Israel ended their 2026 World Baseball Classic campaign on a high note by downing the Netherlands 6-2 as loanDepot park on Tuesday night. With the win the blue-and-white end pool play with an impressive 2-2 record but do not advance to the quarterfinals due to coming up short against heavyweights Dominican Republic and Venezuela who both moved on.

However, by defeating Nicaragua in their second pool game thanks to Dean Kremer’s stellar pitching performance, Israel was able to punch their ticket to the next World Baseball Classic.

After falling behind 2-0 early on, Brad Ausmus’s team came up with a 5-run 6th inning as Jake Gelof drove home a pair of runs with a bases loaded single which was followed up by a 2-run double by Matt Mervis.

“We see everything up on the scoreboard, there are people wearing their Israeli T-shirts or holding the Israeli flag,” Ausmus said. “The hope is more players become interested in playing for Israel. I just think every time an Israeli team wins a baseball game in a big tournament like this, it helps.”

Yankees reliever Harrison Cohen who pitched two scoreless innings and chalked up 5 K’s agreed with his New York bench coach and Israel manager. “Playing for Team Israel has always been a dream. To be able to participate in the WBC, wear ‘Israel’ across my chest, as not only just a token of where you’ve gotten to in your career, but as a token of how I was brought up, how I was raised, my parents, my family, my heritage.”

“You see this on the calendar every couple of years and you circle it,” Gelof commented. “I know my brother (Zach) and I circled this on our calendar. He was able to play in it and now I’ve been able to play with it. We’re always looking forward to growing the game anywhere where we play for Team Israel.”