Shohei Ohtani homered for the second straight day and Seiya Suzuki went deep twice as defending champion Japan beat South Korea 8-6 on Saturday night at Tokyo and improved to 2-0 at the World Baseball Classic.

Suzuki drove in four runs and Masataka Yoshida homered and had three RBIs for the Samurai Warriors, who overcame a 3-0, first-inning deficit.

A day after hitting a grand slam in a 13-0 win over Taiwan, Ohtani hit a tying home run on a hanging curve from Young Pyo Ko in the third.

Suzuki hit a two-run homer in the second. Two batters after Ohtani’s drive, Suzuki chased Ko by homering for a 4-3 lead. Yoshida homered on reliever Byeong Hyeon Jo’s second pitch.

Hyeseong Kim’s two-run homer against Hiromi Ito tied the score in the fourth for South Korea (1-1).

Suzuki put Japan ahead for good at 6-5 when he drew a bases-loaded walk from Young Kyu Kim in a three-run seventh that included Yoshida’s two-run single.

Winner Atsuki Taneichi struck out the side in the seventh, and Taisei Ota got three straight outs on seven pitches for the save.

Netherlands 4, Nicaragua 3: Ozzie Albies hit a game-winning three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to lead the Netherlands over Nicaragua.

The Netherlands began its two-out rally on Ceddanne Rafaela’s single against reliever Angel Obando. Xander Bogaerts doubled, advancing Rafaela to third before Albies hit Obando’s first pitch over the wall in right.

The Netherlands im- proved to 1-1 in Group D. Nicaragua dropped to 0-2.

Jeter Downs hit a two-run homer in the eighth to put Nicaragua ahead 3-1.

Canada 8, Colombia 2: A run-saving defensive play by brothers Josh and Bo Naylor boosted Canada in the first inning at San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Owen Cassie hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the second off emergency starter Austin Bergner after Julio Teheran was scratched with right shoulder impingement.

Canada won its opener while Colombia dropped to 0-2 in Group A.

Michael Arroyo led off the game with a single off Michael Soroka, stole second and took third on a wild pitch. Reynaldo Rodriguez grounded to first baseman Josh Naylor, who threw to brother Bo at the plate for the tag.

Taiwan 14, Czech Republic 0: Stuart Fairchild, whose mother is from Taiwan, hit a second-inning grand slam off Jan Novak for a quick six-run lead.

Taiwan set a WBC record with seven steals and im- proved to 1-2 in a game cut to seven innings by a mercy rule.

The Czechs dropped to 0-3 in their second WBC.

Yu Chang had three hits and four RBIs.

Italy 8, Brazil 0: Dante Nori hit two home runs and Dominic Canzone homered with four RBIs to lead Italy in a Pool B game in Houston.

The game was scoreless until the sixth when Zach Dezenzo hit an RBI single with one out to put Italy on top. Jac Caglianone followed with a two-out double that scored another run.

Nori’s first home run came with one out in the seventh to make it 3-0. There was one out with two ons when Canzone’s homer to right center field extended the lead to 6-0.

There was one out in the eighth when Nori went deep again on a solo shot.