Carrion outduels Chai as Mexico blanks China

Yeraldine Carrion had a brilliant performance this afternoon striking out 17 batters to win a terrific pitching duel against Yinan Chai, guiding Mexico to its second win in the Super Round. The Mexican team defeated China 1-0 and improved to 2-3.

Both pitchers had three perfect innings to start the game. For Mexico, Carrion retired the first 10 hitters she faced, striking out seven of them. In the other hand, right-hander Yinan Chai retired nine in a row, with five strikeouts.

In the fourth inning, China put two runners on with one out, including the first hit of the game, but Carrion struck out Yuanyuan Gui and Yingying Ma to end the inning. In the bottom of the same inning, Madelyn Ruffin singled to right field but was retired trying to steal second base. However, the Mexican team loaded the bases with two outs, on another single and two defensive errors, but Chai escaped the jam striking out Saleen Donohoe.

In the sixth inning leadoff hitter Jiayi Xue doubled to left field, with one out, but Carrion fanned the next two opponents to end the threat. In the bottom of the sixth was Mexico who put a runner on, with a 1-out single by Celeste Soliz. But Paola Villegas hit a grounder and the Chinese defense completed a double play to end the inning.

In the top of the seventh, the Mexican pitcher struck out three batters, for a total of 17.

And in the bottom of seventh Mexico finally crossed the plate. Alyssa Hernandez hit a leadoff single and one out later Donohoe also singled through the left side. With one out and runners on first and second, Desiree Hernandez hit a grounder to third base, Xue forced the runner on third and crossed the throw to first base but the assistance was errant, allowing pinch-runner Karen Lizarraga to score from third the game-winning run.

Carrion used 93 pitches to complete the shutout, allowing only 2 hits with 17 strikeouts. Chai performance was also impressive but didn’t receive any support from his lineup. She allowed only 5 hits and 1 run, with 11 strikeouts.