March 14 (Reuters) – Venezuela stunned Japan 8-5 to eliminate the defending champions from the World Baseball Classic quarter-finals on Saturday, while Italy also advanced to the last four by beating Puerto Rico 8-6.
Venezuela’s Ronald Acuna Jr hit a solo home run off Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the first inning in Miami but Shohei Ohtani answered immediately with a solo shot off Ranger Suarez.
Shota Morishita hit a three-run homer in the third to give Japan a 5-2 lead but Venezuela refused to fold, Maikel Garcia hitting a two-run homer in the fifth to pull within one.
With Ezequiel Tovar and Gleyber Torres on base in the sixth, Wilyer Abreu launched a 409-foot, three-run home run to give Venezuela a 7-5 lead as the stadium erupted.
Ezequiel Torres added another run at the top of the eighth to give Venezuela some more breathing room and their bullpen shut Japan down, retiring 13 straight batters at one point before Angel Zerpa struck out Ohtani to seal it.
“Its very hard to describe what went through my mind when I hit that home run,” Abreu told a press conference. “It was definitely one of the best moments in my career.”
Venezuela clinched a place in the semis for the first time since 2009, while the win also secured a spot at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Three-times winners Japan were left to lick their wounds after failing to reach the final four for the first time.
At Daikin Park in Houston, surprise package Italy, who had already beaten the U.S. and Mexico in pool play to go 4-0, did not need the long ball to get past Puerto Rico.
They chased ace Seth Lugo in the first inning and never looked back, turning a 1-0 deficit into a 4-1 lead.
JJ D’Orazio drove in three runs and Andrew Fischer knocked in two. A four-run fourth inning pushed the margin to 8-2 and effectively ended the contest, with all nine players in Italy’s starting lineup reaching base.
Puerto Rico mounted a late charge, capped by Christian Vazquez’s two-run single in the eighth that trimmed the deficit to 8-6, but reliever Greg Weissert retired five of six batters for his third save of the tournament.
“This team has been building character in the last couple of days,” Italy manager Francisco Cervelli, a Venezuelan-born former MLB catcher, said at a press conference.
“We have the same mission, which is to continue until the last day of the tournament.”
Venezuela meet Italy in the semi-final on Monday in Miami.
The United States face Dominican Republic in the other semi on Sunday.
(Reporting by Angelica Medina in Mexico City; Editing by Peter Rutherford)