Australia yesterday stormed to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals for the first time in the team’s history, bringing the nation’s extraordinary campaign in the sport to a new level.
The team clinched an 8-3 victory against baseball minnows the Czech Republic, securing second place in Pool B, where Japan finished undefeated.
The group also includes South Korea and China.
Photo: AP
In four previous WBC appearances, Australia have never gone past the first round, and ahead of the game, infielder Logan Wade said hopes were riding high.
“To us it means everything,” the 31-year-old said. “We have been working all these years to get to this point, to be in this position.”
Australia opened the game in style with an Alex Hall home run in the top of the first inning, handing them an early upper hand.
However, the Czechs equalized in the bottom of the third with an Eric Sogard single to center field that allowed Petr Zyma to score.
Australia intensified their offensive in the top of the seventh when Wade fired a hit deep into right field, taking the game to 3-1.
In the top of the eighth, Hall tripled to expand Australia’s lead by two more runs. Robbie Glendinning followed with a single, bringing back Hall to make the game 6-1.
A fight-back by the Czech Republic in the bottom of the eighth proved too little, too late, with Australia adding two more runs in the top of the ninth to comfortably finish the game.
Baseball has been played in Australia since the 1850s, but it enjoys only a fraction of the popularity of cricket, rugby or Australian rules football in the sports-loving country.
Australia’s WBC squad has mostly been picked from the domestic league and also features 10 players based in the US, although none are on MLB rosters.
In the quarter-finals in Tokyo, they are to play Cuba, who beat Taiwan 7-1 to top Pool A in Taichung on Sunday.
In Pool B’s late game yesterday, South Korea dominated China 22-2. The game was called after the fifth inning.
On Sunday, Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani hit a three-run homer that landed just below his image on a video advertising board in their 7-1 victory over Australia to book their quarter-final showdown against Italy, who beat the Netherlands 7-1.
Ohtani said that hitting a home run at the tournament had been “a dream since childhood” and warned that he is not the only threat in the Japan team packed with talent.
“We can score runs from anywhere and our pitchers are so stubborn,” he said.
“We’re playing really well, but there are strong teams out there waiting for us and I want us to get ready for that,” he added.
Australia manager Dave Nilsson called Japan the “best team in the world” and said their performance had been “no surprise.”
“I think the turning point was when Ohtani hit that ball about 500 feet [152.4m] in the first inning,” he said. “Any time they get a lead early in the game, they’re going to be very tough to chase down.”
Japan have assembled a star-studded squad combining the best of the domestic league with MLB stars like Ohtani.
Expectation is building that they can win the title for a record third time, and manager Hideki Kuriyama said he was “relieved” to clinch a place in the quarter-finals.
“All I was thinking about was getting out of the group and moving on,” he said.
In Pool C before a sellout crowd of 47,534 fans in Phoenix, Arizona, Mexico shocked defending champions the US 11-5 on the strength of two home runs by Joey Meneses.
A day after the Mexicans lost 5-4 to Colombia, they delivered a stunner to the MLB squad from baseball’s birthplace, leaving both teams at 1-1.
Canada opened with an 18-8 rout over Britain that was ended after seven innings under the 10-run mercy rule, joining Colombia atop the pool at 1-0.
In Pool D in Miami, Florida, Anthony Santander and Salvador Perez each hit three-run homers to power Venezuela over Puerto Rico 9-6, lifting the South Americans to 2-0.
Israel opened with a 3-1 victory over Nicaragua.
Additional reporting by staff writer, with AP
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