WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL C - KOREA VS AUSTRALIA

March 9, 2026

David Nilsson

Tokyo Dome

Team Australia

Postgame Press Conference

Korea 7, Australia 2

Q. In the second and third inning is when they started to get some hit off your pitchers and put the bat on the ball a little bit. What did you see in those innings when the game seemed to get away early before you guys tried to fight back?

DAVID NILSSON: Yeah, they were very aggressive swinging the bats. They like to be aggressive swinging the bats. Our pitchers were close, but didn't have that sharpness, fell behind in some counts and they took advantage of it.

Q. What happened with the error by Jarryd Dale?

DAVID NILSSON: Well, obviously disappointed to see him make an error. He had been playing fantastic defense for us all tournament. He backed himself. He thought he had the guy at second, and he just didn't have a grip of it. Threw the ball to right field. So really not much to think about. He tried to make a good play and didn't get it done.

Q. We saw all the emotion from the players. We saw how heartbreaking this was for them. We heard you had a meeting with them. Can you share a little bit of what you might have been telling the team?

DAVID NILSSON: Obviously a lot of that stuff is personal but really just the message was, I mean, we can't meet our assignment, right. We kind of failed. But at the same time, we did a lot of good things, and it just showed we can play on this stage. But we've got more work to do. We've got some more improvements to make in the big moments. That was it.

You know, we just keep looking forward and keep working on building the program. And you know just tell the players how much I just believe in them and how much I trust them and that's really all you can do. I'm there from when they win and I'm there from when they lose. Nothing really changes.

Q. What do you think needs to happen for Team Australia to advance more in future WBC tournament?

DAVID NILSSON: I think everything will be reviewed. Every part of our team will be reviewed, all the way from the head coach all the way down to guys in the bullpen. We'll look at it. Again, we did a lot of good things. And we're just going to try to continue to improve, be more athletic, build our depth. It's probably too early to look forward right now but we do have Olympic Games coming up. It's kind of too soon to even talk about that right now.

We just need to get through tonight and get through it. We've got some people retiring and some people may not play for us again, and they need to be respected and treated appropriately and spend time with their teammates, and others are just starting a season. It's kind of a weird space, weird from that point of view; that the event is over but for a lot of people, their season is beginning.

We'll just enjoy the night just being with each other and hanging out.

Q. After the game, Bazzana couldn't move out of the dugout, but he did great job. He scored a run Australia needed. So how do you expect for his career, and also how did you see his performance in this WBC, and how do you expect for Australian baseball's future?

DAVID NILSSON: I think everyone can see that as a team, we're improving and we can play on this stage. I think the future of Australian baseball is bright and we're only going to get better as we produce more players trying Travis out there, we'll get better and our performance will improve.

As far as Travis, he had a great tournament for a first-time WBC. Had a lot of eyeballs on him and a lot of people following him. I think he did a really good job first time around. Had a few big hits for us and was superb defensively.

I think while it's a team event, individually, he did really well. He contributed in every way. And he should be proud of his performance, even though he's crying in the locker room right now because he didn't come here for himself. He came here for Australia.