The Australian national baseball team chose Hanwha as its opponent for a practice game to be played at the Melbourne Ball Park in Australia on Sept. 17-18. The biggest reason for this is that Hanwha will hold its spring camp in Melbourne, Australia from next month. Australia judged that a warm-up match with Hanwha, a team affiliated with the KBO League, which is higher than its own league, will help boost its performance. Australia introduced Hanwha as a "big shot in Korean baseball," raising expectations of Australian baseball fans.
Australia is very serious about this warm-up match. Australia selected and announced 21 players for its national team who will play in an warm-up match against Hanwha on Wednesday, and all 21 players are comprised of players who have experienced the World Baseball Classic at least once. Nineteen of the 21 players were players who participated in the 2023 WBC that took place in March last year. This means that the team has the best members. Veteran outfielder Tim Kennelly (38), who is captain of the Australian team and whose main job is a firefighter in 2023, is expected to take the center stage again.
Australia was one of the countries that made a big splash at the 2023 WBC. Korean baseball fans will remember it more clearly. Australia was a team that dealt a shocking defeat to Korea. At the time, the Korean national baseball team coach Lee Kang-chul expected that Korea would be able to secure its next round only when it beat Australia, its first opponent in Group B, but lost 7-8 amid a slump on the Korean mound. Korea, which suffered a crushing defeat to Australia, which it thought was only a baseball frontier, was in tremendous shock and suffered the bitterness of being eliminated from the first round for three consecutive tournaments through last year, following the 2013 and 2017 tournaments.
After beating Korea, Australia manager Dave Nielsen was even asked, "Is it a historic victory for Australian baseball?" Australia's victory over Korea was quite a big event at the time, which surprised baseball officials around the world.
Having defeated Korea, Australia was on a roll. Although its advance was abated by losing 1-7 to Japan, it secured a berth to advance to the quarterfinals by grabbing second place in Group B with three wins and one loss. It was the first time for Australia to pass the first round of the World Baseball Organization (WBC). The players, who caused an event in the history of Australian baseball, are preparing to face off against the Hanwha Eagles next month.
Hanwha is in the process of preparing for the season and will not force players to participate in the game as it is an event-like event. There is no need to put much emphasis on winning or losing the game. Still, Hanwha has the present and future of the Korean baseball in slugging. Pitcher Moon Dong-ju and infielder Noh Si-hwan are key players in changing generations of Korean baseball. Moon Dong-ju is the ace player for the Korean national team, and Noh garnered 31 home runs and 101 RBIs last year, signaling the birth of a new powerhouse by winning both the home run king and the RBI and the title. Both players failed to participate in last year's WBC, but they were selected to the national baseball team for the "2022 Hangzhou Asian Games" held in October last year and gave Korea a gold medal.
Introducing Hanwha, which will face off in the warm-up match, Australia said, "Hanwha will hold a spring camp in Melbourne ahead of the 2024 season. It is a team where Noh Si-hwan, the home run king of the KBO League, plays last year. He is also a team that Warwick Saupold, co-captain of the Australian national team, played in in 2020 and 2021."
Australian players are expected to play fairly aggressively. Australia, which has opposite seasons with Korea, will host its own league (ABL) in winter. Australian players are expected to play with full condition at the end of the season. Hence, they are placing great importance on this match. The match will likely draw keen attention as it will prepare for the 2024 WBSC Premier 12, which will take place in November this year, and as it will be the first time in four years that the Australian team will play in its own country since 2020.
"I think it is important to continue to win as a team after our successful performance at the WBC last year. This team has all the experience and talent that it has," Nielsen said. "As long as all the players of this team are healthy, we will be able to go to the Premier 12 together this year."
Australia drafted three outfielders: Kennelly, Aaron Whitefield and Ulrich Bozarski. The infield picked third baseman Darryl Judge, shortstop Logan Wade, utility Jarryd Dale, and first basemen Rickson Wingrove and Jake Bowie. The catcher was set up by Robbie Perkinson and Alex Hall.
Pitchers included Lachlan Wells, Stephen Kent, John Kennedy, Dan McGrath, and right-handers Tim Anderson, Sam Holland, Warwick Suffold, Coen Wynne, Josh Geyer, Luke Wilkins and Todd Van Stensel.