USA Softball advances to gold medal game with 5-1 win over Australia - ISF women

[Al's Fastball News]

Received: 9/5/06 5:09:05 AM 
From:  "Holly Krivokapich" <hollyk(at)softball.org> 

 
Subject:  USA Softball advances to gold medal game with 5-1 win
over Australia  

  




USA Softball advances to gold medal game with 5-1 win over Australia

 

Beijing, China---The USA Softball Women’s National Team kept
itshopes alive for a sixth consecutive ISF Women’s World Championship
titleby defeating Australia, 5-1, in the bronze medal game. While
Australia takes bronze, the U.S. moves on to face undefeated
Japanin the grand final at 6 a.m. CT on Tuesday. 

 

“We did what we had to do to get into the championshipgame,”
said head coach Mike Candrea“Now we will go out tonight and try
to finish the championship off likewe know we can.” 

 

Cat Osterman (Houston, Texasgot off to a quick start by fanning
the first two batters she faced but Australia’s Stacey Porter
was up to thechallenge and sent a 1-1 pitch over the right centerfield
fence to give Australiaa quick 1-0 advantage. It was the first
home run the USA allowed in the WorldChampionships and the third
hit by Porter.

 

The U.S.could not counter in the bottom of the first as they
left two runners stranded.With one out, Natasha Watley (Irvine
Calif.) reached on a single toleft field and into scoring position
when Jessica Mendoza (Camarillo, Calif.)singled up the middle
but both were left on base when Crystl Bustos (CanyonCountry,
Calif.) and Stacey Nuveman (La Verne, Calif.) popped up to thecenterfielder
to end the inning.

 

Australia’sTracey Mosley was hit by a pitch to lead off the top
of the second inning but afailed sacrifice attempt by Natalie
Ward and a grounder by Natalie Titcume thatresulted in a double
play ended the inning for the Aussies.

 

Andrea Duran (Selma, Calif.led off the home half of the second
with a walk and moved into scoring positionwhen Jennie Finch
(La Mirada Calif.) laid down a sacrificebunt to push her to second.
It looked as if the U.S.would squander another scoring opportunity
as Lovieanne Jung (Fountain Valley, Calif.popped up to second
base for the second out of the inning but Laura Berg wouldnot
let this opportunity pass as she singled to center field to score
Duran andtie the game 1-1.

 

Osterman retired Australiain order in the top of the third inning
and her offense went to work in thebottom half of the inning.
Mendoza, who leads the U.S. with five home runs, changedher strategy
and surprised the Aussie defense with a bunt single. A wild pitchproved
costly for Aussie pitcher Melanie Roche as it allowed Mendoza
to move into scoring position andgave Bustos the opportunity
to swing away rather than sacrifice her at bat. 

 

Bustos took advantage of the at bat to record an RBI single to
centerfield that plated Mendoza and gave the USAits first lead
of the game. A single by Nuveman to center field advanced Bustosto
third and chased Roche from the game in favor of veteran hurler
TanyaHarding. The move paid off as Harding snuffed out the U.S.
rally by retiring the nextthree batters in order. 

 

Harding remained solid in the fourth inning but in the fifth
the U.S.hitters caught up to her to extend the lead to 3-1. Mendoza
led off the inning with her third hitof the day and Bustos matched
her effort with a single to put her in scoringposition. Duran,
who struggled in her first at bat against Harding, camethrough
with a single to right center that scored Mendozaand gave the
U.S.an insurance run.

 

Australiacollected their second hit of the game in the top of
the sixth inning whenMarissa Carpadios dropped in a bloop single
to right field to bring Porter, whohomered in the first inning,
to the plate representing the tying run. With afull count, Porter
popped up to Jung at second base to end the inning.

 

An infield single by Watley led to two more runs when Bustos
crushedher first home run of these World Championships to give
the Red, White and Bluea solid 5-1 victory.

 

Osterman finished the game allowing only one run on two hits
while strikingout 10 to send the U.S.into the gold medal game.
With the win she improves to 5-0 and moves into a tiefor second
place on the USAall-time list for wins in a single World Championship.


 

The top four hitters in the USA lineup were responsible fornine
of the 12 hits in the game. Mendoza and Bustos led the offensive
attackgoing 3-for-4 at the plate. Bustos was also responsible
for driving in three ofthe five runs in the game.

 

The USAwill be competing in their sixth consecutive title game
at the WorldChampionships. The Grand Final is a rematch of the
2002 World ChampionshipGrand Final when the U.S.defeated Japan1-0
to earn its fifth consecutive World Championship. The game is
scheduled for6 a.m. CT on Tuesday morning and can be seen by
logging on to the USA Softballwebsite (www.usasoftball.com) and
clicking onthe World Championship home page. 

 

 

 

 

Holly Krivokapich

Assistant Director of Communications

ASA/USA Softball

405-425-3431

www.asasoftball.comwww.usasoftball.com 

 

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