WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: QUARTERFINALS - USA VS CANADA

March 13, 2026

Ernie Whitt

Daikin Park

Team Canada

Postgame Press Conference

USA - 5, Canada - 3

Q. You certainly had your opportunities to score. What did you think about the approach your hitters took in those particular situations?

ERNIE WHITT: Well, I mean they didn't get the hits or anything. Like you said, we had opportunities. But in this game of baseball, you win or lose whether you capitalize on those chances or not.

I think I've said that this whole tournament. You know, you have to come up with some big hits. And when the opportunity presents itself, you have to execute on it.

Sometimes you have to give credit to the pitcher also.

Q. What did you think of Soroka's outing tonight?

ERNIE WHITT: I thought he was fine. I thought he threw the ball well. We were on a 60-pitch limit with him. He gave us three solid innings. He walked two guys in the first inning, which hurt. We gave up a point there. But we had our chances to come back and win the game.

Q. How will you reflect on what you guys accomplished at this event?

ERNIE WHITT: Well, I think it's a stepping stone. You know, hopefully other Canadian ball players see it, the excitement that there is. We had a full house out there today cheering. That's fun.

That's the way baseball is supposed to be played. Not everyone can be happy, though. There's always a winner and loser. When you get into this format, someone's gotta win and someone's gotta lose. On this side, it's hard to take.

And the guys are very disappointed, but I told them they've got nothing to hang their head about. They should walk very proudly. We represented the country the best that we could and for them to walk proud and have a good season as they go forward.

Q. With all the chances that you had in this game, and a couple of defensive plays that didn't go your way, too, will you look at some of the -- maybe you didn't get quite everything out of this experience that you might have, that there might have been another game out there for you guys?

ERNIE WHITT: Well, we were hoping that there was going to be another game. But again, I'll be reflecting on this for probably a couple of months. Looking back and having your time, when you're with yourself, you gather your thoughts and what if and what if and what if, but if you continue to do that, you'll drive yourself crazy.

I thought we represented the country well, and I don't think we have anything to hang our head on. I told the boys to walk proudly.

Q. You've been the only manager at the WBC for the country. When will you decide on whether you return or not? Or have you made a decision that you will be managing the next WBC?

ERNIE WHITT: I don't know. That's three years away. At this point in time, I mean, I'm disappointed that we lost. But we did make steps in the right direction this year. It's too early to assess what I'm going to do afterwards at this point in time.

Q. You have a lot of relievers there, three relievers who, no Major League time, but they really got some huge outs. What did you see about how they went about attacking some of the best hitters the U.S. has?

ERNIE WHITT: Well, we knew that the U.S. hadn't seen them before. They haven't been able to scout them or not get a real good scouting report. So that was kind of in our back pocket, using those guys.

We saw how they could throw the ball, like in the beginning, in our first round and also our exhibition game. So we knew, the coaches knew what we had. And it was just giving them the opportunity to do it.

Q. How does this tournament compare to the other World Baseball Classics you've coached for Canada? And how does the program build off of this going into the future?

ERNIE WHITT: I just think that we're developing more Major League players. And when you're playing against Major League players, you want to have an even playing field. And the fact that we now have quite a few players playing in the Big Leagues, it just evens the playing field.