Italy, Chinese Taipei clinch last two playoff spots

02/09/2006

BEIJING, CHINA – Day 7 at the International Softball Federation’s XI Women’s World Championship here concluded the round robin portion of the tournament, which is also serving as a qualifier for the 2008 Olympic Softball competition. The 15-country tournament that started on Sunday is now down to eight teams and concludes on Tuesday.

BEIJING, CHINA – Day 7 at the International Softball Federation’s XI Women’s World Championship here concluded the round robin portion of the tournament, which is also serving as a qualifier for the 2008 Olympic Softball competition. The 15-country tournament that started on Sunday is now down to eight teams and concludes on Tuesday.

The event is also the sport’s Olympic Test Event, being played at Fengtai Softball Field, which was built for the competition that’s just under two years away.

The first game on the first day had ten runs and the last game of round robin had a total of 14. Chinese Taipei held off Greece tonight, 8-6, to clinch the fourth seed in Pool B and the final playoff spot. Each team came into the game with a 3-3 record, meaning the winner would move on and the loser would go home.

The game started out looking like Greece would be moving on. The “ Hellas” scored three times in the top of the third inning, highlighted by a 2RBI double by Joanna Gail. Not only did Chinese Taipei finally get on the board in the bottom of the fifth though, they came out of it with a two-run lead! Nine batters went to the plate, five of the first six of which got base hits. Four runs had scored at that point, prompting a pitching change for Greece as Stephanie Skegas relieved starter Sarah Farnworth.

Things didn’t get any better for Greece one inning later as they committed their second and third errors of the game and Taipei knocked out three more hits, all leading to three more runs and an 8-3 lead. But, the Greeks mounted a comeback in the top of the seventh. Lindsey Bashor smacked a two-run home run and Jamie Farnworth had a double that drove in Lindsay James, but the next two batters were outs and Greece was left on the outside looking in.

Earlier in the day, Italy blanked Great Britain, 3-0, to clinch fourth place in Pool A and a playoff spot. Veronica Fontana led off the bottom of the first inning by reaching first base on an error and scored on a wild pitch three batters later, giving the Italians (3-4) all the offense they’d need. They added two more runs two innings later though on the strength of extra base hits from Shanel Garofalo (RBI triple) and Eva Trevisan (RBI double). Great Britain (3-4) managed just two hits and finished sixth in Pool A – behind New Zealand (3-4) – via tiebreaker. Garofalo and Trevisan each finished with two hits.

Today was originally scheduled to open with Japan taking on Colombia, but with the Colombians having withdrawn on Monday, the forfeit goes into the books as a 7-0 decision, which means Japan finishes round robin play with a perfect won-lost record (7-0).

As a result, the first game on the field today was New Zealand’s 4-0 win over DPR Korea. The White Sox (3-4) gradually built up their lead, getting one run in the first, two in the third, and one more in the fourth. Fiona Timu’s third inning double that scored Melissa Upu and Sheree Cartwright accounted for half of the team’s offense. Winning pitcher Ali Arnold went the distance in limiting the Koreans (1-6) to just three hits. Seven different New Zealand players had hits.

Venezuela finished round robin play with an impressive 5-2 record, thanks to today’s 15-0 romp over Botswana (1-6). Geraldine Puerta hit a two-run home run in the top of the third inning as Venezuela, which finished with 12 hits, scored in each of the five innings except the second. (The game was called due to the international run-ahead rule, whereby a game is considered complete if a team is ahead by 20 runs after three innings, 15 after four, or seven after five.) Puerta finished 4-for-4 at the plate with six runs batted in and three runs scored. She was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle. Mariela Espinoza pitched all five innings for the win, striking out seven and surrendering four hits.

The host team finished round robin play seeded second in Pool A, winning today 1-0 over Canada. Only the unbeaten Americans and Japanese finished with a better record than China (6-1), who made a 1-0 lead after one inning hold up against a Canadian team that out hit them, 4-1. Ai Zhang singled to left field to score Yi Zhou who’d led off the bottom of the first with a walk and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Yan Hong Yu. Canada (5-2) had the tying run at second base in the top of the seventh inning with two outs, but, after fouling off three straight pitches on a full count, outfielder Alison Bradley grounded out to end the game. Canada’s Robin Mackin took the loss, giving up just the one hit over six innings and striking out five. China’s Wei Lu struck out eight in picking up the win.

The Americans kept their record unblemished with a 10-0 victory over South Africa (0-7). In another game shortened by the run-ahead rule, Team USA scored twice in the bottom of the first, once in the second, three times in the third, and four in the fourth. South Africa managed just one hit off of pitcher Alicia Hollowell, who struck out six over five innings. Caitlin Lowe led the offense this time, going 3-for-4 at the plate and driving in a run. Seven different USA players had hits as Nicolene Jones and Zelda Kutumela pitched against the defending world champions.

The night closed with the Netherlands upsetting Australia, 4-2. The Aussies (5-2) had already clinched the second seed in Pool B and the Dutch (3-4) were already eliminated from playoff contention. Nonetheless, the Netherlands improved on their last ISF Women’s World Championship performance (2-5 in 2002) and Australia is forced to head into the opening playoff game – against USA, no less – on a losing note.