Schedule Announced, Italy in Pool B with United States and Mexico
The other teams in Pool B are Great Britain and one from the 2025 qualifiers.
On the field from March 5, 2026, final four in Miami from 15 to 17.
The world’s top competition, which sees the institutional forces of MLB, WBSC and MLBPA (the Major League Players Association) join forces in its three-year race to recover the four-year cycle interrupted by Covid, will be played between March 5 and 17, 2026 and WBC Inc., the company that manages the organization, has made public the composition of the groups and the calendars of the main phase, after the announcement of the four venues last May.
The WBC will still involve, in the main phase, 20 teams, the 16 best from the previous edition plus 4 from the qualifiers, divided into four Pools of 5 teams each.
L’Italia is included in the Pool Bhosted in Houston, home of the Astros, involved in the event for the first time.
In the edition 2023 Mike Piazza’s Blues they passed the first round, then went on to play the quarter-finals in Tokyo against Japan; to repeat, this time they will have to earn one of the two available places against, in order, the team coming from the 2025 qualifiers (Saturday 7 March 2026), Great Britain (Sunday, March 8), United States (Tuesday March 10) and Mexico (Wednesday, March 11).
The other groups are: Pool A (San Juan, Puerto Rico) with Porto Rico, Canada, Cuba, Panama and qualified 2025; Pool C (Tokyo) with Japan, Australia, Czech Republic, South Korea and qualified 2025; finally Pool D (Miami) with Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Israel and qualified 2025.
The teams from the four Pools will compete in a round-robin tournament that will qualify the top two teams for the knockout quarterfinals, scheduled for Houston and Miami, which will be played on Friday, March 13 and Saturday, March 14.
Minute Maid Park in Houston will host teams advancing from Group A and Group B, while LoanDepot Park in Miami will host teams advancing from Group C and Group D.
If Team USA advances to the quarterfinals in Houston, their game will be played on Friday, March 13, regardless of whether they are the winner or runner-up of Pool B. Likewise, if Samurai Japan advances to Miami, their game will be played on Saturday, March 14, regardless of whether they are the winner or runner-up of Pool C.
The final four, in Miami, will begin on Sunday, March 15 with the first of two semifinal matches, with the second semifinal taking place on Monday, March 16. The world title match will be played on Tuesday, March 17.
The details regarding the World Baseball Classic Qualifierwhich will be held between February and March 2025, will be announced soon.
Full ticket information will be available at a later date, but fans can register now at worldbaseballclassic.com/tickets to always be updated.
In the photos, Italy enters the field for the quarter-final of the WBC 2023 at the Tokyo Dome (Sam Cooper)
