Joey Votto slumped in the chair inside the interview room looking as if he'd just struck out for the 112th consecutive time and clanked a ground ball to allow the winning run to score.
Italy upset Canada's major-league lineup 6-2 advancing to tonight's elimination game against Venezuela.
"In my experience," Votto said, "this is the most disappointing loss I've ever suffered. It will take some time to recover."
Italy had four players in the lineup who appeared in the majors in 2008, including Francisco Cervelli's five at-bats with the New York Yankees.
"I know it is only a ball game, but this was devastating. I was really excited about this tournament," Votto said.
"I don't think we tightened up, guys still had heart, we didn't give up. They beat us."
How does Canada play so well Saturday against Team USA losing 6-5 with the tying run on second and one out in the ninth and go so meekly into the night and on out-bound planes this morning after losing to Italy?
"We knew the American pitchers, we'd either faced them or we had seen them on TV," Votto said. "The only guy I knew of Italy's three pitchers was Jason Grilli. When the guy is unknown, the advantage goes to the pitcher."
Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira and Johnny Damon all said the same three years ago when Adam Loewen beat the U.S. 8-6.
Starter Vince Perkins took the blame, as did manager Ernie Whitt.
"The bottom line is, I let the guys down," Perkins said, "I didn't set the tempo. I put pressure on our hitters, putting them in a hole early."
Perkins mishandled a comebacker for an error to open the game, walked two an out later to load the bases and nearly threw away a tapper back to him. In all he walked four in two-plus innings, allowing three runs, one unearned.
"Obviously some nerves played into it, I was contacted for this two or three months ago, you build up towards the start and have this huge disappointment when you perform like I did.
"You have to move on, go back to spring training, baseball and life moves on."
Less than an hour before the first pitch Perkins sat in the third base dugout in street clothes, an odd sight at the Rogers Centre. Meanwhile, Canadian hitters buzzed around Don Cherry, who threw out the first pitch -- a Kingston slider for a strike -- for pictures and autographs.
