Medals await as Softball World Championship concludes Tuesday

BEIJING, CHINA – Australia, Japan, and USA have each earned a berth in the 2008 Olympic Softball competition. They, along with the host China, will be joined by another team after a special fifth place game on Tuesday morning, as the International Softball Federation’s (ISF) XI Women’s World Championship heads into its final day here.

Canada will take on Italy at 11:30 a.m. (local time) on Tuesday to determine which of the two will join the list of confirmed competitors for the 2008 Games. (Regional qualifiers will take place in 2007 to determine the other three teams to round out the eight-team field for the next Summer Olympics.) Later on, Australia will play USA for the right to advance to tomorrow night’s world championship gold medal game against Japan. (The loser of the Australia-USA game will take home the bronze medals.)

The 2006 Women’s World Championship is being played at Fengtai Softball Field, site of the 2008 Olympic Softball competition. As a result, this is also the sport’s Olympic Test Event.

This morning, Australia broke open a game against Canada to win 7-2 and snap a two-game losing streak. The Aussies took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning, but Canada came right back a half-inning later, capitalizing on two Australia errors and a single by Rachel Schill – all with two outs – to take a 2-1 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth though, Australia sent nine batters to the plate in a five-run inning highlighted by a two-run double by Tracey Mosley. Along the way they chased Canadian starter Lauren Bay, and then her replacement, Robin Mackin.

Sandra Allen hit a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to seal the deal and make a winner out of veteran Melanie Roche, who struck out eight over six innings before giving way to Kelly Hardie, who retired the side in the seventh. Allen finished 2-for-3 at the plate with two runs batted in.

The next game saw the host team erupt offensively, dumping Italy, 9-1. China built a 1-0 lead from the second inning into a six run cushion when they scored five times in the top of the fourth inning. The winners had four hits in that half-inning and took advantage of three Italy errors. Among the offensive fireworks were a RBI-double by Yi Zhou and a triple by Yan Hong Yu that scored Zhou and allowed Yu to cross home plate – all on the same play – on an error by Italy’s second baseplayer. China padded their lead to 9-0 in the top of the fifth with Li Sun driving in two of the three runs with a late-inning single.

Claudia Bernardi would score Italy’s only run in the bottom half of the inning and the game was called after the third out 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.

China had eleven hits, led by a perfect 3-for-3 performance from Di Wu, who doubled twice and drove in two runs. The win booked China a place in Monday’s last game against Australia and sent Italy on to the fifth place game on Tuesday morning versus Canada.

International softball rivals USA and Japan then took the field for a game that would send the winner straight to tomorrow’s gold medal game. Each team came in with a perfect 8-0 won-lost record.

Japan, who had beaten the Americans in the grand final at the 2005 1st World Cup of Softball as well as the Japan Cup, tasted victory again, defeating USA, 3-1. The victory avenged a loss to the U.S. in the grand final at the II World Cup of Softball just under two months ago.

The game was as tense as expected, with the first runs not coming until Japan scored twice in the bottom of the fourth inning. Aki Venishi was hit by a pitch from U.S. pitcher Jennie Finch to start off the inning, and advanced to second when Emi Naito came up next and singled. A sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third, followed by a ground out by Satoko Mabuchi that scored Venishi and advanced Naito to third. That brought up Sachiko Ito, who singled to make it 2-0.

One inning later Japan upped their lead to three runs when Ayumi Karino singled to score Megu Hirose, who had started the inning with a double off of pitcher Jamie Southern who came on in relief to start the inning.

The U.S. got their only run in the top of the sixth on a Crystl Bustos base hit that scored Caitlin Lowe, who’d led off the inning reaching first base on a Japanese error.

USA committed two errors and managed just three hits off of pitcher Yukiko Ueno, who’d gained notoriety in Athens in 2004 by throwing the first perfect game in Olympic Softball history. Over today’s seven innings Ueno struck out seven and walked just one.

In the nightcap, Australia edged China, 1-0. The win moved the Aussies on to Sunday’s game against the Americans, from which the loser will get the bronze medals and the winner will advance to a game against Japan for the world championship title. China finishes fourth. Since the top four finishers at the ISF women’s world championship gain berths in the Olympics but China is automatically in by virtue of being the host country, the need arose for the Canada-Italy game that will start the day.

This evening Australia won their second game of the day by beating a host team that, though not a medalist, still seems to have won the hearts of the many in China that supported the team for nine days as they – under the guidance of Head Coach Michael Bastian, who has become something of the country’s newest celebrity – played their way to a 7-3 finish. Ironically, at the last ISF Women’s World Championship (2002), China finished in fourth place at 7-3 as well. Stacey Porter hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth inning for all the offense in tonight’s finale. Australia, 6-3 four years ago, shows they aren’t done yet working toward improving until they’re the team left standing on the highest podium.