The Unthinkable Might Just Happen!

Italy beats USA March 10, 2026. Shocking the baseball world.

Entering the 2026 World Baseball Classic, the United States were incredible favorites to win the entire tournament. However, after a heartbreaking loss to Italy, those championship hopes might be taken away even before the knockout rounds start, shocking the entire baseball world. In the final game of pool play for Team U.S., their hope to go undefeated was looking extremely possible as long as they could beat Team Italy, who, despite not being known for baseball, had won their first two games of pool play, showing that this matchup would not be an easy game whatsoever. Italy made sure that the U.S. understood this by taking an early 3-0 lead by the second inning, including a Sam Antonacci two-run homer. Following an impressive outing by Italy's starter Michael Lorenzen, Italy's offense did not go away, scoring five more runs over the next couple of innings, extending the lead to 8-0, shocking baseball fans globally.

Gunner Henderson started the rally in the bottom of the sixth inning, launching a solo home run, finally getting the U.S. on the board with loads of work still needed to do. But if there was a team capable of doing so, it would have been this team. Unfortunately, after the Henderson home run, the U.S. could not get anything else to go until Pete Crow-Armstrong launched a three-run homer, cutting the deficit to 8-4 in the 7th inning. The momentum carried over to the bottom of the 8th, where after multiple base hits, Roman Anthony delivered a clutch hit, making it a 3-run game. However, Bryce Harper could not cut the deficit or tie the game when he was put in the game as a pinch hitter, leaving two base runners and going to the ninth and final inning. Young sensation Mason Miller was then put into the game, hoping he could quickly move through Italy's lineup and keep the game close so they could have a chance in the bottom of the ninth. That's exactly what he did; he faced the minimum of batters, striking out two of them and giving the U.S. a chance to come from behind in dramatic fashion. Brice Turang was the first batter up for the U.S., who unfortunately got out pretty quickly, summing up Team USA's performance all day. However, USA still had PCA. Pete Crow-Armstrong, who had sparked the whole comeback with his three-run homer back in the 7th, provided yet another spark with yet another home run. However, that was not even the most exciting part for U.S. fans because now the top of their order was due up in Bobby Witt Jr., Gunner Henderson, and "Captain America" Aaron Judge. Following a pitching change from Italy, Witt singled up the middle, and now Henderson would represent the tying run. However, Gunner had a quick at-bat and struck out on four pitches, leaving it all up to USA's captain Aaron Judge. Italy was one out away from shocking the world. Greg Weissert, their pitcher, got ahead early 1-2 and then struck Judge out swinging to close the game. Italy had won and possibly knocked out Team USA in the pool play, which was just as shocking as the loss. Italy rejoiced while USA looked on in disbelief. Team Italy had beaten Team USA (the dream team), and they have officially shocked the world. Now, USA still does have a path to the next round if Italy beats Mexico (March 11th, at 6pm EST); however, if Mexico wins, all three teams will have a three-way tie, which will be decided by runs given up divided by outs recorded. If this becomes the case, for the USA to advance, they would need Mexico to score more than 4 runs, or Team USA would be eliminated in the pool play, shocking the entire baseball world. Nonetheless, U.S. players will not be relaxing today as their fate lies with Mexico and Italy, whose game they will be watching closely to see if they will move on or not.

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