Miller’s homer propels USA Softball tothird straight win in ISF Men’s World Cup
PRAGUE, CZ---Blake Miller (Albany, Ga.), one of the smallestplayers on the USA Softball Men’s National Team at 5’10” and165 pounds, came up with one of the biggest hits so far in the ISF World CupTuesday night in a 4-1 win over Japanwho is ranked fifth in the world.
With the teams scoreless after one inning, Miller hit an opposite fieldtwo-run homer to right center to give the USA an early 2-0 lead. Miller’shomer—his first and the fifth for the USA in three games—came offlosing pitcher Tatsuya Hamaguchi.
“The ball was a dipper (drop ball),” Miller said. “Itwas a great pitch to hit and I was glad that I could give us an earlylead.”
After Miller’s homer, which had Nate Devine (MercedCalif.) aboard after reaching on a fielder’schoice, Japancut the margin in half by scoring a run in the bottom of the second inning.Ryuji Hazeyama tripled to the left field corner to open the inning and scoredon a fielder’s choice by Shubei Suzuki. It was the only run allowed by USA starter and winning pitcher Sonny Perkins (St. Michaels, Ariz.who allowed only five hits in his first start at the World Cup. He fanned fourand walked three.
The USA added to itslead in the fourth on an RBI single by Chris DeLarwelle (Appleton, Wisc.) that scoredLucas Goring (St. Paul, Minn.),who reached on a bunt to lead off the inning and moved into scoring position ona sacrifice bunt by Chris Miljavac (St. Joseph, Mo.).
An exclamation point was added in the sixth inning after Devine led offwith a monster home run that cleared the trees in left field that gave the U.S. acomfortable 4-1 advantage.
Goring had a pair of singles in three at-bats to lead the USAsix-hit attack.
Now 3-0, the USAwill play two club teams from Spainon Wednesday, Halcones Tenerife and Santa Isabel Zaragoza.
