Here are my takeaway\u2019s from Italy\u2019s 9-1 win over Mexico.<\/p>\n
1. Undefeated Italy is the story of this tournament<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(Photo by Rob Tringali\/WBCI\/MLB Photos via Getty Images) <\/p>\n
Italy made noise in the last World Baseball Classic, securing wins against Cuba<\/a> and the Netherlands<\/a> in pool play to get to the quarterfinals for the second time in the nation\u2019s history. The Italians advanced that year despite not hitting a single home run until the quarterfinals.\u00a0<\/p>\n This time, an entirely different, more superior, more complete, more overpowering version of Italian baseball has taken the WBC<\/a> by storm, following wins against Brazil<\/a> and Great Britain<\/a> by upsetting USA\u2019s best roster ever on Tuesday and annihilating a Mexico team that nearly made it to the WBC finals three years ago on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n A youthful, exuberant, confident Team Italy lineup launched 12 home runs during pool play, the second-most of any team in the tournament, trailing only a Dominican Republic<\/a> roster teeming with MLB<\/a> superstars, and looked unintimidated by some of the sport\u2019s best arms. The rotation, featuring MLB veterans Aaron Nola<\/a> and Michael Lorenzen<\/a> at the top, combined to tally a 1.00 ERA over four games.\u00a0<\/p>\n The end result: a spectacular juggernaut that outscored its pool-play opponents by 21 runs and deservedly captured a pool that most thought unconquerable.\u00a0<\/p>\n 2. Italy saves USA\u2019s pancetta<\/p>\n (Photo by Rob Tringali\/WBCI\/MLB Photos via Getty Images) <\/p>\n All Team USA had to do on Tuesday was beat Italy to secure its spot in the WBC quarterfinals. Instead, the Italy offense teed off to take an early 8-0 lead and held on late, putting USA\u2019s dream team in a precarious position.\u00a0<\/p>\n If Italy didn\u2019t beat Mexico, or if Mexico won while scoring four runs or fewer, the U.S. would have been eliminated. It would have been an embarrassing catastrophe.\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead, thanks to Italy\u2019s work on Wednesday, USA\u2019s shocking pool-play defeat might now just be a footnote in its 2026 WBC journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n 3. Pasquantino breaks out to make WBC homer history<\/p>\n (Photo by Kenneth Richmond\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n Vinnie Pasquantino<\/a>, who participated in the 2023 WBC and has spent much of the last year helping recruit players to the 2026 squad, is the captain, heart and soul of Team Italy. Even when he wasn\u2019t producing offensively \u2014 he was hitless through the first three games of the tournament \u2014 teammates gushed about his defense, his leadership and his ability to make players around him feel comfortable.\u00a0<\/p>\n “That\u2019s what I see the captaincy being,” Pasquantino told me before Wednesday\u2019s game. “It\u2019s not about performance, in my opinion, it\u2019s about what you can bring to the team. And I know these guys are looking to me for mostly offense, which I haven\u2019t been able to provide, but showing them, like, \u2018Look, guys, it\u2019s not going well for me right now, that doesn\u2019t mean it can\u2019t go well for the team.\u2019 That\u2019s what this game\u2019s all about.”<\/p>\n On Wednesday, though, he brought more than good vibes.<\/p>\n Vinnie Pasquantino hits second solo home run, extending Italy’s lead over Mexico After an 0-for-12 start to the tournament, Pasquantino started the scoring Wednesday with a solo shot off Javier Assad<\/a> on his first at-bat of the game. Two at-bats later, the Royals slugger added his second home run of the night, a positive sign going forward for an Italy team that had gotten to this point without its best hitter producing.\u00a0<\/p>\n And he still wasn\u2019t done.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the eighth, Pasquantino launched his third home run of the game, becoming the first player in WBC history to accomplish the feat.\u00a0<\/p>\n 4. Nola helps out his Phillies sluggers\u00a0<\/p>\n (Photo by Rob Tringali\/WBCI\/MLB Photos via Getty Images) <\/p>\n Aaron Nola\u2019s Phillies teammates, USA sluggers Bryce Harper<\/a> and Kyle Schwarber<\/a>, might need to send him a gift basket.\u00a0<\/p>\n Beyond the young talent throughout the lineup, what separated this Italy team from past iterations \u2014 and what made it such an interesting sleeper in the tournament \u2014 was the presence of the best arm it had ever taken into the WBC.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Nola lived up to the billing as the team\u2019s ace, following Michael Lorenzen\u2019s 4.2 scoreless innings of work against Team USA by delivering five scoreless frames against Mexico.\u00a0<\/p>\n 4 \u00bd. What\u2019s next?\u00a0<\/p>\n The stage is now set for the quarterfinals in Houston, with the USA and Canada<\/a> playing Friday at 7 p.m. CT and Italy facing Puerto Rico<\/a> on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 Buongiorno, buon pomeriggio, buonanotte. One night after upsetting Team USA for the biggest victory in Italy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[61189,230413,6801,13090,26,363,99,74261,234219,72364],"class_list":["post-518340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-aaron-nola","tag-event_recap","tag-italy","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-mexico","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-vinnie-pasquantino","tag-wbc-italy-vs-mexico-03-11-2026","tag-world-baseball-classic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/p>\n
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![\"Vinnie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/utdgmell3edd3u6x.jpg\")
<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n