“We were actually winning, I think it was the eighth inning, we were up by a run or so,” Kent added.

“I came into the game, the Japanese fans were going absolutely crazy, there was probably somewhere around 50,000 people there, and when I look back on that moment, it’s almost like an out of body experience.

“I don’t particularly remember it as being on the mound, it’s almost as if I was sitting in the crowd watching myself and I’ve never been more nervous in my life, I think my knees were probably knocking together.”

He is not the only one to have had that same kind of feeling. In fact, it almost seems like a rite of passage for every Australian player at the Tokyo Dome.

Spence also compared it to an “out of body experience”.

“I remember it vividly but at the same time it just almost doesn’t feel real because it feels more like a dream in a sense of how cool it actually was,” he said.

Sherriff, meanwhile, described it as more of a “blackout moment” — one he was completely prepared for at last year’s World Baseball Classic given so many of his teammates had told him of also having that exact same feeling in their trip to the plate or mound.

But the word of warning could only do so much.

“It’s a different animal over there,” Sherriff said.

“… When I got on the mound, everything just kind of blacked out around me. It was the catcher and myself. Obviously after I came off the pitch, then you start to realise, ‘Holy f***. That’s a lot of people around’.

“But one thing obviously a lot of the older guys told me is when I get out there, take a deep breath and really actually take it all in because you will go through a blackout moment where you won’t remember what’s going on when you pitch.

“So that was the one thing I was quite grateful for before I threw the first pitch and made sure I looked around and really took everything in.”

Spence didn’t get the chance to do that when he hit a two-RBI single in Australia’s 4-3 loss to Taiwan in the Asia Professional Baseball Championship last year, which sent the Kangaroo Club — an organically formed Team Australia fan group at the Tokyo Dome — crazy.

“I’m glad that there’s a video so I can watch it and remember it,” Spence said of that moment.

Sherriff, meanwhile, recalled playing games against Chinese Taipei and then Korea before quickly realising there were more Japanese fans cheering them.

“I think that’s when it really kind of set in that Japanese baseball is really taking interest in Australian baseball,” he said.

Which means a lot because for Sherriff and so many other Australian baseball players, it is moments like these — the chance to pull on the green and gold and play for something more than just yourself — which makes the long hours all worth it.

Because the reality is that for most of the men playing in front of nearly 50,000 people on Wednesday night, this is not their full-time job. Just look at Tim Kennelly, the team captain.

“It’s inconceivable in any other sport to be playing on the world stage against the best team in the world, where your captain’s a fireman,” Nilsson said.

“That’s who we are.”

WHY AUSTRALIA’S BASEBALL STARS WILL KEEP ‘CHASING THAT FEELING’

If anything, you’d think having a captain who is a firefighter by day and baseball player by night would make this one of the easiest national teams for Australians to get behind.

Especially when you consider what the 37-year-old has achieved throughout his career as the Australian Baseball League’s modern day all-time leader in games played, home runs, hits and runs batted in.

Add in the nine seasons in the minor leagues, where he got as high as Triple-A, and you get an even better idea of just how much of himself Kennelly has given to the game.

But how much has he got back in return?

“The journey of Australian baseball is a pretty special one,” Nilsson said.

“You have to commit to playing overseas and even when you’re back home, you’re pretty much unacknowledged for the most part. So, it can be a little disheartening that you’re growing up and you’re making all these sacrifices for the national team in a country that loves sport, right?

“And I think if the general public knew more about the plight of the Australian baseball team they would absolutely support us, we’re the classic case of what Australia stands for… just hard workers getting out there and having a shot.”

Hard workers like Spence, a fifth-round draft pick who reached as high as Triple-A and knows all too well that chasing your dream as an Australian baseball player comes at a cost.

“A season in minor league baseball is a grind,” he said.

“You might have the game at seven o’clock at night, but you’re at the field at 12 o’clock because you’ve got to work out, you’ve got to do all that other stuff… and then the games don’t finish till you know 10 or 11 o’clock.

“And then you’ve got to just do it again the next day and no matter if you had a good day or a bad day, or you’re going through a bad phase, you’re still going to show up the next day and try to be your best.

“It’s tough… there’s a lot of failure in this game. It’s one of those games where it’s not going to go right for you all the time.

“But when it does, it’s one of the best feelings in the world. So you’re just chasing that feeling.”

And when that feeling does come, like when Tommy Edman was caught stealing second base for the final out of the game against South Korea in last year’s WBC, it is hard to describe.

“I wouldn’t even know the right word to put it,” Spence said, speaking not even about that moment but more generally about feeling appreciated in Japan and, more importantly, feeling seen.