Australia Advances to Medal Round with Win Over Canada

[Al's Fastball News]

Received: 8/17/08 7:01:58 AM 
From:  "Gilles LeBlanc" <gleblanc at softball.ca> 
 
CC:    
Subject:  Australia_Advances_to_Medal_Round_with_Win_Over_Canada_/_L
     

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FORIMMEDIATE RELEASE

August17th, 2008

 

AustraliaAdvances to Medal Round with Win Over Canada

 

(Beijing,China) – The Canadian Olympic softball team fought hard,
but Australia’sexperience ultimately made the difference in a
4-0 win. Lauren Bay Regula(Trail, BC) pitched into the seventh
inning, but was tagged for three runsdespite a very solid pitching
performance. Canada’s bats made a lot of contact,but the hitters
were just unable to find the holes.

 

BayRegula and Australian starting pitcher Tanya Harding matched
each other inningby inning through the opening five innings,
as neither allowed a run. Afterwalking to batters in the top
of the first and leaving them stranded, BayRegula retired the
Aussie batters in order until the fifth, when she allowed awalk
and a single but was able to escape without a run. Meanwhile,
Canada gotone runner on base in each of the first four innings,
but was unable to moveany of them around the bases.

 

Australiaopened the scoring in the top of the sixth inning, as
Stacey Porter was hit bya pitch and moved to third on a wild
pitch and a ground out. After NatalieTitcume was intentionally
walked, Natalie Ward hit a soft line drive thatRegula got a good
piece of in the pitcher’s circle, but the deflection awayfrom
Jennifer Salling (Port Coquitlam, BC) at shortstop allowed Ward
tonarrowly beat the throw to first. Porter crossed the plate
and gave Australiathe 1-0 lead.

 

AfterCanada went down in order in the bottom of the inning on
three groundouts,Australia added some insurance to their lead
by scoring three runs in the topof the seventh by scraping a
few hits and moving runners along. Danielle Lawrie(Langley, BC)
relieved Bay Regula with runners on first and second with no
outs,and allowed a hit up the middle that went off her own glove,
and later gave upa bloop single just over second base to score
another run.

 

LaurenBay Regula pitched six strong innings for Canada, allowing
three runs on onlytwo hits with six strikeouts. Lawrie pitched
one inning in relief and allowedone run on two hits. Despite
frequent contact, the Canadian hitters had asingle each from
Caitlin Lever (Buffalo, New York), Sheena Lawrick (Calgary,AB)
and Megan Timpf (Port Dover, ON).

 

Box score andPlay-by-play

 

Thewin clinched a medal-round berth for Australia (4-2), while
Canada (3-3) isstill in a good position to advance as well, but
will need some help. Canada’sfinal preliminary round game will
be against Japan at 5:00am EDT tomorrow (liveon TSN, RDS). A
win over Japan would lock up the fourth medal-round berth forCanada.
With a loss, they would need Australia to beat Venezuela (7:30am
EDT),as Canada holds the tie-breaker over China and Chinese Taipei
but not overVenezuela.

 

CurrentStandings

 

Team                          Wins              Losses      
     Runs For         Runs Against

1.United States         5                     0             
       36                     1

2.Japan                      5                              
 1                     17                   13

3.Australia                4                     2          
          21                     9

4.Canada                   3                    3           
         17                   17

5.China                     2                     4         
           19                   12

5.Venezuela              2                     4            
        13                   26

5.Chinese Taipei       2                     4              
       8                   19

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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