Behind a pitching performance that only gave up three hits, and some timely late runs, Australia defeated Hongik University 8-0 in their first World Baseball Classic warm-up game.
Travis Blackley was given the start by Jon Deeble and was locked in from the opening pitch, striking out four through three innings of work, only giving up the one hit. The offence took its time to warm up, with an error in the second inning seeing Australia take an early 2-0 lead. From there, both team's pitching and defence reigned supreme, with Blackley, Dushan Ruzic, Josh Tols, Matt Williams and Steve Kent scattering three hits across nine innings.
Team Australia Manager Jon Deeble was impressed with his team's opening hit-out of the World Baseball Classic tour.
"We got out of tonight what we wanted to," Deeble said.
"All of our pitchers threw well, to only give up three hits and one walk is really pleasing. One goal we went in with today was to get as many at-bats into our hitters as possible and with some guys getting five at-bats, we couldn't be happier."
It took until the seventh inning for the Aussies to break the game open, with back-to-back singles from Team Australia stalwarts Allan de San Miguel and Brad Harman extending Australia's lead to four.
A combination of sac-flys, errors, and base hits saw the lead balloon to eight in the blink of an eye, with RBIs from Robbie Perkins and Mitch Dening.
Steve Kent saw the game out with no troubles, and Team Australia made a perfect start to their World Baseball Classic campaign.
Australia's next game of their World Baseball Classic tour sees them take on world #3 ranked South Korea at the Gocheok Dome on Monday 28 February at 7pm local (9pm AEDT).
