Glew: Balazovic, Allen, Dykxhoorn lead Canada to WBC win over Puerto Rico

Canada defeated Puerto Rico 3-2 at the World Baseball Classic on Tuesday night. Photo: Baseball Canada

March 10, 2026

By Kevin Glew

Canadian Baseball Network

Jordan Balazovic, Logan Allen and Brock Dykxhoorn combined to stymie Puerto Rico’s offence in Canada’s 3-2 win at the World Baseball Classic at Hiram Bithorn Stadium on Tuesday night.

Each of the Canadian pitchers tossed three strong innings with Balazovic (Mississauga, Ont.) starting and picking up the win and Dykxhoorn (Goderich, Ont.) recording the save.

With the victory, Canada improves its record to 2-1, but they will still have to beat Cuba on Wednesday afternoon to advance to the quarterfinals.

In his WBC debut, Balazovic started and struck out four batters and limited Puerto Rico to one run on one hit in three innings.

After a rain delay, Allen hurled three solid middle frames, permitting just one run on four hits, while fanning two.

And Dykxhoorn, also in his WBC debut, finished things off in dominant fashion, retiring all nine batters he faced.

“To be put in a spot like that, to come through, I'm happy for the team,” said Dykxhoorn after the game. “Credit Jordan and Logan [who] did a great job holding them in check for the first six innings. I just wanted to do my part, and I'm glad I could.”

Canadian manager Ernie Whitt was impressed with Dykxhoorn’s performance.

“He pitched extremely well,” said Whitt. “He was a late addition. He was on our radar, but our pitching tonight, you couldn't ask for more. The three guys really stepped up and held a good ball club in check.”

Puerto Rico scored first in the contest. After Balazovic issued walks to Bryan Torres and Heliot Ramos, the first two batters he faced in the first inning, Nolan Arenado singled up the middle to score Torres. Ramos, however, was gunned down attempting to advance to third by centre fielder Denzel Clarke (Pickering, Ont.) to prevent further damage.

José De León started for Puerto Rico. The veteran right-hander got the first eight Canadian batters in order, before Clarke and Edouard Julien (Quebec City, Que.) hit two-out singles in the third inning. Josh Naylor was then hit by a pitch and De León was replaced by right-hander Rico Garcia. Garcia proceeded to issue bases-loaded walks to Tyler O’Neill (Maple Ridge, B.C.) and Tyler Black (Stouffville, Ont.) to give Canada a 2-1 lead.

Canada added another run in the fourth inning when Owen Caissie (Burlington, Ont.) continued his hot-hitting with a double down the left field line and Abraham Toro (Longueuil, Que.) cashed him in with a single to right.

Puerto Rico narrowed Canada’s lead to one run in the fourth when Allen surrendered back-to-back singles to Arenado and Eddie Rosario. Catcher Christian Vazquez then dropped down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners to second and third before pinch-hitter Martin Maldonado hit a grounder to second to plate Arenado to make the score 3-2.

But that was as close as Puerto Rico would get.

Allen and Dykxhoorn combined to retire 12 batters in a row to close out the win.

Caissie continues to be the engine of Canada’s offence at the WBC. He had two doubles and a walk in the contest and is now 6-for-11.

Toro’s RBI single in the third, gave him a team-leading four RBIs in the tournament.

Catcher Liam Hicks (Toronto, Ont.) made his first WBC start and threw out Matthew Lugo trying to steal in the second inning.

The start of the game was delayed 45 minutes by rain.

Canada will play Cuba, who also owns a 2-1 record, on Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m. E.T. The winner of the game will advance to the quarterfinals. With a win, Canada could also finish atop Pool A.

“That's the beauty of this sport. You play to get to this position,” said Whitt ahead of tomorrow’s pivotal game. “We knew coming into tonight's game, if we had a chance to win, we wanted to win, but we know that this win was nice, but it doesn't mean anything unless we win tomorrow. So we have to play a clean game, as I've said all along. We play a clean game, our pitchers throw strikes, I'll take our chances.”

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