Canada defeats Australia after thrilling comeback at World Softball Championship!

[Al's Fastball News]

Canada defeats Australia after thrilling comeback at World Softball
Championship! 

(Caracas, Venezuela) Team Canada could not get much going through
the first six innings as Australian pitcher Justine Smethurst
held them to only one hit, but the bats came alive in the bottom
of the seventh as the red and white came back from a 2-0 deficit
to defeat Australia 3-2 in a thrilling bottom of the seventh
inning comeback. With the win, Canada moves on to face China
at 7:30pm EDT tonight, with the winner of that game advancing
to the Bronze medal game on Friday. 

Australia threatened to score in every inning, and wasted no
time in opening the scoring in the top of the first. The leadoff
hitter reached with a single, and was sacrificed to second and
later scored on a double by Stacey Porter for the first run of
the game. However, Canadian starting pitcher Danielle Lawrie
(Langley, BC) struck out the next two hitters to close out the
inning, leaving a runner in scoring position. In the bottom half
of the inning, Jenn Yee (North Delta, BC) and Sheena Lawrick
(Calgary, AB) both forced two-out walks, but Jen Salling (Port
Coquitlam, BC) struck out to end the threat. 

Australia went back to work in the third, as the second batter
reached on a shallow fly-ball that Jenn Yee seemed to have control
of, but collided with the right fielder and the ball fell to
the ground. The next batter hit a perfectly placed slap single
to shortstop, and both runners moved up on a ground out. However,
Lawrie was able to force a weak ground ball to Yee for the third
out. 

Australia was at it again in the fourth, as the leadoff hitter
connected with a double, and advanced to third on a sacrifice.
Another double to the right-center field gap pushed the run in
to score, increasing Australia's lead to 2-0. Jenna Caira (Toronto,
ON) then replaced Lawrie in the pitcher's circle, and a passed
ball allowed the runner on second to move up to third, but Caira
forced a groundout to second to freeze the runner at third, and
promptly struck out the next hitter to get out of the inning.


Caira started the fifth by hitting the leadoff hitter, who was
immediately sacrificed to second. A walk put runners on first
and second, but the next hitter drove a pitch directly into Lawrick's
glove at first for an easy double play. 

Canada was finally able to put a lot of pressure on Australia
with two outs in the sixth, as Yee forced a walk, and Sheena
Lawrick followed that up with Canada's first hit of the game
with a single to left to push pinch-runner Evelyne Pare (Ile-Perrot,
QC) to third. Joey Lye (Toronto, ON) pinch ran for Lawrick at
first, and Jen Salling was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
However, the next batter struck out and Canada came out of the
inning empty-handed. 

After Australia put a few more runners on base but failed to
score in the top half of the seventh, Canada came up for their
final at-bat. Veteran catcher Erin Cumpstone (Saskatoon, SK)
got things going by leading off with a single to centerfield,
and Kaleigh Rafter (Guelph, ON) followed that up with a single
up the middle. Corrine Doornberg (Langley, C-B) moved both runners
ahead with a sacrifice, setting things up for the top of the
order with only one out. Melanie Matthews (Surrey, BC) hammered
a pitch right off the pitcher's knee for a single, allowing Cumpstone
to score from third to cut the lead to 2-1. Caitlin Lever (Buffalo,
New York) then delivered a clutch line-drive over the left fielder's
head to bring pinch-runner Jill Russell in to score from third
and Melanie Matthews raced around the bases from first to beat
the throw at home to score as Canada eliminated Australia from
the tournament. 

Earlier in the day, China eliminated Venezuela with a 6-1, setting
up a meeting with Canada at 7:30pm EDT this evening. Japan and
the United States will square off immediately as the winner will
advance directly to the Gold medal game, while the losing team
will need to play the winner of the Canada-China game on Friday.


All playoff games are expected to be streamed live at the following
link: http://www.vtv.gov.ve/envivo.html. For more details, please
visit the Softball Canada website at http://www.softball.ca.


Canada 3 vs. Australia 2 

-SC- 

For more information, please contact: 

Gilles LeBlanc 
Manager - Marketing and Communications 
Softball Canada 
(613) 523-3386 ext. 3105 
gleblanc at softball.ca
 Al's Fastball News
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