Canada Defeats USA for First Time since 2005 at PanAmerican Championship!
August 8, 2009
Maracay, VZ
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 8th, 2009
Canada Defeats USA for First Time since 2005 at PanAmerican Championship!
(Maracay, Venezuela) – After a few close games against theUnited States earlier this summer at the Canada Cup, the Canadian Senior Women’sNational Team played a very solid game and got the key hits when they neededthem to defeat USA 3-1 at the 2009 Women’s Pan American Championship. The lasttime Canada had defeated USA was at the 2005 World Cup of Softball in OklahomaCity. With the win, Canada has officially qualified for both the 2010 ISFWomen’s World Championship in Oklahoma City and the 2011 Pan American Games inMexico, and has also guaranteed itself a medal at the Pan AmericanChampionship.
Team Canada opened the scoring in the first inning asMelanie Matthews (Surrey, BC) singled, was sacrificed to second by CaitlinLever (Buffalo, New York), sacrificed to third by Jenn Salling (Port Coquitlam,BC) and scored on a wild pitch, with Jennifer Yee (North Delta, BC) hitting asingle immediately after. Canada maintained the lead until the top of the thirdinning when Vicky Galindo of the United States doubled and scored on back toback Canadian errors. However, Canada was not to be outdone and bounced back inthe bottom of the third as designated player Danielle Lawrie (Langley, BC)belted the first pitch she saw over the fence in center field to regain thelead for Canada.
With the score 2-1 for Canada in the top of the fourthinning, Team USA leadoff batter Ashley Hansen led off with a single, andCanadian coach Mark Smith made a pitching change. Jenna Caira (Toronto, ON) hadstarted the game in the pitcher’s circle for Canada and had pitched a real gemallowing only three hits to the tough American hitters. Danielle Lawrie came onin relief and pitched the final four innings for Canada allowing no hits and noruns in sealing the victory. Canada was still not done scoring runs off the USApitchers as Kaleigh Rafter (Guelph, ON) drilled a frozen rope homerun tostraight away center field in the bottom of the fourth inning to provide a veryimportant insurance run for Canada. The red and white had another rally in thesixth inning as they loaded the bases with one out but a double play by theUnited States ended the rally without any further scoring.
Canada will now play Venezuela in the battle of theundefeated double-life teams Saturday at 6:00pm EDT. The winner of this gamegoes directly to the Gold Medal final on Sunday at 1:00 pm EDT, while thelosing team will play in the Bronze medal game at 10:30am EDT to try to win arematch in the Championship game. Venezuela defeated Canada 1-0 in a very closeball game in the round robin.
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For more information, please contact:
Gilles LeBlanc
Manager – Marketing and Communications
Softball Canada
(613) 523-3386 x3105
