JUNIOR WORLD
SUNDAY
THE GAMES AT
NANJING
China
1,
Canada
0 (loser is eliminated)
Australia
1, Chinese Taipei 0 (loser is eliminated)
Japan
2,
United States
1 (corrected score)
Australia 4, China 0 (loser eliminated)
The winner of the USA/Japan automatically advances to the
Gold Medal championship on Monday. The
loser advances to the Bronze Medal round Monday, where it will meet the winner
of Sunday’s final game between
China
and
Australia
. The winner of the Bronze Medal
game at 11am Monday advances to the Gold Medal game at 130pm.
The last time the
USA
and
Japan
met in Junior ISF competition was at the 1999 Championship in
Taipei
, won 3-1 by
Japan
in the final game.
CHINA
1,
CANADA
0
Canada
started Megan MacKenzie on the mound,
China
countered with ace Qi Jia.
After shutting
China
down, with a walk allowed, in the top of the 1st,
Canada
immediately threatened. Melanie
Matthews reached on an infield hit. With
one out, Alisia Norowdowski singled to right.
Jesse Sigurdson hit back to the pitcher, who threw to 3rd for
the force – too late.
Canada
had the bases loaded, one out. Jessica
Morris hit a soft fly to right but the 2nd baseman caught it, threw
home, and the catcher threw back to first – with two Canadians standing on
second – a 4-2-3 double play.
That failure to score was costly.
In the top of the 2nd, Lei Donghui singled to right, Sun
Guixia was hit by a pitch, and Jiang Jing singled to right to load the bases.
Deng Fei hit a grounder to second, but 2nd base Norowdowski
bobbled the ball and Lei Donghui sped home with the first run.
With the bases still loaded,
Canada
changed pitchers, bringing Daniel Lawrie to the mound – who struck out Wang
Ziyun – and, in one of the several remarkable plays by Canadian catcher
Jessica Morris, she threw to 3rd and caught the lead Chinese runner
off base. (Morris’ quick throw
last night picked a Japanese runner off 3rd base.)
China
1-0. Another large crowd roared its
approval. (The games are enlivened between innings by the Argentine team dancing
in the aisles; they got rhythm.)
Erin McLean reached on a two-out infield single in the
bottom of the 3rd. Hopes
rose when Norodowski’s grounder was bobbled at short and
McLean
was safe at 3rd. But,
Jesse Sigurdson ground out to 2nd.
With one out in the 4th, Xue Shen reached on a
throwing error by Lawrie and raced to 3rd.
Lawrie did better on the next batter.
Sun Guixia grounded back to the mound; Lawrie threw her out at 1st,
and Ashley Falk at 1st whipped the ball back to Morris who held her
ground at home and tagged out a sliding Xue Shen –
1-3-2
double play, the Canadians second of the game.
The top of the 5th ended on another sterling
Canadian defensive play. Jiang Jing
walked and Cao Fangfang reached on another infield error.
Ziyun struck out. Wei Dong
Mei hit back to
McLean
at 3rd for the force on Jing. With
Lu Yi at bat, Lawrie spun a pitch past the plate, Morris ran after the ball,
flipped back to Lawrie, who threw to McLean, who threw back to Morris for the
tag on the speeding Fangfang at the plate.
In the top of the 7th,
China
got just its third hit – a single by Xue Shen.
She was caught off 1st, but, typical of its problems in this
game,
Canada
missed the opportunity for another rundown when Norodowski dropped the ball.
But Lawrie notched two more Ks – five for the game – and the last
batter ground out to the mound.
Now,
Canada
, which also had three hits, had
three outs to stave off elimination. Three
batters, three outs and
China
had edged
Canada
1-0, and would advance to the evening game to play the winner of the game
between
Australia
and Chinese Taipei.
Canada
was eliminated – but not before treating the capacity crowd to a splendid
display of defense.
Speaking of defense,
China
’s wide-ranging second baseman, Cao Fangfang, accounted for eight of
Canada
’s 21 outs. End
AUSTRALIA
1, CHINESE
TAIPEI
0
Australia
put Sharon Bell on the mound against CT’s Chueh Ming Hui.
Australia
drew first blood – in the 4th.
Lisa Lindsay hit a line drive into the left field corner and raced around
the bags for an inside-the-park homerun and a 1-0 lead.
Bell
and reliever Tarryn Lambert, who came on in the 6th, made that lead
hold up, limiting CT to three hits while turning a double-play in the 4th
to down a threat.
Taipei
’s Fu Wei Ping singled to lead off the bottom of the 7th, but was
eliminated on a fielder’s choice, on Keng Shu Fen’s bouncer back to Lambert.
Lin Mien Fang struck out. Lai
Ming Teng got CT’s fourth hit but Chiang Ying Tzu grounded to third for the
final out.
Australia
racked up four hits. Ironically,
Australia
beat Chinese Taipei by the same score to end pool play.
Australia
will play
China
in the final game of the night, to determine which team advances to the Bronze
Medal round. Chinese Taipei is
eliminated.
JAPAN
2, UNITED STATES 1 (corrected score/text)
The
USA
put ace Monica Abbott on the mound;
Japan
countered with Yuir Kashima.
Abbott struck out all three batters in the 1st.
With one out (Caitlin Lowe), the
USA
’s Norelle Dickson doubled to left. With
two out (Jodie Legaspi), Emily Zaplatosch walked.
Caitlin Benyi flied to right.
With one out in the 2nd, Hitomi Sajida dropped a
bloop over Kristie Fox’ head at 2nd, Fox just missing an overhead
grab. With Yukie Iwai at bat, a
quick throw from Zaplatosch encouraged Sajida to scurry back to 1st
– reflecting the
US
determination to keep the speedy Japanese from running the bases.
Iwai flied out to right. Abbott now had 5 Ks.
Desiree Williams struck out to open the
US
2nd, and Lisa Dodd ground out. Andrea
Duran flied out to center.
Abbott struck out the first two batters in the Japanese 3rd,
the third flying out to left. The
USA
also went down in order – Kristie Fox, Lowe, Dickson.
In the Japanese 4th, after a fly ball to Fox,
Abbott struck out the next two batters. (9)
In the
US
half, Legaspi and Zaplatosch went down before Benyi singled to center.
Williams hit a fly ball deep to left center.
Abbott struck out the first two batters in the Japanese 5th,
but, Iwai reached when Fox dropped a fly ball behind 2nd.
The error hurt. Kashima
helped her cause by driving a pitch over the wall in right field for a 2-0
Japan
lead. Abbott struck out her 12th.
Down 2-0 going into the bottom of the 5th, the
USA
came to life on a Dodd single. She
advanced to 2nd on a Duran sacrifice.
Jessica Gilmore, pinch-hitting for Fox, struck out. Lowe,
whose hitting streak was broken at six games against
Australia
, launched the first pitch into left field, driving in Dodd for the first
USA
score. Dickson flied out to center.
The first Japanese batter ground out to 2nd, and
Fox retired the next batter with a leaping grab of a drive.
Not to be outdone, Dodd reached high at short to spear another drive.
In the bottom of the 6th, Legaspi ground out to
short; Zaplatosch ground out to 2nd; and Benyi popped to 3rd.
The
USA
had one more at-bat to avoid its first defeat.
Abbott began the 7th with 12 Ks already on her
coup belt. (Old Indian saying) Yamazaka
led off with a single up the middle. Sajida
popped up to Dickson who raced to the fence for the grab. Simabukuro ground out.
Iwai singled to right, but Yamazaka was thrown out stealing 3rd.
Williams, tied for the
USA
lead in home runs with three, opened the bottom of the 7th,
grounding out to short. Dodd hit a
deep fly to center which center fielder Masuyama caught on the run.
Duran hit a fly ball to center for the final out.
Japan
now advances to the Gold Medal championship game on Monday afternoon.
The
USA
must await the outcome of the final Sunday contest between
Australia
and
China
to identify its opponent in the Bronze Medal game on Monday.
The winner of that game will meet
Japan
for the championship.
The
USA
had four hits,
Japan
three. The
USA
had that one costly error in the 5th.
If the
USA
were to lose a game, this is the one they could afford to lose because they
stay alive in the Bronze Medal game. Still,
this could have been a 1-0 USA/Abbott victory. .
Abbott had never given up a home run, and the theory was that she would pitch
differently to Kashima as the Japanese lead-off hitter in the next inning.
But, that’s theory. end
AUSTRALIA
4,
CHINA
0
In their first meeting,
Australia
edged
China
1-0, to end pool play. Now, one
would advance to the Bronze medal game to play the
United States
– the other would be out.
Through the first three innings, the game was a pitcher’s
duel between Jocelyn McCallum and
China
’s Yu Huili. The only hit in that
span was a single by Nicole Smith. After
an infield hit by
China
in the top of the 4th, which had no effect, Smith electrified the
crowd with a triple to the left field wall.
Smith seemed to hesitate at 3rd, although her coach appeared
to be waving her home, and Smith stayed at 3rd.
Australia
tried a suicide squeeze – the play wasn’t even close as Sophie McGilvray
bunted right back to the pitcher who flipped to the catcher who solidly blocked
the plate. McGilvray then made the third out, leaving the base early.
Louise Harriden beat out an infield hit with one out in the
Australian 5th. Lauren
Williams walked. Rachel Love
advanced both runners with a sac bunt. Michelle
Andrew looked at a third strike – and another Australian scoring opportunity
was lost.
Going into the top of the 6th,
China
had put two runners on base, and neither reached 2nd.
The first batter struck out (McCallum’s 8th) and the side
went down in order.
Kylie Cronk led off the
Australia
6th with an infield single to 3rd.
Lisa Lindsay’s grounder to 2nd was bobbled, both runners
safe, and
Australia
had another situation with two runners on, this time with no outs.
Nicole Smith crouched to bunt, and Cronk stole 3rd.
China
chose to walk Smith, loading the bases. McGilvray
singled sharply to right, Cronk scored, and, when the throw home went awry,
Lindsay scored the second run. With two still on, and no outs, Heather Southwood
worked a 3-2 count and walked to reload the bases.
Harriden, who singled previously, hit a sac fly to score a third run.
China
tried for the play at home, from right field, rather than a double play.
Carly Clough walked to reload the bases, the fourth walk given up by
China
. Now,
China
returned started Yu Huili to the mound, one out, bases loaded, down 3-0.
Rebecca Horne came to bat as a pinch-hitter, worked the count to 3-2, and
struck out. Visibly upset
China
coaches came out of the dugout when the count to Michelle Andrew went to 3-0.
She walked, forcing in the fourth run.
Now, Cronk, who had started it all, was back in the box, the bases still
loaded, two out – and she popped to 3rd.
Host team
China
trailed 4-0 into the top of the 7th.
The first batter bounced to 2nd.
The second batter bounced to 2nd.
The third batter worked a 302 count – and bounced to 2nd.
Australia
had its rematch with the
USA
in the Bronze Medal game and McCallum had her shutout.
Australia
had five hits,
China
one.
China
made two errors to one. End
USA Photo: Monca
Abbott vs Japan
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