TOKYO, Japan — A Georgia native put a big dent into USA baseball's opening game on Friday against Israel in the Olympics, helping the Americans get off on the right foot in Tokyo.
Tyler Austin, a Conyers native who went to Heritage High School, socked a mammoth home run in the third inning to make it 3-0, and USA eventually cruised to an 8-1 win over the Israelis.
Austin timed what looked to be a bit of a hanging change-up from Israel starter Joey Wagman and gave it an absolute ride to right-center field.
For good measure, Austin added two more doubles in the game as he feasted on the Israeli pitching staff. The win saw the U.S. off to a 1-0 start in baseball group round play.
Eddy Alvarez, one of the Team USA flag bearers for the Opening Ceremony last week, had a pair of doubles and two RBIs as well.
Austin is in Tokyo bringing the experience of parts of four Major League seasons to Team USA, spent with the Yankees, Twins, Giants and Brewers. He was last in the Majors in 2019, when he primarily played in San Francisco.
The Conyers native was drafted out of high school by the Yankees in 2010, signing with New York and eventually reaching the big leagues for his debut in 2016.
Keeping in line with his display in Tokyo on Friday, his MLB career has been marked by his power output - in 209 career games, he sports a .219/.292/.451 line with 91 home runs in 583 plate appearances.
That home run rate works out to a long ball once every roughly six-and-a-half trips to the plate.