Australia beats Taiwan to open 2026 World Baseball Classic

Travis Bazzana (Erik Drost, Wikimedia Commons)

The 2026 World Baseball Classic commenced on Thursday, with Australia knocking off Chinese Taipei by a score of 3-0. The game was attended by 40,523 spectators at Japan’s Tokyo Dome, and had terrific pace. It only took two hours and 15 minutes to complete.

What we saw from Australia was excellent pitching and timely power when it came to hitting the baseball.

Team Australia limited Chinese Taipei to only three hits. Alex Wells of the Geelong Baseball’s Association East Belmont Saints was outstanding on the mound to begin the contest. The native of Newcastle had six strikeouts in three innings of work. Jack O’Loughlin of Adelaide then came into relief and threw three more shutout innings and got the win. O’Loughlin is currently playing for the Adelaide Giants. Then, Jon Kennedy of Melbourne pitched three more shutout innings and picked up the save. Kennedy is currently with the Brisbane Bandits.

From an offensive perspective, Australia had home runs from catcher Robbie Perkins of Canberra and second baseman Travis Bazzana of Sydney. Perkins is with the Bandits and Bazzana is with the Columbus Clippers of the International League (the top minor league affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians).

In other WBC action on Thursday, South Korea spanked Czech Republic by a score of 11-4. What was most surprising about this game was actually the very poor attendance. Only 19,920 attended, which was less than half of the number of people who saw Australia and Chinese Taipei. Australia next plays the Czech Republic on Friday at 12pm in Tokyo.