THUNDER BAY – A stress-filled test might not be what a team wants in their last round-robin game of a tournament.
For Canada’s national women’s baseball team, their 9-8 extra innings triumph over Chinese Taipei on Thursday night at Port Arthur Stadium was a great way to get prepared for their biggest test at the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation Women’s Baseball World Cup.
The tournament hosts will play for the bronze medal on Saturday at 11 a.m. against Mexico.
“I was hoping that we’d be able to come through and put up a good game, but I was a little bit worried there for the first couple of innings,” Canada manager Anthony Pluta said.
“With 16 hits today, we almost matched our entire total for the tournament in one game. Hats off to the hitters and hats off to our team for some pretty clutch plays later on.”
The game quickly turned into a slugfest with Chinese Taipei holding an 8-5 lead after the fourth inning.
Canada clawed their way back and evened things up in the top of the sixth when Madison Willian hit a two-run double.
In the top of the eighth inning, which sees automatic runners on first and second base as part of WBSC rules, Mia Valcke hit an RBI single to give her team the lead.
“One of our strengths as a team is that even when we’re down, we always push to come back and try to get the win,” Valcke said.
Chinese Taipei was able to get the game-tying run on third base with no outs in the bottom of the eighth, but Canada escaped unharmed.
After Hsiao-Mei Chen was tagged at home for the first out, Ai-Wei Yang failed to connect on a two-strike bunt attempt and Canadian catcher Kaitlyn Ross snuffed out a suicide squeeze bid from Wen-Ching Hsieh to seal the win.
“I think that was great for us to face some adversity there,” Valcke said.
“It’s not going to be an easy game (Saturday) by any means, so It was good for us to have a little bit of pressure and pull through, because who knows what will happen in our next game.”
Valcke was a perfect five-for-five at the plate and drove in three runs for Canada, who finished in third place in the round-robin with a 3-2 record.
Willan and Andréanne Leblanc had a pair of RBI in the triumph.
Pei-Chen Huang hit a two-run home run to lead the way for Chinese Taipei (0-5) on offence.
Mexico withstands Venezuela comeback
It took extra innings to decide Canada’s opponent for the bronze medal game.
After giving up two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning on a Kimberly Caicedo double, Marlen Lagunes hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth to give Mexico (2-3) a 3-2 victory over Venezuela (1-4) to finish fourth in the round-robin.
“We were definitely nervous,” Mexico captain Dani Leal said. “Venezuela is a great team and they hit very well.
“I was hoping that our pitchers did their job, which they did, and we did our job by not making any errors.”
Canada and Mexico squared off on the opening day of the tournament, with the hosts coming away with a 7-2 win on Sunday.
Leal expects Saturday’s rematch to be different, but said that her team will be the underdogs.
“Canada’s a very tough team and they are well-rounded,” Leal said. “We’ll need to play perfect if we’re going to win.”
Canada won the bronze medal at the last World Cup in 2018, while Mexico is making their first-ever appearance at the event.
United States prevails in gold medal preview
While the game meant nothing in the grand scheme of things, the United States made a big statement ahead of Saturday’s gold medal game with Japan.
Alana Martinez scored on a balk that was called on Wakana Mori in the top of the eighth inning to give the Americans a 5-4 win over the six-time defending champions.
In addition to finishing first in the round-robin with a 5-0 record, the United States also ended Japan’s 39-game win streak at the World Cup, which dated back to 2012.
Jillian Albayati hit a three-run home run in the fourth inning to lead the way on offence for the Americans, who won the first two editions of the tournament in 2004 and 2006.
Japan, who finished second iin round-robin play with a 4-1 record, got a pair of RBI from Miu Shirashi and five strikeouts in five innings of work from staff ace Ayami Sato.
Saturday’s gold medal game begins at 3 p.m.
Tickets for the medal round can be purchased at Port Arthur Stadium or online.
Final round-robin standings
- United States – 5-0
- Japan – 4-1
- Canada – 3-2
- Mexico – 2-3
- Venezuela – 1-4
- Chinese Taipei – 0-5
Tournament round-robin leaders
- Batting Average - Miu Shiraishi (Japan) - .615
- Home Runs - Jillian Albayati (United States), Lucie Anctil (Canada), Deane Benites (United States), Pei-Chen Huang (Chinese Taipei), Alex Hugo (United States) and Marlen Lagunes (Mexico) - 1
- RBI - Andréanne Leblanc (Canada), Jillian Albayati (United States) and Miu Shiraishi (Japan) - 7
- Stolen Bases - Sena Catterall (Canada) - 6
- Runs - Sena Catterall (Canada) - 9
- Hits - Mia Valcke (Canada) and Yi-Hsuan Chiu (Chinese Taipei) - 9
- Doubles - Miu Shiraishi (Japan) - 4
- On Base Percentage - Sena Catterall (Canada) - .700
- Slugging Percentage - Miu Shiraishi (Japan) - .923
- Complete Games - Jaida Lee (Canada) and Chiao-Yun Huang (Chinese Taipei) - 1
- Earned Run Average - Wakana Mori (Japan) - 1.00
- Innings Pitched - Chiao-Yun Huang (Chinese Taipei) - 10 and 2/3
- Strikeouts - Frandelis Garcia (Venezeula) - 7
