FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 2, 2013
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AUCKLAND, New Zealand – The USA Men’s Fastpitch National Team feel to 0-2 in pool play on Saturday with a 3-2 loss to Samoa at the International Softball Federation (ISF) World Championship the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) of America and USA Softball announced today. The American’s struck first in the game with a run in the opening inning but Samoa bounced back with two runs in the third and another in the fourth to get the win.
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“We left too many runners on base to win against a good team,†said USA assistant coach Avon Meacham. “We did a good job of getting people in scoring position but we just never could bring them around to score.â€
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In their opening at-bat, the USA loaded the bases with no outs but was only able to score one run before the inning came to a close on a fly ball to third base. In all the team gathered four hits but left 10 runners stranded on base throughout the game.
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Samoa used a single and a USA error to tie the game at one in the top of the third inning and then took the outright lead in the fourth with another single and a second USA error.
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“They deserve credit for the win, but if we make the plays that we should make in the field and put the ball in play with runners in scoring position, we would have had a more favorable outcome today,†said Meacham.
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Gerald Muizelaar (Grand Forks, ND) got the start in the circle for the USA and went the complete game allowing six hits while striking out five. The three Samoa runs all came unearned.
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On the offensive side, the Americans picked up hits from Adam LaLonda (Ashland, Ky.), Matt Palazzo (Des Moines, Iowa), Marcus Tan (Union City, Calif.) as well as a solo homerun from Josh Johnson (Booklyn, Wis.) in the seventh.
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With the loss the USA Men fall to 0-2 in pool play and will look to bounce back when they face South Africa on Sunday at 12 PM local time. Pool play will continue through March 7 when the top four teams from each pool will be seeded into a bracket scheduled for March 8-10. You can follow all of the USA Men’s National Team action at www.USASoftball.com.
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About ASA The Amateur Softball Association, founded in 1933, is the National Governing Body of softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. The ASA has become one of the nation’s largest sports organizations and now sanctions competition in every state through a network of 76 local associations. The ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 200,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than three million. For more information on the ASA, visit http://www.asasoftball.com/.  About USA Softball USA Softball is the brand created, operated and owned by the ASA that links the USA Men’s, Women’s, Junior Boys’ and Junior Girls’ National Team programs together. USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting these four National Teams to compete in international and domestic competitions. The USA Softball Women’s National Team is one of only two women’s sports involved in the Olympic movement to capture three consecutive gold medals at the Olympic Games since 1996. The U.S. women have also won nine World Championship titles as well as claimed six World Cup of Softball titles. For more information about USA Softball, please visit http://www.usasoftball.com/.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steven Embree | ASA/USA Softball
