FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 12th, 2011
Canada Earns Thrilling Victory over Japan at Canadian Open Fastpitch Tournament (Surrey, BC) In another exciting and tightly contested game, the Canadian Senior Women's National Team manufactured a run in the top of the seventh inning to defeat first-place Japan by a score of 1-0. After starting the tournament with four consecutive victories, Japan dropped a 5-1 decision to the United States earlier in the day before losing to Canada. As it has been the case in most of Canada's games so far, the pitching and defense were stellar against a Japanese team that takes advantage of every mistake. Fortunately for Team Canada, they did not make many mistakes on this night and were able to get a key hit and some aggressive base running in the seventh that led to the only run of the game.
Things started off well for Canada as Joey Lye (Toronto, ON) hit a weak line drive just over the first baseman's head and beat the throw from the second baseman for Canada's first hit of the game, but the two next hitters were retired to end the inning. Japan's Eri Yamada started the bottom of the frame with a single through the left side, and moved up all the way to third but was left stranded there after Canadian pitcher Jenna Caira (Toronto, ON) forced a fly out to the infield.
In the second, Heather Ebert (Rosthern, SK) and Meagan Baird (Ajax, ON) hit back to back singles, but the inning was quickly erased on a hard ground ball hit to the third baseman, who stepped on third and fired the ball to first for a double play. Japan put some pressure on Team Canada in the bottom of the third, loading the bases on a hit and two walks, but Caira forced a fly out to left field to escape the inning.
The pitchers then continued their excellent work through the middle innings. In the sixth, Japan seemed poised to score the game's first run. Haruna Sakomoto hit a one out single, and after a fielder's choice forced the second out, Yuki Hayashi smashed a ball off the base of the left field wall, which Canadian outfielder Melanie Matthews played perfectly and threw the ball to the infield quickly. Heather Ebert took the relay and threw the ball to home to retire the Japanese runner at the plate, ending the inning.
That seemed to spark the Canadian squad, as Kaleigh Rafter (Guelph, ON) led off with a solid base hit to left field and was replaced on the bases by junior team call up Shelby Lia (Whitby, ON). After Lia was sacrificed to second and the next hitter struck out, Meagan Baird drilled a hard ground ball off the first baseman, which the second baseman was not able to pick up in time for the out. Alert on the play, Lia rounded third without hesitation and slid perfectly into home, just beating the tag from the Japanese catcher to give Canada the lead.
Japan would not go away easily, as star pitcher Yukiko Ueno came in to pinch hit and smacked a line drive to right field to lead off the bottom of the seventh. Ueno was sacrificed to second, and advanced to third by tagging on a deep fly ball, putting the tying run on third base with two outs. After Eri Yamada was intentionally walked, Canadian reliever Sarah Phillips (Mississauga, ON) forced pinch-hitter Maki Furuta to ground out back to the pitcher to end the game.
Jenna Caira once again pitched four solid innings for Canada, allowing three hits and two walks with two strikeouts. In 12 innings pitched in the tournament, she has yet to allow a run. Sarah Phillips came out in relief in the fifth, scattering five hits and a walk in three innings to pick up the late inning win. At the plate, Canada only managed five hits, two of which came off the bat of Meagan Baird.
Team Canada (3-2) will be back in action Wednesday night when they will take on Team Venezuela (0-6) at 6:30pm PDT at Softball City.
Canada 1 vs. Japan 0 - 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
