Sports
Italy win over Mexico sends Team USA to WBC quarterfinals
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Team USA can breathe a sigh of relief, and they can thank Team Italy, the squad that put their World Baseball Classic hopes in limbo, after their win over Team Mexico on Tuesday night.
With Italy’s 9-1 victory at Daikin Park, they have won Pool B with a perfect 4-0 record and earned a spot in the WBC quarterfinals.
But Italy also ensured that Team USA’s run in the tournament continues despite handing the star-studded group a shocking 8-6 defeat on Monday night.
Vinnie Pasquantino of Italy hits a solo home run in the 6th inning against Mexico during the 2026 World Baseball Classic – Pool B at Daikin Park on March 11, 2026 in Houston, Texas. (Houston Astros/Getty Images)
Team USA knew going into this game they would be big fans of Italy, one of the more surprising teams of the tournament thus far, but a thrill to watch. They have the fun espresso home run celebration, which has been used a ton including Tuesday night’s game, and a mixture of veterans and top prospects who have been giving their pool fits on the field.
However, Vinnie Pasquantino, the team’s captain who stars for the Kansas City Royals, came into this contest without a single hit through three games. Luckily for Italy – and indirectly the U.S. – his first three hits of the tournament were difference makers.
Pasquantino belted three solo home runs in the win, marking the first time in WBC history that a player went yard three times in a single game.
TEAM USA’S WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC HOPES TAKE MASSIVE HIT WITH ITALY UPSET
He got Team Italy on the board first in the top of the second, hitting a 342-foot blast to right field. Then, in the top of the sixth inning, he hit a towering shot that stayed fair down the right field line to take a free trip around the bases again.
As he stepped to the plate in the top of the eighth inning, Pasquantino, already two espresso shots deep after his first two longballs, got just enough to get it over the right-field fence one last time.
Jon Berti of the Italy reacts after hitting a solo home run in the fourth inning against Mexico during the 2026 World Baseball Classic – Pool B at Daikin Park on March 11, 2026 in Houston, Texas. (Houston Astros/Getty Images)
But, just like the other three games, there wasn’t only one Italy hitter showcasing his power. Jon Berti, who has had a great tournament thus far, made use of the Crawford boxes in left field, hitting one just far enough in the top of the fourth inning to extend Italy’s lead to 2-0.
Meanwhile, Mexico couldn’t get the bats going against veteran hurler Aaron Nola, the reliable Philadelphia Phillies starter who had his patented knuckle-curve working in Houston. He tossed five innings, allowing just four hits while striking out five over 69 pitches.
The game started to get away from Mexico, too, in the top of the fifth inning, when nine-hitter Dante Nori dropped a perfect sacrifice bunt that scored Pasquantino’s Royals teammate, Jac Caglianone, to make it a 3-0 game. Then, Miami Marlins outfielder Jakob Marsee came in clutch with a two-out, bases-loaded single that scored two runners before he was picked off at first base to end the inning.
With a 7-0 lead, Mexico, facing desperation, saw some offensive life in the bottom of the seventh with bases loaded and no outs. But after Alek Thomas’ groundout to first, and Rowdy Tellez hitting a liner right at Pasquantino for the second out, Jarren Duran struck out as they were only able to get one run out of a potentially game-changing situation.
Vinnie Pasquantino of Italy runs the bases after hitting a home run in the sixth inning against Mexico during the 2026 World Baseball Classic between Italy and Mexico at Daikin Park on March 11, 2026 in Houston, Texas. (Kenneth Richmond/Getty Images)
Pasquantino’s third home run flipped momentum right back to Team Italy, and they rode it into the final frame where they sealed victory.
As Italy soars into the quarterfinals, Mexico is eliminated as their players will head back to their respective big league camps to finish out spring training.
Team USA’s quarterfinal matchup will be against Team Canada, the winners of Pool A, at 8 p.m. ET in Daikin Park on March 13.
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Sports
TNA wrestling star Xia Brookside gets baptized: ‘A new chapter’
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Xia Brookside certainly has made an impact on Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) over the last few weeks.
As Brookside climbs the ladder to get back into the TNA Knockouts World Championship, she appeared to make an enemy along the way. Brookside helped Arianna Grace retain the title over Lei Ying Lee at Rebellion when she put Grace’s foot on the rope to break up the pin attempt.
ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON’T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!
Xia Brookside attends the “Freelance” screening at Regal Waterford Lakes in Orlando, Fla., on Oct. 24, 2023. (Jose Devillegas/Getty Images)
Brookside was far from finished with Lee. Last week, Lee wanted answers from Brookside. The English wrestler gave Lee a hug in the middle of the ring, but assaulted her. Their feud is heating up.
Outside of the ring, Brookside revealed on Sunday she was starting “a new chapter.” She posted a video of herself getting baptized.
“Something I’ve been considering for a very long time, after getting consistent in going to church weekly, reading daily and the incredible support from my man, it felt like the easiest decision I’ve ever made,” she wrote on X. “Thank you to everyone that came to support me.”
Candice LeRae and Xia Brookside compete during NXT at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla., on Sept. 2, 2025. (Matt Pendleton/WWE)
Brookside, whose real name is Xia-Louise Brooks, is the daughter of retired pro wrestling star Robbie Brookside. He currently works as a trainer and producer for WWE NXT.
She started her pro wrestling career in the United Kingdom and worked her way through the independent scene, eventually joining WWE in 2018. She was featured in WWE NXT UK before she joined Stardom in Japan and eventually TNA.
She’s held championships in International Pro Wrestling United Kingdom and Rise Wrestling during her career. She was also ranked No. 91 on Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s list of top women’s wrestlers in 2019.
Mina Shirakawa enters the ring during the women’s pro-wrestling event Stardom at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on Dec. 29, 2022. (Etsuo Hara/Getty Images)
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Brookside is back to making an impact on TNA again and is sure to be in line for the knockouts title down the line.
Sports
NFL goes Hollywood: Inside its plan to conquer streaming and movies
For years, the NFL has playfully scoffed at conspiracy theories its drama is scripted.
Now, the league has hired some of the best writers in the entertainment industry to do just that.
The NFL is going Hollywood, looking to expand its audience with theatrical motion pictures and its first scripted streaming series. This isn’t just about using the names and logos of real NFL teams, but diving headlong into storytelling about the league in the form of upcoming movies — one about John Madden, another a Christmas Day release about an unlikely hero for the New York Giants — and “The Land,” a dramatic Hulu series centered on fictional characters and the Cleveland Browns starring Christopher Meloni, Mandy Moore and William H. Macy.
It’s the next step in the partnership between the NFL and Skydance Sports, the forming of a premier content studio aimed at creating must-watch storytelling and attracting everyone from hardcore football fans to people who otherwise have no real interest in the game.
The NFL has long contended it’s the world’s greatest reality show and the numbers support that. According to Sportico, NFL games were 84 of the top 100 most-watched television shows last year. And the year before, it was 93 of 100.
“When you have an audience as big as the NFL’s, there are a lot of different demographics to service and engage even more deeply,” said Jason Reed, who heads Skydance Sports. “Those movies work as a fan service. They service towns, fans of those franchises, and they really connect. What they also do is pick up this other group of people who maybe wouldn’t watch a football game.”
Pulling back the curtain on the league is a challenge. The NFL isn’t likely to sanction unflattering content, at least not much of it, yet the goal is to make the stories as realistic as possible. How will the writers handle issues such as concussions, drug use or domestic violence? That was addressed in a presentation at last month’s owners meetings by JW Johnson of the Haslam Sports Group, who oversees the business strategy of the Browns.
“We don’t want this to be — no offense to our friends at ESPN — a ‘Playmakers’ situation,” said Johnson, referring to the popular but short-lived series on the Cougars, a fictional football team, that explored mature themes and was canceled after one season after pressure from the NFL. “We want this to be a really fan-friendly show that also has the authenticity of what happens in a locker room and on the field. We’re very comfortable with it.”
David Corenswet as “John Tuggle” and Isabel May as as “Katie” in Mr. Irrelevant: The John Tuggle Story,” from Paramount Pictures.
(Sarah Enticknap / Paramount Pictures)
Dan Fogelman, creator of “This is Us,” and a lifelong football fan, had long envisioned writing a dramatic series based on his favorite sport. That led to “The Land,” which began production last fall and does not have an official premiere date.
“We’re not making this stuff up out of thin air,” said Fogelman, who also created the Hulu series “Paradise,” a post-apocalyptic political thriller. “The characters are flawed and they do bad things, but the NFL has been great about that. I was worried up top, and it just hasn’t been an issue because we’re not out there looking to be salacious. We’re not trying to do ripped-from-the-headlines, crazy, exaggerated versions of reality. We want things that really happen, done accurately and in a cinematic way.”
To that end, he brought in actual NFL players as consultants to help with the storylines and make sure the details make sense.
“We had a bunch of NFL players come and visit us in our little office, and we’re on the second floor,” he said. “Some of my heroes were in that room. I was genuinely concerned the floor was going to fall through.”
Enter NFL Films, which for more than six decades has turned a violent sport into an art form, filling the frame with meticulous focus on a Matthew Stafford spiral — and without the benefit of a second take. Those camera operators are heavily involved in the production of both the upcoming movies and the streaming series.
“That’s our whole thing,” Reed said. “How do we support great filmmakers and make sure they know how to access the resources and expertise that NFL Films has developed over 60 years, and combine those two together? That, to me, is the secret sauce of the venture.”
What’s more, what the father-and-son combination of Ed and Steve Sabol created in NFL Films provides an incredible library for future projects.
“The well is infinite,” said Jessica Boddy, vice president of commercial operations and business affairs for NFL Films. “We’ve only scratched the surface.”
For Fogelman, “The Land” is scratching a creative itch he’s felt since childhood.
“I’ve wanted to do this show for 20 years,” he said. “I’m a failed athlete myself. My connection with my father growing up — he worked a lot — was I grew up in Pittsburgh as a Steelers fan and also migrated to New Jersey, where we became Giants fans. My dad would let me watch games with him if I was quiet and didn’t act goofy. We would also throw the football back and forth.
“Now, many decades later, my father is 83, and our connection is that we talk every Monday after Giants games. He now talks with my son and me. For me, football has been very much in the fabric of my life and my relationship with my friends. This has been something I’ve been chasing for a very long time.”
Sports
Trevor Bauer throws no-hitter for Long Island Ducks in just second US start since 2021
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Trevor Bauer, the former Cy Young Award winner and MLB All-Star, tossed a no-hitter for the independent Long Island Ducks in a 13-0 win over the Lancaster Stormers on Sunday afternoon at Penn Medicine Park in Pennsylvania.
It was just Bauer’s second start in the United States since 2021, and he faced just one batter over the minimum in a scheduled seven-inning game of a doubleheader against the Stormers.
Bauer threw 84 pitches, striking out seven hitters and walking just one to lose out on the perfect game.
Trevor Bauer smiles after pitching no-hitter for Long Island Ducks on Sunday, April 26, 2026. (Jordan McGregor)
But Bauer unleashed a roar on the mound after a called strike three to notch the third no-hitter in Ducks history.
Combined with his first outing for the Ducks on April 21, Bauer has a strong 1.64 ERA to start the season in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB), which is a “Professional Partner League” of MLB.
Fans might have been supporting the opposing Stormers, but they understood what was at stake as Bauer was mowing down hitters throughout his start. They were even heard chanting his name at one point, hoping he could keep his hitless streak alive.
After the game, Bauer returned the favor for those at the Pennsylvania ballpark, signing autographs and taking pictures with fans after entering his name into the Ducks’ record books.
TREVOR BAUER SIGNS WITH PRO BASEBALL TEAM IN UNITED STATES AMID MLB RETURN HOPES
“I’m looking forward to competing in front of U.S. fans again this season,” said Bauer when he signed with the Ducks earlier this month. “The Ducks have had some incredible players come through their organization, and I’m excited to be part of that tradition.”
Ex-MLB stars like Dontrelle Willis, Daniel Murphy, Rich Hill and Eric Gagne have played for the Ducks in the past. New York Mets legends Gary Carter and Bud Harrelson both managed the team, with the latter also being a part-owner.
Bauer’s first start for the Ducks impressed an AL team scout in attendance, saying he was pretty impressed by Bauer’s arsenal on the bump.
“He showed flashes of the guy he used to be and a guy who can help a club,” the scout told the New York Post. “He went out and handled himself well. He showed flashes of the breaking ball he had in the past. Certainly the velocity is not what it once was, but it’s still solid, mostly 92-94. He didn’t throw the ball particularly well on the inside part of the plate with his fastball, but I think it was a really good first outing. You’d expected him to get sharper and probably tick up in velocity.
Trevor Bauer and catcher high-five after finish inning for Long Island Ducks in no-hit bid on Sunday April 26, 2026. (Jordan McGregor)
“You’re talking about a guy who was at the top of the game. Is he back there? No, but he looked like a guy who could go out and compete.”
Bauer pitched in Japan in both 2023 and 2025, while a stint in Mexico came in 2024. He pitched to a 2.59 ERA and 9.2 K/9 in Japan in 2023, and in Mexico, those numbers improved to 2.48 and 13.0. Last year in Japan, though, his ERA shot up to 4.41, and he struck out just 8.2 batters per nine innings.
This June will mark five years since Bauer, as the reigning Cy Young Award winner, last appeared in an MLB game. On June 28 of that year, he tossed six innings of two-run ball while striking out eight batters, recording the win.
Two days later, Bauer was hit with sexual assault allegations, which eventually led to a 324-game suspension (the equivalent of two seasons). It was eventually reduced to 184 games for violating the league’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy.
Bauer has maintained his innocence, settling with one accuser while another is facing 16 years in prison after being charged with fraud for faking a pregnancy and asking Bauer for money for an abortion.
Trevor Bauer pitches for Long Island Ducks during no-hitter on Sunday, April 26, 2026. (Jordan McGregor)
Bauer and Lindsey Hill, who accused the pitcher of beating and sexually abusing her in 2021, settled their case in late 2023. Bauer revealed texts from Hill, who said that Bauer would be her “next victim,” among other damning messages. Hill has since said that MLB has more evidence of Bauer’s alleged misconduct.
Last June, Hill was ordered to pay Bauer more than $300,000 for violating settlement terms. Hill breached their settlement agreement with each other by discussing Bauer on podcasts and in public appearances, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Nearly two years ago, Bauer said he “may have no other choice” but to sue Major League Baseball “if I continue being kept out” of the league. Bauer has said he’d “play for the league minimum,” but he has yet to sign with an MLB team.
“Anyone that’s willing to sit down with me and listen: I’d like to play the second half of my career in a better way than I played the first half,” Bauer told Fox News Digital in January 2024. “I’d like to be an example that you can make mistakes, recognize them, adjust and then be better in the future. I think that’s something us as humans have to do and should be doing constantly.”
Long Island Ducks pitcher Trevor Bauer throws against the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars at Fairfield Properties Ballpark in Central Islip, N.Y., on April 21, 2026. (Thomas A. Ferrara/Newsday RM/Getty Images)
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Bauer has since called out MLB after Pete Rose and other deceased former players were taken off the league’s permanently ineligible list.
“So, since Pete is welcome back now, does that go for everyone who has been blackballed?” Bauer asked on X. “Or do you actually have to be guilty of something to qualify for that?”
Bauer was performing well for the Dodgers at the time of the allegations, pitching to a 2.59 ERA.
Fox News’ Ryan Morik contributed to this report.
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