Australia ran into a red hot Hanshin pitching staff in their first game of their tour of Osaka, and eventually were defeated 3-0 at the Kyocera Dome in Osaka.
Luke Hughes collected a double in the first inning for Australia, and when Shun Takayama nailed a double in the first at bat of the ballgame, signs were ominous for Team Australia. Australian starting pitcher Travis Blackley worked himself out of the early trouble though, and finished the inning unscathed.
Hanshin scored runs in the second, third and fourth inning, with Yusuke Oyama claiming two hits and an RBI from his first two at-bats. Offensively for Australia, Luke Hughes, James Beresford, Mitch Dening and David Kandilas were the four men to claim hits, with Dening picking up two.
Team Australia Manager Jon Deeble was pleased with getting the guys out there.
“We wanted to make sure we got all of our players and position players in the game and we did that,” Deeble said.
“There are a few things we still need to work on, we took way too many fastballs early in the count. We didn't swing the bats early enough in the count and we want our guys doing that – and we didn't do that tonight."
Twice Australia managed to get their leadoff man aboard, but struggled to move the runner over, with neither inning yielding any runs.
Australia’s pitching staff held Hanshin at bay after the fourth, with Lachlan Wells, Ryan Searle, Steve Kent and Josh Tols all throwing scoreless innings.
Australia scattered base-runners in the late innings, with David Kandilas chipping in with a two-out single, but struggling to string hits together brought the Aussies undone.
Australia’s final pre-World Baseball Classic tune up comes against Orix Buffaloes, another top professional Japanese team. Australia and Orix clash on 6 March at 7pm local (9pm AEDT).
