FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 23, 2011
Canada advances to medal round with big win over Venezuela at Pan American Games (Guadalajara, Mexico) The Canadian Women's Softball Team had their bats ready for their playoff game with Venezuela, as they have advanced to the medal round at the Pan American Games in Mexico with a convincing 11-1 four inning run rule win. Canada will play Cuba - who lost to the United States in the 1st vs. 2nd place game - at 11:00am EDT on Sunday. If Canada defeats Cuba, they will advance to the Gold Medal Game against USA. During the round robin, Canada lost a 4-2 decision against Cuba.
Canada had a tough time with Venezuela in a 4-3 preliminary round win, but was able to score early and put the Venezuelans on their heels.
Jenna Caira (Toronto, ON) allowed one run on four hits and had six strikeouts and four walks as she worked out of a couple of jams early in the game to pick up the win.
Canada started the scoring in the bottom of the first, when
Joey Lye (Toronto, ON) drilled a single to left field. With
Jennifer Yee (North Delta, BC) up, Lye was thrown out trying to steal but Yee drew a walk with two outs.
Kaleigh Rafter (Guelph, ON) stepped up to the plate and hit a ball that travelled 260 feet for a two-run homerun to give Canada an early lead.
Venezuela answered back with a run in the second but Caira struck out the Venezuelan leadoff batter with two runners on to end the inning. In Canada's half of the inning,
Jennifer Salling (Port Coquitlam, BC) got the first of her three hits with a nice drag bunt.
Heather Ebert (Rosthern, SK) singled as she hit a line drive that Venezuela's second baseman dove for and touched put couldn't hold on to.
Erin Cumpstone (Saskatoon, SK) bunted but Salling was thrown out at third.
Megan Timpf (Port Dover, ON) doubled to left field over the fielder's head to score pinch runner
Victoria Hayward (Toronto, ON). With Cumpstone on third and Timpf on second,
Melanie Matthews (Surrey, BC) was issued an intentional walk. Joey Lye hit a ground ball to first that forced Cumpstone out at home. Yee then put Venezuela in a hole with a full count double to centre that scored all three base runners to put Canada up 6-1.
In the third, Canada added five more runs to go up 11-1. Salling laid down another drag bunt single, and Victoria Hayward beat out an infield slap to put runners on first and second. Cumpstone bunted the runners over followed by Megan Timpf's walk to load the bases. Melanie Matthews hit a soft single to right field to score Salling and Hayward, and Joey Lye walked followed by another walk to Jennifer Yee that scored Timpf. Kaleigh Rafter hit single to right to score Matthews. After
Kelsey Haberl (Burnaby, BC) hit a grounder back to the pitcher that forced Lye at home, Jennifer Salling got her third hit on a bad hop over the first baseman's shoulder to score Yee and end the scoring.
Canada had a total of 11 hits from eight different players in the game. Canada will take on Cuba at 11:00am EDT, and the winner of that game will play the United States for the gold medal at 1:00pm EDT.
Canada 11 vs. Venezuela 1 - Box Score For more information, please contact:
Gilles LeBlanc
Manager - Marketing and Communications
Softball Canada
(613) 523-3386 ext. 3105
gleblanc@softball.ca
