Canada, Japan lead WBSC Softball World Championship Group B with two wins

Canada started the WBSC Women’s Softball World Championship with a pair of 7-0 victories over Great Britain and Venezuela. This way the red and white team is at the top of the standings in Group B, along with Japan, with two wins.

In the first game of the day, Canada defeated Great Britain, 7-0, in five innings.

Canada scored twice in the first inning and never looked back. Victoria Hayward scored on a sac fly by Kelsey Jenkings, and then Erika Polidori crossed home plate with an RBI-single off the bat of Holly Speers.

One inning later Canada made it a five run ballgame, taking advantage of a pair of errors by the British defense.

In the third the red and white sqaud loaded the bases with three consecutive singles by Jennifer Gilbert, Janet Leung and Larissa Franklin and then produced the sixth run of the game with a grounder to short stop.

Meanwhile, in the defensive side, Danielle Lawrie was in control of the game. The righ-hander was almost untouchable over four innings of work, allowing only 2 hits and 2 walks, with 4 strikeouts, and clinched the first win of the tournament. Karissa Hovinga pitched the fifth inning, allowing a hit and a walk.

The last run of the game was scored by Speers in the fifth inning, on a walk off sacrifice fly by Franklin.

A few hours later, in the last game of the day, Canada repeated score to beat Venezuela, this time in only six periods. Veteran Jenna Caira had an stellar performance for the winning team; she pitched a one-hit ball over six innings, with 1 walk and 6 strikeouts.

Venezuelan lefty Desiree Ybarra has a rough outing in which she allowed four runs in the very first inning. Hayward scored on a fielder’s choice, an then Janet Leung hit a three-run home run to right center field.

Two innings later designated player Jennifer Gilbert singled to left to score Speers; and in the top of the sixth Canada added two more with a two-RBI single off the bat of Polidori, to reach the seven-run difference.

Tomorrow Canada will play against Italy at 15:30; while Venezuela will face Botswana at 14:30

Second win for Japan

Tonight Japan defeated Botswana 20-0 in only three innings of play, and joined Canada in the top of the Group B.

The host team displayed a strong offensive, with 11 hits, including five home runs, two of them off the bat of right fielder Nozomi Nagasaki. Yuka Ichiguchi, Yu Yamamoto and Hitomi Kawabata also joined the slugfest with a homer.

Tomorrow Japan will play against China, at 19:00 local time.