Van Hekken and Drew Smyly contributed strong pitching performances. The World Cup team was named co-bronze medalist of the IBAF Baseball World Cup, which was played in Panama. The U.S. shared the honor with Canada after their bronze-medal game was rained out. In 2015, USA Baseball fielded two professional national teams, once again made up of minor league players, for the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games and the WBSC Premier12. The U.S. claimed the silver medal in both events. The Pan American Games roster featured Albert Almora, Jr., Tyler Pastornicky, Paul Sewald, and Zach Eflin, while the Premier12 team was led by Matt McBride, Adam Frazier, and Anthony Vasquez. USA Baseball once again fielded a professional national team in 2019 for the WBSC Premier12. The event is a qualifier for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and was to be held in November. World Baseball Classic Following the removal of baseball from the Olympic program in 2005, the World Baseball Classic (WBC) was proposed by MLB, the Major League Baseball Players Association, and other professional baseball leagues and their players associations around the world. Subsequently, the tournament was created and the first installment was played in 2006. Unique to the event is the use of MLB players on the rosters, marking the first team in USA Baseball history to feature MLB-level athletes. For the inaugural 2006 World Baseball Classic, Team USA featured stars such as Chase Utley, Derek Jeter, and Chipper Jones. In the second installment of the WBC in 2009, with Dustin Pedroia, Jimmy Rollins, and Jeter donning the red, white, and blue, the U.S. team finished fourth, losing to Japan in the semifinals. The 2013 WBC team was managed by Joe Torre and led by David Wright, Joe Mauer, and Rollins. Team USA advanced to the second round of the tournament before falling to Puerto Rico. Most recently, Team USA had its best showing in the tournament so far, taking home the 2017 WBC gold medal. Managed by Jim Leyland and featuring Marcus Stroman, Christian Yelich, Adam Jones, Eric Hosmer, Buster Posey, and Brandon Crawford, the U.S. went 6–2 en route to the title. The team opened the tournament with a dramatic 3–2 walk-off victory in extra innings over Colombia and took down the defending champions Dominican Republic – with the help of an iconic catch from Jones that robbed Manny Machado of a home run in the