Players from Melbourne and Brisbane's Australian Baseball League grand final teams have dominated selection in the Australia side to play in next month's World Baseball Classic (WBC)
Baseball Australia on Thursday announced a 28-man roster to play in Japan in the preliminary round, where 10th-ranked Australia have been pooled with top-ranked Japan, No.5 Cuba and No.18 China, with the top two teams qualifying for the second round.
Minor premiers Melbourne were rewarded with eight players selected, while fellow grand finalists and defending champions Brisbane have seven.
Those teams square off in the grand final series starting with game one on Friday in Melbourne.
Perth and Canberra will contribute four players while three from Adelaide and two from Sydney made the cut.
The Australian team will travel to Seoul, South Korea, on February 24 for a pre-tournament tour, before moving on to Tokyo for their first game on March 8.
The WBC is played every four years.
Aust: Tim Atherton (Can), James Beresford (Mel), Travis Blackley (Bri), Allan de San Miguel (Mel), Mitch Dening (Ade), Brad Harman (Mel), Liam Hendriks (Per), Luke Hughes (Per), David Kandilas (Can), Jon Kennedy (Mel), Tim Kennelly (Per), Steven Kent (Can), Peter Moylan (Mel), Mitch Nilsson (Bri), Trent Oeltjen (Bri), Robbie Perkins (Can), Ryan Rowland-Smith (Bri), Dushan Ruzic (Mel), Warwick Saupold (Per), Ryan Searle (Bri), Josh Tols (Mel), Todd Van Steensel (Syd), Logan Wade (Bri), Stefan Welch (Ade), Lachlan Wells (Syd), Aaron Whitefield (Bri), Matthew Williams (Ade), Mike Walker (Mel).
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