Host Canada had a perfect start into the V Women’s Baseball World Cup, dispatching Chinese Taipei 12-2 on Friday evening. The Maple Leafs countered an early lead of the Asians with five runs in the first two frames and put the game in the books with seven combined runs in the fourth and fifth. Meagan Cornelssen drove in three, Nicole Luchanski scored three times.
While the final score indicates a lopsided affair, it didn’t look that way in the first. Chinese Taipei opened the contest by scoring twice in the top half of the first thanks to a triple by Hsiao Mei Chen and a single by Yu Han Liu. Canada however answered right away, turning the score around thanks to a bases clearing double by Meagan Cornelssen in the bottom half. Consecutive singles by Stephanie Savoie and Katherine Psota extended the gap in the second to 5-2. Canada put seven more runs on the board in the fourth and the fifth to end the game on ten-run rule. Eight different players collected hits, three of them three apiece.
On the mound Psota allowed two runs on seven hits in four innings to pick up the win. Vanessa Riopel closed it out. Hsiao Chien Wang gave up nine hits, seven runs and a base on balls in 3 1/3 frames, taking the loss for Chinese Taipei.
