FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 11th, 2011

Team Canada Loses to United States in Extra Inning at Canadian Open Fastpitch Championship

(Surrey, BC) Fans were treated to another exciting game tonight at Softball City, as the Canadian Senior Women's National Team took on the United States. Both teams featured many new faces in their lineup since last year's ISF World Championships, when USA took gold and Canada came home with a bronze medal.

After Canadian starting pitcher Sarah Phillips (Mississauga, ON) struck out the first batter of the game, she walked the next hitter, and later gave up a hit, but the Americans were unable to score. Team Canada opened the scoring in bottom of the second. Jill Russell (London, ON) got on base with a one-out single, and scored on a two-out double to the right-center field gap by Danielle Lopez (Barrie, ON) to give Canada a quick 1-0 lead.

After a quick third inning, the United States started the fourth with a bang, a big homerun off the bat of Valerie Arioto to tie the game. Canada seemed poised to re-gain the lead in the bottom of the frame when Megan Timpf (Port Dover, ON) forced a walk followed by a single by Kelsey Haberl (Burnaby, BC). The runners were sacrificed to second and third, but the next two batters struck out as the United States got out of the inning. USA were able to get a runner in scoring position in the fifth and sixth, but were unable to score. On their part, Canada had its best chance of winning in the bottom of the seventh, as Danielle Lopez worked a one-out walk and advanced to second on a groundout, but Canada was not able to get the key two-out hit, sending the game to extra innings.

In the top half of the eighth, the United States started with a runner on second base due to the international tie-breaking rule, and Canada intentionally walked Valerie Arioto - who hit the homerun earlier in the game - to create a force out situation. However, Lauren Gibson placed a perfect sacrifice bunt to advance the runners, and Molly Johnson delivered a huge line drive double to the gap in right-centre to drive in both runners. Canada was unable to do anything in the bottom of the inning, as the United States came out with the 3-1 win.

Canadian pitcher Sarah Phillips pitched four inning, allowing one run on four hits and a walk with three strikeouts, while Karissa Hovinga (Edmonton, AB) threw four innings of relief, allowing two runs - one earned - on four hits and a walk with one strikeout. At the plate, the Canadian offence only managed three hits off starting pitcher Whitney Canion, coming from Kelsey Haberl, Jill Russell and Danielle Lopez. Jordan Taylor pitched one inning of relief with three strikeouts for the Americans, while Keilani Ricketts held Canada in the late innings by striking out six batters in three innings and a third.

Team Canada (2-2) will face Japan (4-0) at 6:30pm PDT on Tuesday night at Softball City.

Canada 1 vs. United States 3 - Box Score and Play by Play


For more information, please contact:

Gilles LeBlanc
Manager - Marketing and Communications
Softball Canada
(613) 797-7171
gleblanc@softball.ca