Venezuela Holds Off Canada for 2-0 Win

[Al's Fastball News]

Received: 8/16/08 9:31:55 AM 
From:  "Gilles LeBlanc" <gleblanc at softball.ca> 
  
   

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FORIMMEDIATE RELEASE

August16th, 2008

 

Venezuela Holds Off Canada for 2-0 Win

 

(Beijing,China) – Venezuela had nothing to lose, while Canada
could not afford to lose.Venezuelan pitcher Mariangee Bogado
kept the Canadian hitters off balance allgame, while Canadian
pitcher Danielle Lawrie (Langley, BC) only made a fewearly mistakes
as Venezuela shutout Canada 2-0. The Canadian loss makes thingsa
lot more interesting in the preliminary round standings, as Canada
will needto play better against Australia and Japan if they want
to keep their medalhopes alive.

 

Venezuelagot things going early in the top of the first inning.
Lawrie hit the leadoffbatter, who was then sacrificed to second.
Denisse Fuenmayor then hit a singleto right field to score the
runner from second base. Venezuela threatened toincrease the
lead to 2-0, but left fielder Melanie Matthews (Surrey, BC) threwout
Fuenmayor at home on a single by Yuruby Alicart to end the inning.

 

Freshoff her great throw, Melanie Matthews continued the momentum
shift by smashinga single through the left side. Despite getting
a few runners on base, Canadawas unable to produce the tying
run. Both pitchers then got into shutdown mode,retiring the opposing
hitters in order until the fourth inning. After quicklyretiring
the two first batters, Lawrie delivered a pitch at the heart
of theplate that Yuruby Alicart drove over the centerfield fence
with two outs,increasing the Venezuelan lead to 2-0. Jennifer
Yee (North Delta, BC) then ledoff the Canadian half of the inning
with a single, but was left stranded onthird base.

 

Onceagain, both pitchers settled down and retired the opposing
hitters in order inthe fifth and sixth innings. After Venezuela
received a leadoff hit but wasunable to increase its lead, Canada
made a strong push to tie the game in thebottom of the seventh.
Jennifer Salling (Port Coquitlam, BC) hit a leadoffsingle to
centerfield, and Sheena Lawrick (Calgary, AB) followed with a
singleof her own, allowing Salling to advance to third and Lawrick
advanced to secondon the throw, placing runners on second and
third with no outs. However,Mariangee Bogado took advantage of
anxious Canadian hitters and retired thethree next batters, giving
Venezuela the victory.

 

Lawriegave up two runs on four hits, and compiled nine strikeouts
in the completegame loss, while Bogado relied heavily on her
defence, allowing five hits andonly struck out one batter during
the game. Each of the first five hitters inCanada’s lineup registered
a single, including Melanie Matthews, Caitlin Lever(Buffalo,
New York), Jennifer Yee, Jennifer Salling and Sheena Lawrick.

 

Theloss dropped Canada’s preliminary round record to 3-2, while
Venezuela improvedto 2-3. Canada will now need to rebound against
Australia (3-2) tomorrow(5:00am, live on TSN, RDS), and will
finish the preliminary round against Japan(4-1) on Monday (5:00am,
live on TSN, RDS).

 

Box Score andPlay-by-play

 

CurrentStandings

 

Team                          Wins              Losses      
     Runs For         Runs Against

1.United States         5                     0             
       36                     1

2.Japan                      4                     1        
            12                   11

3.Australia                3                     2          
          17                     9

3.Canada                   3                    2           
         17                   13

5.China                     2                     3         
           18                   10

5.Venezuela              2                     3            
        11                   21

7.Chinese Taipei       1                     4              
       6                   18

8.Netherlands           0                     5             
        4                   38

 

TournamentBatting Leaders

TournamentPitching Leaders

 

-SC-

 

Formore information, contact:

 

GillesLeBlanc

Manager– Marketing and Communications

SoftballCanada

(613)523-3386 x. 3105

gleblanc(at)softball.ca

 

 

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