AN UNBELIEVABLE start from Victoria’s Travis Blackley and grand slam from James Beresford saw Australia claim a vital victory over China in game two of their World Baseball Classic campaign, moving one step closer to the second round of the tournament.
James Beresford made his big-league debut in 2016 after more than ten years of toiling away in the minors, and showed off some of that big-league power against the world’s 18th ranked nation.
Facing the same situation in last night’s loss to world number 1 Japan, Beresford deposited the first pitch of his at bat over the right field fence for a grand slam, move the Australian’s lead to 11.
Blackley set the tone for the Australians, throwing 4.2 scoreless innings, only giving up the two hits while only tossing 48 pitches in an outstanding performance.
Team Australia Manager Jon Deeble spoke about what it would mean for Australia to make the second round.
“It’d mean the world to Australian baseball to make the second round,” Deeble said.
“It’d be the biggest thing since winning silver at the 2004 Olympics.”
“Blackley was super-efficient tonight and we got everything out of him. Our bats came alive and it’s really comforting we swung the bats well.”
Perth’s Luke Hughes continues to swing a hot bat and lit up the Tokyo Dome with a two-run home run in the third to open the scoring, following that up with a double in the seventh, finishing his night with 2 hits and 4 RBI.
Australia’s final pool game of the World Baseball Classic sees them take on world #5 Cuba.
The first pitch of the ballgame will take place at 12pm local (2pm AEDT) with the game to be broadcast on ESPN.