on the state-owned Italian TV network. News of the team has pushed soccer from the front page of sports sections a couple times in the past week.
“Just keep paying attention,” Pasquantino said to the Italian people before Monday’s game. “We’re going to come over there. We’ve already been talking about plans as individuals we can do as players of what we can do to help even more. This kind of feels like the first step.”