Two-time defending World Baseball Classic champion Japan endured a scare on Saturday one week before the start of the 2013 tournament, but backup catcher Ryoji Aikawa rescued his team with a three-run, eighth-inning homer in a 3-2 victory over Australia.
Koji Yamamoto's Samurai Japan prevailed in the first of its two exhibition games as the teams prepare for the start of the WBC on March 2. Japan will open the defense of the titles won in 2006 and 2009 in Fukuoka in Pool A, while Australia is grouped in Pool B in Taichung, Taiwan.
Trailing 2-0 with one out in the eighth and just one hit on the scoreboard, Sho Nakata and Hirokazu Ibata hit back-to-back singles off lefty Steven Kent, who served up a 3-1 pitch that Aikawa just got over the left-field wall. The Yakult Swallows catcher came on in the top of the eighth as a defensive replacement and made a difference in his only at-bat.