TOKYO — Shohei Ohtani hit a 448-foot, three-run home run in the first inning that landed just below his image on a video advertising board and had four RBI to lead Japan over Australia 7-1 Sunday night at the World Baseball Classic.

Japan, already assured of advancement, won its group with a 4-0 record and will play a quarterfinal on Thursday against Italy, which advanced along with Cuba from Group A on tiebreakers. Matt Harvey got the win as Italy defeated the Netherlands 7-1, causing all five teams to finish 2-2.

South Korea beat the Czech Republic 7-3 in the day’s other Group B game and Cuba defeated Taiwan 7-1 in Group A.

Ohtani turned on a hanging curveball from loser Will Sherriff, who didn’t even watch the flight of the ball into the Tokyo Dome’s right-field seats, bending and putting hands on his knees. It was the first home run of the tournament for Ohtani, who is 6 for 12 with eight RBI and seven walks. He walked with the bases loaded in the sixth, the third straight walk after reliever Blake Townsend entered.

CANADA 18, GREAT BRITAIN 8: Tyler O’Neill had four hits and four RBI, Freddie Freeman added two hits and Canada beat Great Britain at Phoenix.

The game lasted just seven innings because the WBC has a mercy rule during pool play. If one team is leading by 10 or more runs after an inning following the seventh, the game is over.

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Canada scored in every inning, including five runs in the first, four in the third and six more in the fourth.

ISRAEL 3, NICARAGUA 1: Israel overcame a 1-0 deficit with a three-run eighth inning at Miami to defeat Nicaragua, which dropped its second game of WBC pool play.

Garrett Stubbles hit a bases loaded, go-ahead double in the eighth that scored Spencer Horwitz and Noah Mendlinger to make it 3-1. Horwitz tied it earlier in the inning with an RBI single.

Stubbs had two of Israel’s seven hits.

Winner Richard Bleier had two strikeouts in one relief inning.

Nicaragua took a 1-0 lead in the fifth when Steven Leyton’s double scored Sandy Bermudez.

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ITALY 7, NETHERLANDS 1: Chadwick Tromp homered in the third, but Italy burst ahead with a six-run fourth capped by Nicky Lopez’s two-run triple to wu

Brett Sullivan, Ben DeLuzio and Sal Frelick had RBI singles, and loser Mike Bolsenbroek threw a run-scoring wild pitch. Frelick added a run-scoring single in the eighth.

Harvey allowed one run and two hits in four innings with three strikeouts for the Italians, managed by Mike Piazza.

SOUTH KOREA 7, CZECH REPUBLIC 3: Ha-Seong Kim of the San Diego Padres hit two solo homers for South Korea in a win at Tokyo.

CUBA 7, TAIWAN 1: Cuba got home runs from Yoán Moncada of the Chicago White Sox and Erisbel Arruebarrena to win at Taichung, Taiwan.

SATURDAY NIGHT

UNITED STATES 6, BRITAIN 2: Kyle Schwarber launched a three-run homer, Nolan Arenado had three hits and two RBI, and the United States overcame a slow start to beat Britain in the opener for both teams, at Phoenix.

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