Italy Aaron Nola Team USA World Baseball Classic

Italy beats Mexico 9-1, Aaron Nola dominates, and Team USA is through to the quarterfinals

Aaron Nola delivered. Team USA is alive and Vinnie Pasquantino had one of the best individual games in World Baseball Classic history.

Italy beat Mexico 9-1 on Wednesday night in Houston, finishing pool play at 4-0 and advancing to the quarterfinals alongside the United States. Mexico is eliminated. Team USA, which had been sweating out the tiebreaker math all day, is through to face Canada on Friday in Houston after their 3-1 pool play record held up.

World Baseball Classic Heads to Single Elimination

Aaron Nola was everything Italy and Team USA needed him to be.

Five scoreless innings, four hits allowed, five strikeouts. After falling to 0-2 when he was drafted by the Phillies and struggling early in 2025, Nola showed up to this tournament looking like the pre-injury version of himself and went out and completely shut down a Mexico lineup that had been rolling all tournament.

A Phillies pitcher pitching for Italy saved Team USA’s World Baseball Classic. That is a sentence that only exists in this tournament.

And then there was Vinny Pasquantino. The Kansas City Royals first baseman had entered the game 0-for-12 in WBC play, which is the kind of stretch that makes you question whether you should be in the lineup.

He responded by hitting three home runs, the first three-homer game in the 20-year history of the World Baseball Classic. He went deep in the second, sixth, and eighth innings and celebrated each one with a shot of espresso in the dugout. Jon Berti added a solo shot of his own in the fourth. Italy scored nine runs and it was never close.

Jakob Marsee had a two-run single. Dante Nori, the Phillies prospect who had two homers against Brazil last week, added an RBI on a sacrifice bunt. Italy is not just a fun story at this point. They are 4-0 and genuinely playing elite baseball.

Italy faces Puerto Rico on Saturday. Team USA faces Canada on Friday.

Both games in Houston. The knockout round is here and after spending Wednesday afternoon in legitimate danger of being eliminated, Team USA gets to play another game.

Thank you Aaron Nola. Thank you Vinnie Pasquantino. Goodbye Mexico.

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