USA Softball Men's National Team Opens Canada Trip with Exhibition Win
July 2, 2008
Saskatoon, SK
USA Softball Men's National Team Opens Canada Trip with Exhibition Win
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan ---The USA Softball Men's National team opened its nine-game tour of Canada with an exhibition win against the Saskatoon All Stars 10-2. The exhibition game was 10 innings. On Canada Day, the USA Men's Team fired off its own fireworks with a 12-hit barrage against four Saskatoon pitchers. The USA was led offensively by Frank DeGroat (Ringwood, NJ) who went 2-for-3 with three RBI and a towering 285 foot homer in the seventh inning.
Team USA opened the scoring in the first inning when Steve Pinnochio (Merced, CA) led off the game with a single, was sacrificed to second by shortstop Blake Miller (Kingsville, TX) and was singled home by DeGroat. The USA offense stayed quiet until the fifth when they scored four runs. The key hit was a two out, two RBI triple by Chase Turner (Stockton, CA) into the left field corner. Turner was 2-for-3 on the evening with three RBI. Team USA also scored four runs in the seventh inning keyed by DeGroat’s two-run home run.
USA starting pitcher Gerald Pyle (Simi Valley, CA) went three innings giving up one run and two hits. Pyle was relieved by Sean Kelly (Homer, MI) who also went three innings and picked up the win while allowing three hits and one run. USA relievers Cody Thompson (Herriman, UT) and Paul Algar (Lexington, IL) allowed no runs or hits in relief over the last four innings.
At 1-0 on the Canadian tour, Team USA next plays tonight against Team Canada in an exhibition doubleheader in Melfort, SK. USA opens play in the 3 Nations Challenge back in Saskatoon on Thursday evening against Japan at 6:30 pm MST.
Line Score
Saskatoon All Stars 010 001 000 0 2 5 1
USA 100 040 410 x 10 12 1
Pitchers
SAS Twascik, Ladue(4) (L), Heisler (6), Hindz (8) and Miller
USA Pyle, Kelly (4) (W), Thompson (7), Algar (9) and DeGroat, Hanson
About ASA
The Amateur Softball Association, founded in 1933, is the National Governing Body of softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. The ASA has become one of the nation’s largest sports organizations and now sanctions competition in every state through a network of 83 local associations. The ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 240,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than three million. For more information on the ASA, visit http://www.asasoftball.com/.
About USA Softball
USA Softball is the brand created, operated and owned by the ASA that links the USA Men’s, Women’s, Junior Boys’ and Junior Girls’ National Team programs together. USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting these four National Teams to compete in international and domestic competitions. The USA Softball Women’s National Team is one of the only two women’s sports involved in the Olympic movement to capture three consecutive gold medals at the Olympic Games since 1996. The U.S. women have also won eight World Championship titles including the last six consecutive as well as claimed two World Cup of Softball titles. For more information about USA Softball, please visit http://www.usasoftball.com/.
Julie Bartel
ASA/USA Softball
Director of Communications
405-425-3463 - work
405-203-4645 - cell
