United States Advances to WBC Finals After Win v Dominican

Zak Drapeau
6 days ago
2 min read

by Zak Drapeau

Sportz Nation - 3/16/26

After one of the best baseball games I've watched in a long time, the United States have moved on to the Finals of the World Baseball Classic and will face either Italy or Venezuela on Tuesday night.

In the semifinals game, the heroes for the USA were Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony and Pirates Pitcher Paul Skenes. Anthony has been one of the hitters since the tournament started and leads the team in RBIs while 3rd in OPS and tied for most home runs as well.

Paul Skenes has been the United States' ace in the hole though. When we are faced with our biggest games either in group play or the tournament we throw Skenes on the mound. This time around Skenes would go 4.1 innings while allowing 1 run on 6 hits.

The semifinal game would controversially end in a strikeout by Mason Miller on Geraldo Perdomo. The strikeout would come on a 3-2 count with a man on 3rd base and the game VERY MUCH in the balance. The fateful pitch would be measured over 4 inches below the strike zone that Umpire Cory Blaser would call a strike to end the game.

The rest of the game however was competitive and tense as any Classic Semifinal game should be. Before this game, the only real competition the U.S. had faced was in their final group play game with Italy which they would be upset in 6-8.

Moving forward, the other semifinal game will take place tonight between Italy and Venezuela at 8:00 pm EST. Venezuela is coming off a huge upset over the defending WBC Champions Japan while Italy also had an upset win over Puerto Rico to make the semifinals as well. Their showdown tonight will determine the other Finalist to face the United States tomorrow night.