Australia have stunned world No.2 Taiwan, opening their tough World Baseball Classic campaign with a 3-0 win.<\/p>\n
Major League Baseball No.1 draft pick Travis Bazzana hit a solo home run and Robbie Perkins opened the scoring with a two-run homer.<\/p>\n
Alexander Wells, Jack O\u2019Loughlin and Jon Kennedy pitched three innings apiece as they shut out Taiwan, giving up just three hits for the game.<\/p>\n
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n It is a massive result for Australia, who need to finish as one of the top-two teams in Group C to progress to the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n Australia, ranked 11th, also have world No.1 and defending champions Japan, plus No.4 South Korea in the group. Their next opponents are Czechia, who are ranked 15th.<\/p>\n In front of a near-capacity crowd at the Tokyo Dome on Thursday, Wells gave Australia a dream start.<\/p>\n The left hander, a former major leaguer for the Baltimore Orioles, struck out six \u2014 including the last five hitters he faced \u2014 and went hitless in the first three innings.<\/p>\n Then Perkins put Australia on the board with his two-run shot in the fifth and Bazzana, who also had a single, scored their third run with his homer in the seventh.<\/p>\n Bazzana made history two years ago as the first Australian to be taken with the top pick in the major league draft. The second base is expected to make his MLB debut this season with Cleveland.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you think of the two things I thought about most growing up it was, like, playing in the WBC and being in the Tokyo Dome cause we\u2019d always come here \u2014 and playing the World Series and MLB. It\u2019s special,\u201d Bazzana said.<\/p>\n While his World Series dream is yet to come, he credited Perkins for getting Australia in front and removing some pressure.<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes slowing down the environment a touch easier when you have two runs already,\u201d Bazzana said.<\/p>\n \u201cI was feeling good in the box and got a good pitch to hit.\u201d<\/p>\n Third base Curtis Mead, another MLB player at the Chicago White Sox, joined Bazzana in picking up two hits.<\/p>\n O\u2019Loughlin, the latest Australian to make his major league debut two years ago for the Oakland As, took over from Wells for three innings and was credited with the win.<\/p>\n Kennedy pitched the last three innings for the save.<\/p>\n Right-hander Jo-Hsi Hsu threw four scoreless innings for Taiwan before Perkins went deep off right-hander Po-Yu Chen (0-1).<\/p>\n