Venezuela beats Italy to set up first final showdown with USA at WBC

Venezuela is set to play its first WBC championship against Team USA tomorrow Tuesday, March 18, 2026.

It will be a rematch of an intense 2023 quarterfinal recap that Team USA won.

Venezuela beats Italy with a 4-2 victory in the semifinal game on Monday, March 16, at Miami.

While Team USA crushed the Dominican Republic 2-1 in the first semifinal played on Sunday, March 15.

At the debut World Baseball Classic in 2006, just 181 Venezuelan-born players had been able to make it to the major leagues.

That total has since jumped to 500 in South American country of roughly 30 million people.

But Venezuelan star power has never translated in the premier international baseball tournaments.

After defeat in the semifinals against South Korea in 2009, Venezuela failed to reach the knockout stage in the next two tournaments.

Their unbeaten streak in the preliminaries ended when Team USA dismantled Venezuela in the quarters on Trea Turner’s go-head grand slam in the eighth.

That history gave Venezuela a one-of-a-kind chance stepping into this year’s Classic.

The three other countries expected by most to win, the USA, the Dominican Republic and Japan, had all won the tournament before. For Venezuela, this is their first time in the final.

Now, for tomorrow’s showdown, the Venezuelans will enter as heavy underdogs despite featuring a roster of stars, facing a team bereft of high-level major league experience.