Maikel Garcia hit a tie-breaking ‌single in the seventh inning for Venezuela, which advanced to the ⁠World Baseball Classic (WBC) ⁠championship game by beating Italy 4-2 on Monday in Miami. The US beat the Dominican Republic 2-1 on Sunday in the first semifinal. The loss was the first of the WBC for Italy, which ‌made a Cinderella run to the semifinals by going 4-0 in pool B play before beating Puerto Rico 8-6 in a quarterfinal at Houston on Saturday. Italy, which took a 2-0 lead in the second when JJ D’Orazio drew a bases-loaded walk, and Dante Nori hit into a run-scoring groundout, was eight outs away from another upset when Venezuela rallied against losing pitcher ⁠Michael Lorenzen. Eduard Bazardo and Andres Machado threw a ‌perfect inning apiece, before Daniel Palencia earned his second save by striking out two in a 1-2-3 ninth. Venezuela starting pitcher Keider Montero gave up the ‌two ‌runs in 1 1/3 innings.