Defending champion Japan beat Australia 9-3 in their Group B opening game of the Premier12 baseball tournament Wednesday.Japan's starting pitcher Haruto Inoue was given an early 5-0 lead and held Australia to two runs in five-plus innings, striking out eight and walking none at Vantelin Dome Nagoya.Australia's Ulrich Bojarski and Rixon Wingrove homered in the sixth to cut Japan's lead to 5-3, but manager Hirokazu Ibata's team put the game out of reach by scoring a total of four runs in the seventh and eighth."I'm relieved," Ibata said. "My players did really well amid the intense internatio…READ FULL ARTICLE