The Blog Sport

Canada Runs Out of Energy Against USA

(Beijing, China) – After holding the powerful Americans scoreless for five innings between yesterday’s rain-shortened game and this morning’s continuation of the preliminary game, the Canadian softball team came out on the losing end of an 8-1 decision. Three costly errors in the top of the sixth inning led to four American runs, and USA added four more in the seventh for good measure to take sole possession of first place with a 4-0 record.

After a solid three up, three down inning that ended with Dione Meier (Saskatoon, SK) striking out Jessica Mendoza in the first inning yesterday, Canada opened the scoring in the bottom half of the first inning. Leadoff hitter Melanie Matthews (Surrey, BC) drove a pitch deep to centerfield that Caitlin Lowe was unable to catch, allowing Matthews to reach second. After Matthews advanced to third on an illegal pitch and Erin McLean (Whitby, ON) walked, Jennifer Yee (North Delta, BC) stroked a sacrifice fly to left field to bring Matthews in to score.

Meier was solid for Canada through three innings, but the game was postponed in the top of the fourth following heavy rain.

When the game resumed earlier this morning, Canadian head coach Lori Sippel (Stratford, ON) decided to go with the hot hand, entering Lauren Bay Regula (Trail, BC) into the pitcher’s circle to attempt to stave off the Americans. Bay Regula had just come off a complete game shutout win over China, and was still riding that high. Regula pitched the fourth and fifth innings for Canada, before Meier re-entered the game she originally started in the sixth.

Despite getting the right pitches from Meier, Team Canada’s defence committed three errors in the sixth, as Meier allowed four runs on no hits. After retiring the first two hitters in the seventh, Meier gave up four straight hits as the Americans scored two more runs. Robin Mackin (Newmarket, ON) came into the game to get the final out, but was tagged for a two-run single before she could close out the half inning.

The final line on Meier was eight runs (four earned) on five hits and two walks with one strikeout in four and two thirds innings. Bay Regula walked two batters and had one strikeout in two innings of relief, while Mackin gave up one hit in a third of an inning. At the plate, Canada only managed one hit, a single by Sheena Lawrick (Calgary, AB) off American pitcher Cat Osterman in the bottom of the seventh. Osterman earned the win in the pitcher’s circle after coming on in relief of starting pitcher Monica Abbott in the fourth.

Despite the loss, Canada is tied with Japan for second place in the preliminary round standings with a 3-1 record. The red and white will return to action Saturday, August 16th when they will face Venezuela (0-3) at 7:30am EDT (live on CBC, RDS).

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For more information, contact:

Gilles LeBlanc
Manager – Marketing and Communications
Softball Canada
(613) 523-3386 x. 3105

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