Australia tops Philippines, moves one step closer to Tokyo

Kaia Parnaby fanned 7 in a 2-hit, 6-innings performance to guide Australia to a 7-0 victory over the Philippines, in the second game of the WBSC Softball Asia/Oceania Qualifier Super Round. Australia remains undefeated in the tournament, on top of the standings heading into the final day of competition.

Philippines starting pitcher Ann Antolihao allowed only 1 hit in the first three innings of play. However, in the bottom of the fourth episode, Australia scored twice and chased her from the game. Veteran Olympian Stacey Porter led off the inning with a double deep into the center field, and three pitches later Carmelle Sorensen plated her with a single to right field. Then Chelsea Forkin singled in Sorensen.

Carmelle Sorensen gives Australia the lead pic.twitter.com/B4Amzf3MMq

— WBSC Softball #RoadToTokyo (@WBSCsoftball) September 27, 2019

One inning later Australia loaded the bases and scored three more runs; Forkin was hit by a pitch, Porter scored on an illegal pitch call and Taylah Tsitsikronis hit a sacrifice fly to left field to make it 5-0.

Finally, at the bottom of the sixth Australia finished the game. Leigh Godfrey and Stacey McManus singled with no outs, and Porter doubled in the center fielder, leaving runners at second and third, with no outs. The walk off run was produced by Sorensen with a sacrifice fly to right field.

“We came here to win five games and book our Olympic ticket and we have one more to go against China,” said Robert Harrow, Australia Head Coach. “It is a tall order for China after their loss to Chinese Taipei, but we are taking anything for granted. We are going to change our game plan against China and go aggressive to get early runs. Today we took a few innings to get on stride, but once we got going, there was no stopping us”.

Philippines Head Coach Venerando Dizer said: “Our errors cost us the game. Our defence was nothing like when we played New Zealand. It is disappointing but we still have a game against Chinese Taipei and want to finish among the top two Asian teams to qualify for the World Games in Birmingham in 2021”.