FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 12, 2011
Cater pitches no-hitter against South Africa at ISF Junior Women's World Softball Championship (Cape Town, South Africa) Canada's Junior Women's National Team shutout the host team South Africa by a score of 7-0 to improve its record to 4-1 at the ISF IX Junior Women's World Championship. Canada plays China tomorrow at 5:00am EST in a game they need to win in their attempt to secure a top two placing and double-life for the playoff round.
Jocelyn Cater (Delta, BC) pitched her best game of the tournament to date as she threw a six inning no-hitter with 11 strikeouts and only walked one batter. Canada banged out 13 hits, including four runs batted in by
Carey-Leigh Thomas (Ohsweken, ON), but ran into a South African team who played some inspired softball in front of a loud and enthusiastic crowd. South Africa made several key defensive plays to keep Canada off the scoreboard for the first two innings.
Victoria Hayward (Toronto, ON) led off the first with a slap single, but Canada could not advance her any further. In the second, Canada threatened as with one out,
Shannon Davidson (Whitby, ON) singled to center with a soft liner and
Kirsten Grant (Oakville, ON) drilled a single past the third base player to move Davidson over to second.
Taylor Beck (Vancouver, BC) hit a hard ground ball that the shortstop made a nice play on to force Davidson out at third.
Brigitte Aizprua (Terrebonne, QC) drew a walk to load the bases, but Hayward ended the inning with a fly out to center.
Cater struck out the side in the top of third before Canada finally got on the board in the bottom of the inning.
Tessa Loewen (Abbotsford, BC) hit a slap single into left field and moved to second on a one-hopper by
Erika Polidori (Brantford, ON) that the pitcher snared.
Jennifer Gilbert (Saskatoon, SK) was safe on a drag bunt that moved Loewen to third and took second when South Africa left the base open after their throw to first. Carey-Leigh Thomas stepped up and drilled a line drive to deep right center field for a two-run double. Thomas was left on second as Davidson and Beck both flew out to end the inning.
Canada left another runner on base in the fourth as Aizprua singled up the middle with one out, but was thrown out at third trying to go first to third on a line drive slap single to left field by Loewen. In the fifth, Canada added two more runs as Polidori singled to center field and moved to third on a slap single by Gilbert. Polidori scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Thomas. Davidson then drove in Gilbert with a double to left center field that was almost caught by the South African center fielder who could not hold on to the ball when she hit the ground.
In the sixth, Canada added three runs to beat South Africa on the run rule. With one out, Hayward was safe on a slap single and took second on the throw back to the pitcher. Hayward scored on a slap single by Loewen. Polidori grounded to second to move Loewen to third base, and Gilbert was hit by a pitch. Gilbert tried to steal second and stopped when the ball was thrown to the base. Loewen scored on the throw and Gilbert ended up on second when South Africa misplayed the rundown. Thomas ended the game with her second hit and fourth run batted in of the game.
Thomas, Hayward, Loewen, Gilbert and Davidson each had two hits with singles going to Polidori, Grant and Aizprua.
For all tournament information, please visit the host website at http://jwwc2011.co.za or the Softball Canada website at http://www.softball.ca.
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For more information, please contact:
Gilles LeBlanc
Manager - Marketing and Communications
Softball Canada
(613) 523-3386 ext. 3105
gleblanc@softball.ca FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RDecember 13, 2011
Hayward leads Canada to big win over China at ISF Junior Women's World Softball Championship (Cape Town, South Africa) At the ISF IX Junior Women's World Champions in Cape Town today, the Canadian Junior Women's National Team started off a little slow but scored nine runs in the top of the fifth on route to a 12-3 run-rule win against China. Canada is now sitting in second place in their division with a 5-1 record behind the USA (5-0). Canada will play the Czech Republic (3-2) in their last preliminary round game at 5:30am EST on Wednesday. The playoff round will begin on Thursday.
Victoria Hayward (Toronto, ON) led Canada's 12-hit attack by going three-for-four with six runs batted in, including a grand slam homerun. Starting pitcher
Karissa Hovinga (Edmonton, AB) went four innings, only giving up two hits, to pick up the win.
Canada got off to a good start as they scored once in the first inning. With two outs,
Erika Polidori (Brantford, ON) hit a shallow fly ball that dropped in for a single down the left field line,
Carey-Leigh Thomas (Ohsweken, ON) walked and
Natalie Wideman (Mississauga, ON) hit a ground ball through the left side of the infield to score Polidori.
Shannon Davidson (Whitby, ON) lined out to center field to end the inning. China got that run back in the bottom of the inning as they led off with a single and Canada's shortstop Davidson bobbled a ground ball and threw the ball past
Kristy Noble (Uxbridge, ON) at second to allow the first Chinese run to score. Hovinga then walked the next batter and with runners on second and third, catcher Natalie Wideman tried to pick off the runner at third and the throw got past Canada's third baseman Carey-Leigh Thomas. Left fielder Erika Polidori was covering on the play and made a perfect throw to Wideman at the plate to get the runner out at home. Hovinga struck out the next batter to end the inning.
After a scoreless second inning, Canada threatened in the top of the third. With one out, Hayward beat out a drag bunt, and with two out, Thomas drilled a single to left field, moving Hayward over to third. However, with two runners on, the next batter struck out swinging. In their half of the third, China drew a walk but the runner was quickly retired by Wideman when the base runner attempted to steal second base.
Canada took a 3-1 lead in the fourth. With one out, Kristy Noble singled up the middle,
Tessa Loewen (Abbotsford, BC) hit a slap to third and China tried to force Noble at second but they dropped the ball with both Noble and Loewen being safe on the play.
Jennifer Gilbert (Saskatoon, SK) hit a hard shot to the Chinese second baseman who could not handle it as Canada loaded the bases. With two outs, Hayward lined a single to center to score Noble and Loewen, and moved up to second on the throw to home. With two on, Thomas hit a hard ground ball to short but was thrown out at first. In China's half, they were able to get a one out double, but Hovinga forced a ground out and a strikeout to end the inning.
In the fifth, Canada sent 13 batters to the plate and scored nine times to take a big 12-1 lead. With one out, Davidson drew a walk, Noble drilled a line drive to center and Loewen walked to load the bases.
Brigitte Aizprua (Terrebonne, QC) hit a single to left-center field scoring Canada's first two runs of the inning. Gilbert was safe on a drag bunt when the China second base player dropped the throw to load the bases. Hayward stepped up and hit a high and deep fly ball down the right field line for a grand slam homerun. With the bases cleared, Polidori singled to right field, Thomas was hit by a pitch, Wideman hit a line drive to center to score Polidori and the ball went through the Chinese outfielder's legs to allow Thomas to score as well. Wideman then scored on a Davidson ground out to first base. Noble followed with her third single of the day before Loewen grounded out to second to end the inning.
Natalie Becker (Waterloo, ON) came in to pitch in the bottom of the fifth but got into trouble as Canada seemed to lose focus. Becker gave up a leadoff triple and Canada committed two errors on infield ground balls to allow China to score a run and have runners on second and third. Becker hit the next batter and gave up a single that scored one more.
Jaycee Affeldt (Maple Ridge, BC) relieved Becker with the bases loaded and no one out and promptly struck out the first two batters she faced and got a force out at second to end the game.
The trio of Canadian pitchers combined to allow four hits with six strikeouts and two walks. Hayward led Canada with three hits and six runs batted in, while Noble also had three hits. Wideman registered two hits and two runs batted in with Polidori chipping in with two hits and singles going to Aizprua - with two runs batted in - and Thomas.
For all tournament information, please visit the host website at http://jwwc2011.co.za or the Softball Canada website at http://www.softball.ca.
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For more information, please contact:
Gilles LeBlanc
Manager - Marketing and Communications
RSoftball Canada
(613) 523-3386 ext. 3105
gleblanc@softball.ca
