{"id":524786,"date":"2026-03-07T14:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T14:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/524786\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T14:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T14:07:14","slug":"top-2023-mlb-draft-pick-travis-bazzana-coming-through-for-australia-at-the-wbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/524786\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 2023 MLB Draft Pick Travis Bazzana Coming Through for Australia at the WBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Travis Bazzana<\/a>, the first Australian to be selected No 1 overall in Major League Baseball’s draft, is showcasing his talent at the World Baseball Classic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bazzana is hoping his performance in this year’s WBC will be a springboard to making his MLB<\/a> debut this season for the Cleveland Guardians<\/a>, who made the 23-year-old infielder the first overall pick in the 2024 draft.<\/p>\n

Bazzana crushed a solo home run in the seventh inning at Tokyo Dome on Thursday, March 5 as Australia defeated Taiwan 3-0 in the Pool C opener before a crowd of 40,523.<\/p>\n

It was the type of game that both Bazzana and the Guardians hope will be repeated many times when he reaches Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n

After hitting a single in his second at-bat, Bazzana connected for a 383-foot (117-meter) homer into the right-field stands.<\/p>\n

“It’s a great experience,” the 23-year-old Bazzana said. “I will cherish these games in Tokyo Dome for the rest of my life and I hope to play in similar environments whether it’s here again or in playoff baseball in America in the future. That would be incredible. I love playing here and I hope to experience many more baseball games like that.”<\/p>\n

Australia’s manager Dave Nilsson, who played in both MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball<\/a>, praised his young second baseman.<\/p>\n

“I can say to a man, everyone in the dugout is really pleased for Travis personally,” Nilsson said. “But we are more pleased for the outcome of the game. It was a big run in that seventh inning when he hit it, it really gave us that extra bit of breathing room.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nilson then said, “He had a great night, had a couple of hits, played solid defense so I am really happy for him.”<\/p>\n

Enjoying the Atmosphere in Tokyo<\/p>\n

Bazzana said Tokyo Dome is a place he’s always dreamed about playing in.<\/p>\n

“When I was younger, Team Australia was playing in the Tokyo Dome for tournaments such the Premier12 and the World Baseball Classic,” he recalled. “So I had vivid memories watching the team and I obviously know how fans in Japan, and the baseball culture in Japan impact this environment so it’s a special one.”<\/p>\n

Even though Australia was the home team, it felt much more like a road game for the Aussies as Tokyo Dome was packed with Taiwanese fans who were raucous most of the game but fell silent when Bazzana hit his homer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It was a weird feeling when I hit the home run the crowd went very quiet,” Bazzana said.<\/p>\n

He added, “It was strange, my mind didn’t know what to think because I was expecting a cheer but it was so quiet, lots of fans in the crowd, lots of emotion, but we kept it steady.”<\/p>\n

Bazzana also made a solid defensive play at second base, ranging far to his left to stop a sharply hit grounder and help his teammates keep Taiwan off the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

\"TravisTravis Bazzana (right) celebrates with a teammate after hitting a home run on March 5 against Taiwan. (\u00a9Issei Kato\/REUTERS)<\/p>\n

Getting to Know Travis Bazzana\u00a0<\/p>\n

A college star at Oregon State University, Bazzana made it to Triple-A Columbus for 26 games during the 2025 season. Across multiple minor league levels, he batted .245 with 17 doubles, five triples, nine home runs and 12 steals.<\/p>\n

He suffered a left oblique strain last year, which limited the number of games he played in. Bazzana will likely open 2026 in Triple-A but performances like the one on Thursday will speed up his promotion to Cleveland.<\/p>\n


\n\"Geothermal<\/a>Info on the WBC<\/p>\n

Each pool in the WBC \u2015 Tokyo, San Juan, Houston and Miami \u2015\u00a0 features five teams playing in a round-robin format. The top two teams from each pool will advance to the quarterfinals. And the teams that advance from Tokyo will go to Miami.<\/p>\n

The winners of the quarterfinal games will then meet in Miami for the semifinals and championship round. On March 17, the championship game will be held.<\/p>\n

Australia also beat the Czech Republic 5-1 and is on the brink of advancing out of the preliminary round for the first time.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/p>\n

Author: <\/a>JAPAN Forward<\/p>\n


\n\"Geothermal<\/a> <\/p>\n

\t\tContinue Reading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Travis Bazzana, the first Australian to be selected No 1 overall in Major League Baseball’s draft, is showcasing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,5258,256066,261210,591,85,258653,143382],"class_list":["post-524786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-dave-nilsson","tag-jim-armstrong","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-travis-bazzana","tag-world-baseball-classic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}