Free agent Chris Snelling homered twice as Australia defeated Mexico 17-7 in eight innings to win its WBC opener.
Starter Craig Anderson gave up six runs in one-plus innings, but Australia bounced back to score the final 13 runs of the contest, as just one of Mexico's eight pitchers got through his outing unscathed. It's just too bad for Australia that this is no longer a round-robin competition, as it very likely would have played out with it beating South Africa in one of its next two games to advance. As it's set up now, most likely Cuba will defeat Australia and Mexico will top South Africa in the loser's bracket, leaving Australia to play Mexico again for the right to advance.
|