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XVII Women's Softball World Cup 2023 - Group C - Official Payoff
WBSC Women's Softball World Cup Group C Day 4 - Philippines claim dramatic walk off win over Italy to book last spot in playoffs
25/07/2023 8 Minute Read

WBSC Women's Softball World Cup Group C Day 4 - Philippines claim dramatic walk off win over Italy to book last spot in playoffs

Canada and Japan finished in the top two and will play tomorrow's final with Japan and the Philippines third and fourth. New Zealand and Venezuela will play the 5th-6th Placement Game.

The WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup just keeps giving in terms of drama and excitement as Canada, Japan, Italy and the Philippines finished in the top four of Group C to contest Wednesday's playoffs for the two tickets to the WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup Finals 2024.

Day four of the WBSC Women's Softball World Cup Group C taking place in Buttrio and Castions di Strada in the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia provided one of the most dramatic finishes to an Opening Round in recent memory.

Tuesday’s last day of the Opening Round started with more weather disruption and it wasn’t until around midday that the stormy weather had passed and cleared for sunny skies to prevail. Despite originally planning to play the final day of the Opening Round at Castions di Strada, due to the weather delays Buttrio was kept in use on Tuesday with the the last four Opening Rounds games being played at the same time across the two venues.

POD Day 4 - HAMMOUDE

After Canada and Japan both won their opening games against New Zealand and Venezuela respectively Japan beat Italy to firm up the spots in the top three for tomorrow's playoffs. The Philippines then beat New Zealand and Italy in the last game of the Opening Round to give the world No. 26 a dramatic last spot in the top four.

After an exciting and drama packed Monday where there were two upset results and a thunderstorm affecting the last game of the day between hosts Italy and the Philippines, which was postponed to Tuesday, the Philippines scored their amazing walk off win over Italy when the game resumed on Tuesday evening to book fourth spot in the playoffs.

Day Four Results
New Zealand v CanadaButtrio0-4Box ScoreNo Streaming
Venezuela v Japan Castions di Strada 0-7Box Score Highlights
Philippines v New Zealand Buttrio 5-3Box ScoreNo Streaming
Japan v Italy Castions di Strada 3-0Box ScoreHighlights
Italy v Philippines*Castions di Strada 5-6Box ScoreHighlights

* The Italy v Philippines game started at 20:45. It was postponed from Monday evening due to the weather conditions with the game in the bottom of the fourth inning with the score at 1-1, a runner on first and two outs.

For Italy, having beaten all other teams except Japan, they would have finished top of the group if they had beaten the Philippines. Now they must settle for third spot and will play the Philippines again on Wednesday in the 3rd v 4th playoff game.

Canada and Japan finished first and second and will play the final, while New Zealand and Venezuela finished fifth and sixth and will play the 5th-6th Placement Game tomorrow.

Such was the close nature of the games in this group that if Italy had won the final Opening Round game against the Philippines, Venezuela would have finished fourth and stayed in contention for a spot in the Finals 2024.

Photos of the Day

20230725_G11_ITA-PHI_WSWC_GroupC_040 Group C

Italy v Philippines in Castions di Strada

After this game was stopped last night due to thunder storms, it resumed at 20:45 on Tuesday as the last game of the Opening Round with Italy looking for a win to stay in the hunt for a top two finish and the Philippines wanting a win to claim outright fourth spot.

The game resumed in the bottom of the fourth inning with the score at 1-1, with the Philippines having a runner on first and two outs. Last night's game was tight and neither team gaining the ascendency however on Tuesday it was a different story.

Italy got the out they needed and quickly went on offence with McKenzie Barbara hitting a beautiful fading double into left field which tracked over the foul line into the left field corner allowing Laura Vigna and Erika Piancastelli to score. Anita Bartoli also got home after Andrea Filler hit nicely into space for a single into centre field.

Eventually the Philippines batters warmed up and in the bottom of the fifth, started finding holes in the Italian defence. With two on, Nicole Hammoude shot powerfully to right centre field to score Francesca Altomonte and Mary Maguad.

The 4-3 scoreline pressure saw a change in the pitching circle with Ilaria Cacciamani coming on for Alexia Lacatena. But it didn't stop the Philippines. Alaiza Talisik hit exactly to the same spot as Hammoude allowing her to race home from second to tie the ball game at 4-4. Lacatena was replaced soon after by Alice Nicolini.

Still plenty of action around the diamond with Italy getting runners on again. This time a sac fly ball to left field by Piancastelli allows Giulia Koutsoyanopoulos to get home from third and hand Italy back the lead at 5-4 in the top of the sixth.

Great defence from Andrea Filler at second base as Cristy Roa creams Nicolini to the right of Filler, who for a tall girl, does extremely well to dive to her right and claim the catch.

This time, in the bottom of the seventh, Italy's defence fails them. Talisik's dribbling ground ball goes out of reach of Elisa Cecchetti at first base and by the time it arrives to Filler at second base, she's in two minds whether to throw to second or first. She chooses first but Cecchetti drops the ball.

Another pitching change, with Christina Tonioli coming on for Nicolini, and she loaded the bases immediately. However, with the Philippines cheering on their batting stars, Gabriel drilled the ball back to Tonioli, who got a glove on it, bent down to pick it up seemingly with enough time to get an out but by the time she threw home, Hammoude had reached home plate while catcher Marta Gasparotto dropped the high throw all the same. Philippines with a walk off win 6-5 to book a spot in Wednesday's playoffs.

Cheers and screams from the Blu Girls while Italy's heads were lowered in disappointment. The Philippines went back to back wins on Tuesday to claim a spot in the playoffs. Amazing performance.

Japan v Italy in Castions di Strada

Fascinating game in store with Olympic champions Japan taking on undefeated Italy. Japan rebounded nicely from yesterday's shock defeat by Canada to beat Venezuela and we're set for another magical game with a win to Japan putting Canada, Italy and Japan in a contest for the top two positions while if Italy win, they will be guaranteed top spot in the standings and will enter tomorrow's playoffs in first place while Japan would advance in third spot behind Canada.

Japan score first in the top of the second with one of the oldest tricks in the book. With runners on first and third, Yume Kiriishi steals second, allowing Hotaru Tsukamoto to get home from third.

The Olympic champs scored again in the second with a sacrifice fly from Hitomi Kawabata to left field allowing Ayane Nakagawa to score as Japan goes 2-0 in the top of the third.

Philippines v New Zealand in Buttrio

Another important game here because if New Zealand wins they book a spot in the playoffs in fourth place while if the Philippines win, and they beat Italy in the later game, they are also in contention along with New Zealand and Venezuela for the coveted fourth spot.

Nicole Hammoude sets the game alight from the off with a massive home over right field to the Philippines up 2-0 in the first but New Zealand strike right back with Rebecca Bromhead finding grass in the left field to allow Mikayla Werahiko and Brooke Whiteman to score with loaded bases. 2-2 after the first.

Angelu Gabriel puts the Philippines back in front with a well place hit down the left field line, bringing home Nicole Hammoude and Elsie del Torre from second and first respectively although her efforts to get to third were extinguished by some good relay fielding by the Kiwis who tagged her out diving for third. No harm done as Gabriel got up smiling and seemingly staggering from her efforts - putting the Philippines ahead again and trying to reach third.

Big moment in the bottom of the fourth inning with New Zealand, two outs and bases loaded, Rebecca Bromhead at the plate and 12 pitches later, she was walked by Royeval Palmer to pull one back at 4-3. While Bromhead hit foul ball after foul ball, even Palmer had a smile on her face. Eventually she won the battle got have a base on balls but even still with three on, next batter up Shyah Hale couldn't capitalise and struck out, leaving three on and the score 4-3 to the Philippines.

The Philippines went one further ahead in the top of the seventh when Gabriel hit a ground ball single to the right of Hale at third base and by the time Nerissa McDowell in left field fired it home Alaisa Talisik had scored.

It just left the Philippines to get three more outs and they did so with little drama to head into their final game against Italy, which is to be completed from last night, with plenty of confidence.

Venezuela v Japan in Castions di Strada

Both teams are coming off defeats from yesterday and looking to maintain their charge towards a top four finish.

World No.2 Japan want to remove any memory of their close defeat to Canada yesterday, especially pitcher Sakura Miwa who had a touch day in the office, and immediately she went to work and it was three up and three down for Venezuela's first at bat.

Then pitcher Loreley Francia was struggling to find her range as she gave up two walks and another one on base before a Nadoka Harada single to centre field scores Ayane Nakagawa and Kanna Kudo. Hitomi Kawabata and Nodoka Harada scored as well to enforce a pitching change, with Michelle Floyd on deck, which seemed to do the business and kept Japan's lead to 4-0 after the first.

Japan extend their lead to 5-0 in the bottom of the fourth with Kawabata's single to right field scoring Ayane Nakagawa from second base before scoring two more in the seventh - including one super punch to centre field from Kyoko Ishikawa which Diana Arcay nearly got a glove on it as she dived to her right - to win the game by the run ahead rule and confirm a spot in the top three for tomorrow's playoffs.

New Zealand v Canada in Buttrio

After the drama of the overnight thunder storms and more rain this morning, hats off to the ground crews for getting the venue ready.

World No. 5 and Olympic bronze medallists Canada are coming off an impressive win over Olympic champions Japan on Monday while New Zealand recorded a memorable win as well, over Venezuela.

Canada get on the board in the bottom of the first with a sweet swing from Erika Polidori just out of the reach of third base Shayah Hale and into left field, reaching second while Janet Leung cruised round from second to give Canada a 1-0 lead after the first innings.

Canada extended their lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the third with two sacrifice flies to left field from Polidori and Grace Messmer scoring Kelsey Harshman and Leung as Canada looked to be hitting their straps

Kianna Jones extended the lead to 4-0 with a monster bomb over centre field, which Erin Blackmore in centre field could only run back to the fence and watch it fly over, as New Zealand will need to start getting their bats working of they are to stay in the game.

It wasn't the case and pitcher Dawn Bodrug only gave up one hit in five innings with five strikeouts to seal the win 4-0 and move to a 4-1 win-loss record, ahead of Italy (3-0) and Japan (3-1), guaranteeing themselves a spot in the top three for tomorrow's playoffs.

Pregame

Tuesday had started with the weather clearing although rain still in the air.

At 10:00 the weather closed in again with rain falling in both Castions di Strada and Buttrio so at 11:00, with the rain having stopped but wet weather still in the air, tournament officials are currently evaluating the fields at both stadiums to see when we can start. See the latest weather forecast here.

12:05 Another thunder storm hits Buttrio and Castions di Strada. Standing by for a further update regarding game start times at 12:30.

12:30 Blue skies in the distance so hopeful of some play later today. New start times for the games are as follows:

Day Four Schedule
New Zealand v CanadaButtrio15:00
Venezuela v Japan Castions di Strada 15:00
Philippines v New Zealand Buttrio TBD
Japan v Italy Castions di Strada TBD
Italy v Philippines * Castions di Strada TBD

* The Italy v Philippines game will start in the bottom of the fourth inning with the score at 1-1 when it resumes

13:15 The sun is definitely out, now all hands on deck on getting the venue ready in Buttrio.

Buttrio - Campo da Baseball-Softball G. Michelutti

14:00 Who would have known that a storm was here two hours ago. Apart from the work being prepared on the field to get the ground ready, it's blue skies above and bright sunshine. New start times for the first games at Buttrio and Castions di Strada, now starting at 15:00.

GameTime update: Only games at Castions di Strada will be stream live so we'll bring you as much as we can from both venues throughout today.

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