Canada advanced to the World Baseball Classic's knockout 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'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.
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He became just the second Canadian pitcher to throw five innings in a WBC game. Noah Skirrow (Cambridge, Ont.) 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 eliminated the Cubans (2-2) and won Group A over Puerto Rico (3-1). Cuba was knocked out in the first round for the first time.
Owen Caissie had a sacrifice fly in the third and Abraham Toro added a solo home run for Canada (3-1) in the fifth. Josh Naylor's RBI single in the eighth and Caissie's run-scoring basehit 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 (2-2) to cut Canada's lead to 2-1. Ariel Martinez's RBI single made it 5-2 in the sixth.
Canada and Puerto Rico will play quarterfinals in Houston against the United States and Italy, respectively.
The top two teams from the Americas (excluding host Americans) in this year's WBC will qualify for the 2028 Olympics. The other two teams that could qualify through that path are Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.
Cuba finished with three errors, and left fielder Ariel Martinez allowed Toro’s catchable fly starting the seventh 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.
Later Wednesday, Italy beat Mexico 9-1 to win Group B and ensure the U.S. advances.
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 winner Cal Quantrill, who allowed an unearned run and two hits over five innings.
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 up of 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.
