Azzano Decimo, Italy -
The USA Softball Women’s National Team locked up a spot in the finals of
the Italian Softball Week by defeating Italy 5-0 on Saturday and moving to 3-1
in the tournament the Amateur Softball Association/USA Softball announced
today. The Americans will now await the winner of the 2nd and 3rd place game
between Australia and Italy on Sunday.
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here for the box score
“It’s always interesting to see how your team is going to play coming off of a
loss and I thought today we responded exactly like we should have,” said USA
Head Coach Ken Eriksen. “Offensively we jumped on them early, our pitchers were
on their game and the fielding was solid behind them.”
Jolene
Henderson (Elk Grove, Calif.) earned the win for Team USA as she put together a
nice outing holding the Italian batters hitless over her four innings of work
and facing the minimum in her time in the circle. Jaclyn Traina (Naples, Fla.)
entered to start the fifth and preserved the shutout as she allowed just two
hits. Of the 30 batters they faced, Henderson and Traina combined to strike out
nine and walk none.
Making
a case for MVP of the tournament, Michelle Moultrie (Jacksonville, Fla.)
continued her streak of multi-hit games on Saturday as the outfielder went 2-3
from the plate with a two-run RBI in the first to put Team USA up 2-0 and a
single to right field in the third. Four games into the event, Moultrie is
hitting at a .643 clip.
Following
the Moultrie single in the third, Team USA added two runs to their lead in the
third inning at-bat. Hallie Wilson (Santa Ana, Calif.) grounded out to first to
hit Raven Chavanne (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) in from third and in the next at-bat
a Kellie Fox (San Diego, Calif.) single to right scored Moultrie from second.
Team USA
added a fifth and final run in the bottom of the third when Destinee Martinez
(Corona, Calif.) tagged up at third on a fly ball to left field and beat the
throw home making it USA 5, Italy 0.
Two
errors and a bunt single in the top of the sixth for Italy loaded the bases
with just one out but a ground out to Fox at shortstop and a Traina strikeout
ended the scoring threat. Both teams went three up, three down in their next
at-bats and the USA Women’s went home with the win.
With
the win, Team USA moved to 3-1 in the Italian Softball Week event and finished
pool play in first place guaranteeing them a spot in Sunday’s Championship game.
Italy will play Australia at 6 PM local time with the winner advancing to play
the USA at 9 PM. Visit www.USASoftball.com
for complete Team USA coverage as they continue
to compete in Italian Softball Week and move on to the International Softball
Federation (ISF) Women’s World Championship beginning August 15.
About
ASA
The Amateur Softball Association, founded in 1933, is the National Governing
Body of softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic
Committee. The ASA has become one of the nation’s largest sports organizations
and now sanctions competition in every state through a network of 76 local
associations. The ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to
over 165,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than 2.5 million.
For more information on the ASA, visit http://www.asasoftball.com/.
About USA
Softball
USA Softball is the brand created, operated and owned by the ASA that links the
USA Men’s, Women’s, Junior Boys’ and Junior Girls’ National Team programs
together. USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting
these four National Teams to compete in international and domestic
competitions. The USA Softball Women’s National Team is one of the only two
women’s sports involved in the Olympic movement to capture three consecutive
gold medals at the Olympic Games since 1996. The U.S. women have also won nine
World Championship titles including the last seven consecutive as well as
claimed six World Cup of Softball titles. For more information about USA
Softball, please visit http://www.usasoftball.com.