Pasquantino Records First Three-Homer Game in World Baseball Classic History

By: Luke Stefanisko

Vinnie Pasquantino, 2017 Valley Baseball League Champion, became the first player in WBC history to record a three-home run game yesterday (March 11th).

His triple blast performance helped Italy prevail over Mexico 9-1. Wednesday’s win placed the Italians as the top seed in Pool B following the monumental upset over the tournament-favorite United States on Tuesday.

Pasquantino and Team Italy did not lose a game during pool play, beating Team Brazil and Great Britain before the wins over the USA and Mexico.

The Kansas City Royals first baseman entered the game yesterday hitless in the World Baseball Classic. Leading off the second inning, Vinnie took an inside cutter to right field and just snuck it over the fence to give Italy the early 1-0 advantage.

Up again in the sixth inning,“the Pasquatch” blasted a hanging slider and hit a no-doubter to increase the lead to six for Italy.

In his final at-bat Pasquantino took a pitch out of the strike-zone to right field padding the lead to seven and making it 8-1.

His performance marked the sixth multi-home run game by an individual player through the completion of pool play in the 2026 WBC.

Over the 20 years of the World Baseball Classic, no player had hit more than two homers. The captain of Italy stands alone in WBC history.

Pasquantino was a member of the Charlottesville squad that won the franchise’s first VBL title. He was selected to the second-team All-VBL that season – he hit four home runs during his summer in Charlottesville.

With the victory over Team Mexico, Italy advances to the quarterfinals and will play Puerto Rico, the Pool A Runner-Up, on Saturday at 3:00 EST in Houston airing on FS1.