Canada advances to World Baseball Classic quarterfinals, faces United States

By Canadian Press on March 11, 2026.

SAN JUAN — Canada advanced to the World Baseball Classic’s playoff round for the first time in the international tournament’s 20-year history.

Bo Naylor had an RBI double and Otto Lopez followed with a two-run single as Canada (3-1) scored three in the sixth inning to beat Cuba 7-2 on Wednesday and reach the WBC’s quarterfinals.

Although Canada has participated in all five WBCs (2006, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2023), it has never reached the knockout stage before.


Canada will face the United States on Friday in Houston’s Daikin Park.

Canada’s starter Cal Quantrill of Port Hope, Ont., allowed two hits and one unearned run and struck out five in five innings to earn the win over the Cubans.

He was just the second Canadian pitcher to throw five innings in a WBC game. Noah Skirrow tossed five innings in his win over Colombia at the 2023 WBC.

“Everyone says it, but it’s just such an honour to represent your country, to be with this group,” Quantrill said. “A lot of these guys I’ve played with, played against, but we’ve always shared something special.

“We came here, and we knew that we had a special team, and we wanted to prove we both belong on the international stage, but we’re capable of taking the next step, and I think we did that . . . Such a cool moment for Canada baseball, for a lot of guys that have been here for a long time.

“We’ve got people in our training room and our equipment managers who have been doing this for 30, 40 years. To be able to see the smile on their face and know that we were able to give them something special is pretty cool.”

Canada won Group A over Puerto Rico (3-1) and knocked Cuba (2-2) out in the first round for the first time.

Italy meets Puerto Rico on Saturday in Houston.

The Americans got the help they needed Wednesday from Italy, which routed Mexico 9-1 to give the Azzurri the top spot in Group B and assured the Americans advancement as the second-place team. Italy beat the U.S. 8-6 a night earlier.

It’s been 20 years since Canada last beat the U.S. in the WBC contest, which was an 8-6 game in Pool B in the inaugural WBC in 2006.

Against Cuba, Owen Caissie hit a sacrifice fly in the third and Abraham Toro added a solo home run for Canada in the fifth. Josh Naylor’s RBI single in the eighth and Caissie’s run-scoring base hit in the ninth added some insurance for the Canadians.

“We’re extremely proud that we’re moving forward,” said Canada’s manager Ernie Whitt. “It took us a long time to do it. We now have some real good positional players. We have some real good arms out there that are performing for us to move forward. I’m excited about that.”

Yoelkis Guibert’s fielder’s choice in the fifth scored a run for Cuba to cut Canada’s lead to 2-1. Ariel Martinez’s RBI single made it 5-2 in the sixth.

Cuba finished with three errors, and left fielder Ariel Martinez allowed Toro’s catchable fly in the seventh inning to to fall for a double.

The Canadians broke open the game with a three-run sixth inning that included a dropped popup, a foul pop that fell, a wild pickoff throw and a catcher’s interference call on Andrys Perez, whose passed ball led to Canada’s first run.

Cuba escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first when Matt Davidson hit an inning-ending popout off loser Livan Moinelo, but Canada went ahead in the third on Caissie’s sacrifice fly. Toro homered in the fifth on a splitter from Yariel Rodríguez, a 420-foot drive to right.

Cuba scored in the bottom half on Guibert’s run-scoring groundout off Quantrill. Canada opened a 3-1 lead in the sixth on Bo Naylor’s RBI double.

Martinez drove in a run in the bottom half with his third hit and Josh Naylor had an RBI single in the seventh on a soft fly to left that popped off the glove of Martinez, who tried for a sliding catch.

Cuba went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position. Adam Macko escaped a bases-loaded jam in the sixth when Yiddi Cappe swung over a curveball and Paxton struck out Moncada in the seventh to leave runners at the corners.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 11, 2026.

The Canadian Press