Japan cruise to win against Australia in WBSC Premier12 2024 Group B opener in Nagoya

Defending champions and No. 1 in the WBSC/KONAMI Men’s Baseball World Ranking, Japan, started off the Opening Round in Group B of the WBSC Premier12 2024 presented by RAXUS on Wednesday evening at the Vantelin Dome in Nagoya, Japan with a 9-3 win over No. 15 Australia.

Samurai Japan scored in six of the first eight innings and built up a quick 5-0 lead through four. Australia answered with a pair of long home runs in the top of the sixth to reduce the deficit to 3-5, but Japan added four insurance runs in the seventh and eighth to seal the victory.

"I’m extremely relieved. In the unique tension of an international game, I was nervous when the game started, but the players did a great job", said Japan's manager Hirokazo Ibata following the game. "I want to continue doing well in the games ahead. I’m really grateful to be able to start the tournament here, at the place where my baseball career began. And I’m especially happy to have won thanks to all the fans who came out to support us."

"I was disappointed. And what I was disappointed about was that we just gave some cheap runs, which is very difficult with the quality of the team now. That was where my disappointment was from us, disappointed the players", said Australia's manager David Nilsson. "You know, they put a lot of work in, and they didn't perform the way that they wanted to show. We're all in together, and we'll stick together. We'll be fine the next few days. But yeah, it wasn't the way they wanted to start."

In front of an attendance of 30,691 in Nagoya Japan didn’t waste much time and scored in the first right away. Masayuki Kuwahara scored on a sac fly by Ryosuke Tatsumi. In the second Rixon Wingrove made a great stop at first base on a fielder’s choice, which however still brought Kotaro Kiyomiya over the plate. In the third and fourth Japan took advantage of a few miscues in the Australian defense. First Shota Morishita scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-0 in the third. Kotaro Kurebayashi and Shogo Sakakura then scored when the ball was thrown away on an infield ground ball in the fourth.

Left-hander Haruto Inoue was dealing early on. He struck out eight batters in the first five innings, allowing just three hits during that time. "I was very nervous at the beginning, but I’m so happy that we were able to win as a team", said the pitcher after the game. "Catcher Sakakura led me with a very aggressive game plan. Thanks to his lead, I was able to throw freely and fully commit to my pitches. The best thing was that I was able to throw my finishing pitches in the right spots when I had the hitters in two-strike counts."

In the sixth Australia got to Inoue with a long leadoff home run to centerfield by Ulrich Bojarski. After Travis Bazzana followed with a single, Japan changed pitchers. Rikuto Yokoyama seemingly was on its way to avoid further damage with two quick outs. But then Rixon Wingrove connected for a two-run home run.

However, it
was the only real threat by the team from Down Under in the game. Japan got
back to scoring in the seventh with a RBI single by Shugo Maki. Then in the
eighth Shota Morishita and Ryoya Kurihara extended the lead to six runs with
back-to-back run-scoring doubles.

Morishita led the way for Japan on offense, going 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles, a single and a walk, three runs scored and two RBI. Sakakura scored twice for Japan, which had 13 hits in the game. Travis Bazzana, the No. 1 draft pick in Major League Baseball this year, collected a pair of singles and stole a base for Australia. "It's a team game. Two hits was good in this environment, but it's disappointing the way we played. So it only means so much", said Bazzana after the game. "I think my approach was consistent for how I want to attack the pitching. That was very quality pitching throughout the game, but I had a plan, and it worked out two at bats and the other two I missed some good pitches to hit, but will bounce back in the next game."

On Australia’s pitching side David Nilsson made quite a few trips to the mound, as they set a record for pitching changes within a single nine-inning game in WBSC Premier12 competitions. He played the matchups throughout the entire contest, bringing out 12 hurlers. Lewis Thorpe got charged with the loss.  

Both teams will not play on Thursday, as they travel to Taiwan to continue with the opening round in Tapei. "We did come in here expecting that we're going to win every game, because we know that the talent is really good. We know the opposition is really good", said Australia's David Nilsson looking ahead to the rest of the games. "So you know losing one game is not going to derail us or take us of course, we know that every team's gonna have to battle, and every team is probably gonna count and loss along the way, and it's having the ability to bounce back and just get back on time, which is what we’ll do."

Australia is going to face the Dominican Republic on Friday, while Japan takes on Korea. Japan's manager Hirokazu Ibata is optimistic for the rest of the opening round. "We will fight with all our might, one game at a time. First, we’ll head to Taiwan and aim to advance through the qualifiers, then return to Japan."