Haarlem,
Netherlands - It took just five innings for the USA Softball
Women’s National Team to beat Botswana 7-0 and move to 2-0 at the International
Softball Federation (ISF) Women’s World Championship on Saturday the Amateur
Softball Association (ASA)/USA Softball announced today. Seven USA
hitters recorded a base hit in the abbreviated contest and Taylor Hoagland
(Flower Mound, Texas) and Destinee Martinez (Corona, Calif.) each had multiple
hits. Martinez added two RBI and a run to her stat line.
Click here to view
the box score
“We did exactly what we
needed to do today,” said USA Head Coach Ken Eriksen. “We got on top early and
our pitchers were dominant. Now we have about a 24 hour break before we play
again so we can take some time to relax just a bit and come back tomorrow ready
to go.”
Three USA pitchers combined
for a perfect game not allowing a single Botswana base runner in the game.
Jaclyn Traina (Naples, Fla.) earned the start and the win for Team USA. Traina
went three complete innings striking out seven batters. In the fourth Jolene
Henderson (Elk Grove, Calif.) entered to pitch and kept the streak alive. In
the top of the fifth, Sara Nevins (Pinellas Park, Fla.) entered to close out
the game. The lefty struck out all three batters she faced securing the perfect
game for the American pitching staff.
The USA scoring started early
when Raven Chavanne (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) scored from third on a Hallie
Wilson (Santa Ana, Calif.) ground ball to shortstop in the bottom of the first.
In the second Team USA added three runs to their lead on a two-run single from
Martinez and an RBI single by Chavanne.
Both teams were held
scoreless in the third but the USA scoring picked back up in the fourth when
Martinez doubled to start the at-bat and scored on an illegal pitch three
batters later. Haylie McCleney (Morris, Ala.) scored later in the inning on a
sac-fly by Samantha Fischer ( Simi Valley, Calif.) to put Team USA up 6-0.
Entering the bottom of the
fifth, the USA needed just one run to secure the run-rule victory. Batting
second in the inning, Hoagland tripled to left field to represent the closeout
run. In the next at-bat Jessica Plaza connected on a walk-off line drive to
left field scoring Hoagland for the seventh USA run of the game.
The USA batters finished with
nine hits, two for extra bases, and six RBI in the World Championship contest.
The
win moves Team USA to 2-0 in the tournament. The Americans will next face
Chinese Taipei at 4:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m. CDT) on Sunday. Live streaming and live
stats are available via www.USASoftball.com throughout the
ISF World Championship. Log on and follow Team USA as they seek a tenth World
Championship Gold.
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.
About ISF
Headquartered in Plant City, Florida (USA), the ISF is a member of
the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), the world governing body for
the sport which is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and
SportAccord (formerly the General Association of International Sports
Federations). Softball (women’s fast pitch) made its Olympic debut at the 1996
Games in Atlanta. There are 127 affiliated countries in the ISF and millions of
participants in the sport worldwide.