Canada splits pair of games at Pan American Championship (Bogota, Colombia) The Canadian Junior Women's National Team completed the round-robin portion of the Pan American Championship in Bogota with a record of 4-2 after splitting their two games today. Canada opened with a 6-2 win over Mexico and then lost to the undefeated United States by a 3-0 score. Canada finished third in its pool and will now play Venezuela at 10:00am EDT on Friday and must win two games to qualify for the 2011 ISF Junior Women's World Championships in South Africa.
In a must-win game with Mexico, Canada got on the scoreboard first with three runs in the second inning on route to their 6-2 win. Natalie Becker (Waterloo, ON) picked up the win with relief help from Karissa Hovinga (La Vista, Nebraska), as the duo combined to allow five hits and strike out four. In the second, Natasha Szlapetis (Brampton, ON) led off with a single to center field and was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Natalie Wideman (Mississauga, ON). Corinne Brookhuis (East York, ON) grounded out to short and Szlapetis scored when Kristy Noble's (Uxbridge, ON) grounder to second was bobbled and Noble was called safe at first. Brigitte Aizprua (Terrebonne, QC) singled to center field to score Noble from second, and Aizprua scored when Jennifer Gilbert (Mckinney, Texas) hit a slap that got past the first baseman for Canada's third run. Mexico answered back with a run in the third. Hovinga replaced Becker with one out and two runners on base in the fourth and retired the next two batters. Canada added two in the fifth on a Victoria Hayward (Mountain View, California) walk, who then scored on Jacqueline Omichinski's (Abbotsford, BC) double to left center. Omichinski scored on a single by Wideman to center field. Canada left two runners on in the inning. Hovinga got in trouble in the top of the sixth as Mexico loaded the bases with no one out. Hovinga got a strike out, walked in a run then force two groundouts to end the threat. Canada got some insurance with a run in their half of the sixth as Aizprua got her third hit of the game and moved to second on an error on a Gilbert grounder. Hayward was safe on a drag to load the bases. Aizprua then scored on a sacrifice fly from Szlapetis. Canada ended up with nine hits but left ten runners stranded on base. In their contest with the United States, a win could have created a three-way tie for first in the pool with the USA and Brazil. USA scored twice in the first inning and added a single run in the sixth. Shanna Wilson (Peterborough, ON) started in the pitcher's circle and got into trouble in the first but settled down as she went four innings allowing two runs on four hits and striking out two. Karissa Hovinga came on in the fifth and allowed one run on one hit and struck out two. The USA had six hits against Canada's two. Canada had a chance in the third on a double by Brigitte Aizprua and walks to Victoria Hayward and Jacqueline Omichinski, but could not cash in any runs. In the seventh, Natasha Szlapetis walked after fouling off six pitches, Natalie Wideman lined out to left field, Corinne Brookhuis grounded out to short, and Kristy Noble was hit by a pitch after fouling off several pitches to put two runners on. The USA made a pitching change and got the final out on with strikeout. Victoria Hayward had the other Canadian hit in the first inning. Both teams made some nice plays defensively with Canada's second baseman Kristy Noble making several of them and outfielders Hayward, Aizprua and Omichinski all making outstanding catches. -SC- For more information, please contact: Gilles LeBlanc Manager - Marketing and Communications Softball Canada (613) 523-3386 ext. 3105 glebl...@softball.ca Al's Fastball News *Email: fastball(at)pmihrm.com fastb...@pmihrm.com NEWS-1: http://www.AlsFastball.com/ NEWS-2: http://fastpitchwest.com/alsfastball ISC World Tournament 2010: http://www.iscfastpitch.com/index.php?page=200 VIA http://www.webbox.com _______________________________________________ Alsfastball mailing list Alsfastball@fastpitchwest.com http://fastpitchwest.com/mailman/listinfo/alsfastball_fastpitchwest.com