Canada and USA lead their pools at Pan American Women’s Softball Championship

Post date: Aug 18, 2017 8:59:6 PM

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — After today’s games, USA and Canada continue leading the standings as the only two undefeated teams in the tournament. USA won against Venezuela, while Canada beat Argentina.

In a duel between the two undefeated teams of the Pool A, USA beat Venezuela by 6-0, and remains as the only leader in their group. For the winner, Jazmyn Jackson and Haylie McCleney homered, in the fourth and seventh respectively, while Ally Carda combined with Kelly Barnhill to pitch a two-hit shutout from the circle. The US team scored their first run in the first inning. McCleney led off with a double, and scored with an RBI single by Michelle Moultrie. Venezuela had their chance to score in the top of the third inning, when US pitcher Ally Carda got into problems, loading the bases with 2 walks and a hit by pitch, with one out. However, the right hander escaped the jam retiring Yuruby Alicart and Milagros Lozada with two ground outs. In the bottom of that same inning Moultrie led off the inning with a triple, and scored with a sacrifice fly to center field by Delaney Spaulding.

Before that game, Mexico defeated Cuba by 2-0 in a key game in the playoff run in Pool B. Dallas Escobedo threw a complete game shutout, with 4 hits and 9 Ks. The loser for Cuba was Anisley Lopez, who allowed 4 hits too, but was responsible for 2 runs. The first run for Mexico was in the third inning, with an RBI double to center field by Brigette Delponte, to score Sashel Palacios from first. The other run of the game came with the same formula, an RBI double, this time by Koral Costa to plate Suzannah Gonzalez. This way, both teams are tied in the standings, with 4 wins and 1 loss, in the second place of the Pool B.

In that same pool, Canada beat Argentina 8-1 early in the morning, and remains as the only undefeated team of the group. Victoria Hayward and Kareigh Lee Wise homered for the winner, while the only run for Argentina came with a solo bomb by Candela Figueroa. The winner was Sara Groenewegen, and the loser Carla Villalva.

Finally, in the first game of the night, in front of a fully packed stadium, Puerto Rico defeated host Dominican Republic by 3-1. The Boricua team came from behind in the last two innings to clinch the victory. In the bottom of the fifth the host team opened the score. Josefina Mercedes hit a pop up fly in front of home plate, but the defense couldn’t make the play with confusion trying to catch the ball. Later in the inning, with two outs and runners on the corners, a delayed steal of second started a run down between first and second, and a bad throw allowed the runner on third to score. The tying run came an inning later, with an RBI single by Carsyn Gordon; and the come-back was finished in the top of the seventh, with RBI singles by Elicia D’Orazio and Jahelis Muñoz. Meghan King was brilliant from the circle, allowing only 2 hits and 1 unearned run, and 11 Ks.

In the other games, Aruba defeated El Salvador by 8-4; Curacao beat Peru 7-5; Guatemala knocked out Panama 7-0; and British Virgin Islands won 3-1 against Bahamas.

The schedule for tomorrow is: