Team Italy pitchers Aaron Nola (left) and Michael Lorenzen. (AP Photo, SI.com/mx)
Arguably the biggest surprise of the 2026 World Baseball Classic has been Team Italy. After upsetting the U.S. 8-6 Tuesday night, Italy’s bats stayed hot en route to a 9-1 win over Mexico on Wednesday, closing out a 4-0 clean sweep of Pool B. The Italians will face Puerto Rico in the quarterfinals on Saturday in Houston, Texas.
While the offense led the way with 32 runs and 12 home runs over four games, Italy also got help from two scoreless starts by pitchers Michael Lorenzen and Aaron Nola to close out pool play. Lorenzen tossed 4.2 innings with two strikeouts against Team USA, then Nola followed it up five strikeouts over five innings against Mexico.
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Both lineups were full of major league hitters, as the U.S. presented one of the toughest challenges in the tournament with hitters like Aaron Judge, Kyle Schwarber and Bobby Witt Jr. starting against Italy. Lorenzen, an 11-year MLB veteran who will soon begin his first season with the Colorado Rockies, said he enjoyed the challenge of figuring out how to attack each hitter in the talented U.S. lineup.
“It’s so fun to me to have these challenges and see how my body reacts, to see how my mind reacts, to see if I’m still able to execute under this type of pressure,” he said in his postgame press conference. “To be able to come out on the other end and be successful is incredible.”
For Lorenzen, his outing against Team USA was one of the most meaningful of his career — he said it was second behind the no-hitter he threw on Aug. 9, 2023, when he was with the Philadelphia Phillies. A big reason for that was being able to pitch in front of a large family contingent Tuesday. He lost his father almost 10 years ago, so he relishes any time his family is there to watch him.
“It’s awesome,” he told Fox Sports after the game, before pivoting to give glory to God. “The foundation of my faith is to rejoice in tribulation because it produces patience and perseverance, and I truly believe that. So when a challenge presents itself — even if I would’ve given up 10 (runs) today I would’ve said, ‘Thank You, Lord, for the opportunity.’
“It’s a way for me to grow in maturity, grow in my relationship with Him. So success, failure, it just allows me to attack opportunity, attack challenges. It frees me up to be able to do that, and I’m grateful to be able to do that. And that’s just because of the foundation of my faith.”
Nola, meanwhile, is set to enter his 12th season with the Phillies, for whom he was an All-Star in 2018 and has consistently remained one of the better pitchers in the National League. He believes the longevity he and Lorenzen have had in the majors has helped them in the WBC.
“It’s just the experience I feel that we’ve [had] over our careers in figuring out how to get guys out multiple times in multiple different ways,” he told MLB Network after Wednesday’s game.
He has also regularly shared about his faith throughout his career.
“Through Bible studies and chapels, I learned who Jesus is and what He could do and to put all my trust and all my faith in Him,” Nola said in 2020 during an interview with the Phillies team chaplain Jeff Boettcher. “… He has a reason for everything, and we should always put our trust in Him with that, because He knows where our path is going — He makes it — and the outcome is in His hands.”
He continued later: “There are things that are going to happen to us that we don’t like, that we don’t expect and that are unexpected, and we shouldn’t ask too many questions why. Because He knows why, and He knows where we’re gonna go, and He knows what His plan is for us.”
Lorenzen and Nola were also teammates briefly in Philadelphia in 2023, before Lorenzen signed with the Texas Rangers in 2024, then got traded to Kansas City that July and spent 2025 with the Royals as well. Now in Colorado, he said he welcomes the challenge of pitching in Coors Field, which has historically been one of the more difficult parks to pitch in due to the altitude.
Lorenzen is no stranger to adversity. He’s openly shared about growing up in a broken home with parents who struggled with alcohol and drugs. He later went down a similar path and started smoking marijuana as early as eighth grade.
“The first time I got drunk was also in eighth grade,” he told Renewed Strength Fitness in 2016. “One day, I went on this pier with all of my buddies; we were high and we went onto the pier to get some food. I was 16 or 17 and this guy was sharing about Jesus. He asked us if he could share something about God with us, and we kind of looked at him and laughed a little bit and said, ‘Sure, go ahead.'”
Lorenzen was convicted, and a seed was planted to eventually grow into the faith he has today, which has allowed him to navigate the highs and lows of his career.
Though he may pitch well one game, he knows the next start could be completely different. He has that mindset because of the strength he draws from his faith in God. He reiterated again Tuesday how he embraces challenges in baseball because he knows it will help him grow closer to God.
“My faith will grow because of that because I’m going to have to lean on God to get through that failure,” he said following the win over the U.S. “The worst-case scenario is I give up 10 and I grow closer to God because of it, because I have to figure out how to handle that situation.”
The winner between Italy and Puerto Rico will face the winner of Japan and Venezuela. Team USA, meanwhile, will face Canada on Friday at 7 p.m. ET, and the winner of that game will face either Korea or the Dominican Republic.
The World Baseball Classic Championship Game will be held Tuesday at loanDepot Park in Miami.
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