LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Team Italy has no reason to be ashamed. But it appears its run in the inaugural World Baseball Classic has come to an end.

Burdened with two errors by third baseman Mark Saccomanno at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex on Thursday afternoon, Italy closed its schedule in Pool D with a 8-3 loss to the Dominican Republic.

Having won just one of its three games in Pool D, Italy put itself in position of needing a near-miracle to advance to the second round. But even if there aren't any miraculous developments, Italian manager Matt Galante believes his team should feel nothing but pride.

"There is nobody prouder of our team than me," Galante said. "I think we proved to the people of Italy, to the Italian Federation, that we can play this caliber of baseball. We certainly didn't win. But we showed we can play with the big boys."

After opening Pool play with an impressive 10-0 win over Australia, Italy was unable to pull what would have been a major upset victory over Venezuela or the Dominicans. But with one victory and a couple of strong efforts against the powerful Latin countries, the Italians at least proved there may be a time when they're able to emerge victorious against the world's best baseball powers.

"It's not like we didn't belong," said Italian starter Tony Fiore, who allowed the Dominicans four runs -- two earned -- and five hits in 2 2/3 innings.

Even if the Venezuelans were to be upset by the Australians on Thursday night, their Wednesday night victory over Italy would give them the tie-breaker advantage and allow them to advance to the second round with the Dominicans.

Italy's only hope would be if Australia were to beat either the Venezuelans or the Dominicans on Friday night. That would leave three of the Pool's four teams with a 1-2 record. At that point a number of different tie-breaker scenarios would be used to determine which team would join the Dominicans in Puerto Rico for the second round.

"I don't think we exceeded expectations, maybe other people's expectations," Fiore said. "We were hoping to get to the next round. Baseball comes down to pitching. Overall, I think we pitched pretty well against a pretty good lineup."

Albert Pujols and Adrian Beltre, two of the studs in the Dominicans All-Star filled lineup, provided most of the damage against the Italian pitchers. Pujols drilled a two-run homer off Fiore in the third inning and Beltre, who homered twice against Venezuela on Tuesday, provided the crushing blow with a fifth-inning, three-run shot off Riccardo De Santis.

With the homers, the Dominicans deflated the hope the Italians had created while taking advantage of a shaky Odalis Perez and claiming a short-lived 3-2 third-inning lead. In the bottom half of the third, Pujols sent Fiore's delivery deep over the left-field wall to give his team a lead it wouldn't relinquish.

"I was trying to get ahead of him with a cutter," Fiore said. "It didn't move the way it was supposed to and he tattooed it."

Given a 4-3 lead courtesy of Pujols' long blast to left field, Jorge Sosa took the mound to begin the fourth and allowed just one Italian to reach base over the next four innings. While allowing just one hit -- Vincent Sinisi's sixth-inning, two-out single -- in four scoreless innings, Sosa threw 30 of his 40 pitches for strikes and recorded four strikeouts.

Things began auspiciously for the Italians when leadoff hitter Tony Giarratano opened the game with a double off Perez, who allowed three earned runs and four hits in three innings. Giarratano scored two batters later on a Frank Catalanotto single to center.

Unfortunately for the Italians, their short-lived one-run lead was erased in the bottom of the first inning, when Saccomanno was charged with two consecutive errors, both committed while attempting to record a force out at second base. His wild throw on Pujols' sharp grounder went into right field, allowing Jose Reyes and Placido Polanco to score.

Saccomanno's troubles continued when he was unable to record an out after fielding another Pujols grounder to begin the fifth. Three batters later, Beltre drilled his three-run homer off De Santis.

"We gave it as good of an effort as we possibly could, and again, I couldn't be prouder," Galante said. "This team has made me more proud than any team I've ever been with."

Italian catcher Mike Piazza, who went 0-for-8 and didn't hit a ball out of the infield against the Venezuelans and Dominicans, said he was thrilled with the experience he had while representing his heritage.

Catalanotto and Frank Menechino, who had consecutive doubles against Perez in Italy's two-run third inning, joined Piazza, as United States-born Major Leaguers who took advantage of representing the nation that produced their ancestors.

"We made friendships here," Piazza said. "We have connected with these beautiful Italian players and coaches. They came in and they're very proud and we're very proud to have played with them."