The Albany Gazette - Australia beat Taiwan in World Baseball Classic opener

A crowd of over 40,000, overwhelmingly supporting Taiwan, watched on as the 20-team international tournament got underway at the Tokyo Dome.

Home runs from Robbie Perkins and Travis Bazzana were enough to give Australia the win in a Pool C that also includes South Korea, the Czech Republic and defending champions Japan.

Pool-stage games are spread across Japan, Puerto Rico and the mainland United States, with the action moving to Miami and Houston from the quarter-finals onwards.

Japan, led by Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, do not begin their campaign until they play Taiwan on Friday but there was still plenty of interest in Tokyo.

Thousands of blue-clad Taiwan fans packed out the stands, singing songs, blowing whistles and playing trumpets in support of their team.

They almost lifted the roof off the stadium when US-born Stuart Fairchild hit a long shot that went just outside the foul pole in Taiwan's first at-bat.

Australia took the wind out of their sails when Perkins hit the first home run of the tournament, scoring two runs off Taiwan reliever Chen Po-yu in the fifth inning.

There was more bad news for Taiwan when captain Chen Chieh-hsien was forced out of the game in the sixth inning when he was hit on the hand by a pitch.

Australia increased their lead when Bazzana hit a solo home run in the seventh inning.

(W.Walker--TAG)