FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 21, 2012
Canada shuts down Netherlands at ISF XIII Women's World Championship (Whitehorse, YK) In their second playoff game early this afternoon, the Canadian Women`s National Team limited the Dutch offence to only three hits as they beat the Netherlands by a 4-0 score at the ISF XIII Women's World Championship.
Jenna Caira (Toronto, ON) had another fantastic outing before
Danielle Lawrie (Langley, BC) closed the game out in the pitcher's circle, while the Canadian offence put plenty of pressure on the Netherlands to score four runs.
The Netherlands went down in order in the top of the first, and in the bottom of the inning,
Melanie Matthews (Surrey, BC) drove a double over the centerfielder's head that bounced over the fence. Matthews would advance to third by tagging up on a fly ball to right, but would be left stranded on third. The Dutch was able to produce a leadoff single in the second, but that runner was called out for leaving early on a stolen base attempt.
Caitlin Lever (Buffalo, NY) connected with a two-out single in the bottom of the frame, but could not advance any further as the game remained scoreless after two innings of play.
Canada would open the scoring in the bottom of the third with fantastic baserunning.
Erin Cumpstone (Saskatoon, SK) started the inning with a line drive single to right field, and was replaced by pinch runner
Victoria Hayward (Toronto, ON). Matthews also reached with a single, and after a pop out,
Jenn Yee (North Delta, BC) hit a single up the middle to score Hayward from second and advanced Matthews over to third.
Sheena Lawrick (Calgary, AB) then hit a hard ground ball to second base with the fielder trying to tag the runner heading to second, but Yee did a great job of avoiding the tag just long enough to allow Lawrick to reach base, allowing Matthews to score. After a two-out walk put runners on first and second,
Kaleigh Rafter (Guelph, ON) hit a ground ball to shortstop that Lawrick did a great job to avoid the shortstop while heading to third, and the shortstop made a bad throw to third which allowed Lawrick to race around to score, giving Canada the 3-0 lead.
The following inning, the Netherlands got a break as Britt Vonk dropped a drag bunt with one out that was thrown away at first, allowing Vonk to advance to second. The next batter drove a sinking line drive to right field and
Joey Lye (Toronto, ON) made a tremendous diving catch to rob a base hit and a run, and got up and threw the ball to second to double off the runner, ending the inning. The following inning, the Netherlands was able to get two runners on base on a hit by pitch and a single, but Caira induced a ground ball to first base to leave both runners stranded.
Team Canada would add another insurance run in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Jen Salling (Port Coquitlam, BC) led off the inning with a solid single to right field, and advanced to second by tagging up on a fly out to right field. Lever then hit an RBI single to score Salling. Lawrie would retire all six batters she faced in two innings of relief as Canada eliminated the Netherlands with a 4-0 win.
Caira allowed three hits to go along with four strikeouts in five innings of work to earn the win, while Lawrie got the six-out save while striking out two. At the plate, Matthews and Lever each had a pair of hits, while Yee, Lawrick, Salling and
Carey-Leigh Thomas (Ohsweken, ON) each chipped in with one.
Box score and play by play:
Canada 4 vs. Netherlands 0 With the win, Canada will now take on Australia at 7:30pm PDT Saturday evening with the winner advancing to the Bronze medal game at 1:00pm PDT on Sunday. Australia eliminated China by beating them 5-4 in eight innings this afternoon.
The United States and Japan will play at 5:00pm PDT later today, with the winner advancing to the Gold medal game (4:00pm PDT on Sunday) and the losing team will take on the winner of the Canada/Australia game.
For full coverage, visit the tournament website at http://www.worldfastpitch2012.com.
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Gilles LeBlanc
Manager - Marketing and Communications
Softball Canada
(613) 795-1996 (cell)
gleblanc@softball.ca
