08 March 2026
- Team Australia World Baseball Classic
Reviewing the Numbers: A look at Team Australia through two games of the WBC
by Sean Walsh
As we reach the halfway point of Team Australia’s 2026 WBC Pool C Game Play, the David Nilsson-led Green and Gold baseball club sits at 2-0 in the group with wins over Chinese Taipei (3-0) and Czechia (5-1).
Now, they face familiar heavy-weights Japan on Sunday Evening (9pm AEDT) and Korea on Monday (9pm AEDT).
Baseball.com.au’s Sean Walsh breaks down some of the numbers that have allowed the Aussies to pick up wins in both games at the Tokyo Dome and what trends will be important for the Southern Thunder to continue if they are to get out of the “Pool of Death” and progress to the Quarter Finals in Miami.
You Get a Hit, Everyone Gets a Hit
After Day 2, the Aussies piled up 16 hits across the two games (7 vs Chinese Taipei and 9 against Czechia), with a six players having registered multiple hits. Let’s take a look:
Curtis Mead- 4
Jarryd Dale- 3
Travis Bazzana- 2
Chris Burke- 2
Alex Hall- 2
Robbie Perkins- 2
This is a fantastic display of the balanced attack of Team Australia’s offense so far and not relying on one of two bats to stay hot.
“I think anyone can have a moment,” said captain Tim Kennelly before facing Czechia. “You saw that when Perkins and Bazzana hit homers, and I think we’ll see in future games other guys have big moments too.”
In Game 2, it was Curtis Mead, Jarryd Dale, Chris Burke and Alex Hall who had two-hit performances. Mead and Hall went deep.
It gives Dave Nilsson and his coaching staff flexibility across the board with lineup jigging as they head towards the back end of Pool Play against Japan and Korea.
“We have a lot of players who have the ability to put the ball out of the park. I think we’ve displayed that over the last WBCs,” said Nilsson. “The athletes continue to get better, continue to get stronger, and they’re putting some good swings on the ball.”
After Friday night, Jarryd Dale and Alex Hall were the only two of four players (Ohtani- JPN & Whitecomb- KOR) with multiple XBH, with the Victorian-born SS Dale picking up a double and triple against Czechia in his outing.
A note on Alex Hall. The Western Australian picked up a double off a Ondrej Satoria FB to LF off the wall that had an exit velocity of 107.2 MPH (172km/hr) as well as chalking a Solo 338ft (106.9 mph off the barrel) insurance blast to deep left CF for the Aussies to go ahead 4-1.
Bullpen Brilliance
They say in tournament play that it’s the team with the best pens that control games and the Aussie arms have been absolutely fantastic across the two games thus far.
They have only allowed one run in the 18 frames of work. That lone run came from Czechia’s Vojtech Mensik on a sacrifice fly off southpaw starter Josh Hendrickson – who was terrific in his own right.
The guys behind both Hendrickson and Game 1 starter Alex Wells have been nothing short of outstanding, with 12 scoreless innings across both games from the bullpen.
Wells himself was excellent in his start. He garnered six punch outs across his 3 innings of work, including a Team Australia WBC record of 5 consecutive Strikeouts.
Major Leaguer talent Jack O’Loughlin followed, working through 44 pitches across his three innings, using his four-arrow quiver of Slider (32% usage), 4SFM (30% usage), Changeup (22% usage- all v RHH) and Sweeper (20% usage- all v LHH), to work around any danger of a mixed left and right order that Chinese Taipei possessed.
Long-time ABL star Jon Kennedy was able to then continue the momentum of his fellow two southpaws with three more scoreless stanzas on the way to collecting the save. He had a 66% strike percentage and only gave up the one hit across his 41 pitch outing.
That continued vs Czechia with the mix of different arms and slots.
Coen Wynne (2IP 0H 0BB) had his Sinker-Curve-Change attack, while Blake Townsend’s lefty arsenal of sinker-sweeper produced another scoreless inning.
In his WBC debut, Ky Hampton had two strikeouts with with a pair of swinging strikes from his deadly sinker.
As the Aussies were tasked with holding a slim two run lead heading into the final six outs, Todd Van Steensel’s eighth inning was highlighted by his familiar heater. The veteran’s four-seam fastball sat at an average velocity of 92.4 mph.
Mitch Neunborn followed with a great ability to change gears on the speed scale, sitting at 91mph with his FB and the Splitter sitting a whopping 14mph slower.
The Aussies are also yet to use pitchers like Team Australia long-time bullpen star Sam Holland (RHP at his second WBC), former Detroit Tigers Major Leaguer Warwick Saupold (4th WBC), and co-ABL Reliever of the Year Cooper Morgan.
Complimentary Baseball
A lot of the pre-tournament focus from Team Australia manager David Nilsson and his coaching staff was the ability in big pressure moments that the team in Green and Gold don’t shoot themselves in the foot and hold the simple keys close to their minds.
Across the opening games of Pool Play, the numbers paint a pretty picture for Team Australia.
The collective group holds 0.67 WHIP, only having allowed five walks across 59 total ABs the staff has seen.
“I think the key here is we are limiting the walks, staying focused and executing the game plan. We’ve allowed one run in 18 innings and I think anywhere that’s a good stat. We’ve really simplified the game plan and all the credit goes to the players and coaches for executing a game plan.”
An area that will be vital to the continued improvement against powerhouse’s Japan and Korea will be the offences’ ability to make the most of any RISP, with Australia currently sitting at 2/10 (20%) across the opening games. This was a strength of the Aussies in the 2023 tournament, driving the ducks on the pond at an elite level of 14-for-34 (41%).
Australia plays Japan tonight at 9:00PM.
Tune in on ESPN / Disney+.
