WHITEHORSE, Yukon, Canada – It just took five innings for the USA Softball Junior Men’s National Team to defeat Denmark 13-4 and move to 1-0 in pool play at the International Softball Federation (ISF) World Championships the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) and USA Softball announced today. Zane Chason (Alma, Ga.) threw a complete game and picked up the win in his first international contest. While Bryce DuCharme (Hudson, Wis.) led the team on offense going 4-for-4 with a double and home run to lead off the game. The lefty finished the game with two RBI and four runs scored.
Click here to for the box score
In the
win Chason allowed just four runs over five
innings in the circle. The Georgia native struck out six, walked three and gave
up just four hits.
“Zane earned the game ball for his performance in the circle tonight,” said USA Junior Men’s Head Coach Tim Lyon. “I think he battled some nerves early in the game but he did a great job of settling into the flow and pitching the ball the way he knows how.”
Offensively Team USA scored consistently throughout the contest. DuCharme set the tone when he blasted a ball over the center field wall in the opening at-bat of the game to give the Americans a one-run lead. But Denmark fought back in the bottom half of the inning and tied it up at one.
Four hits and two Denmark errors in the top of the second resulted in five more USA runs to make it 6-1 at the end of two innings of play. DuCharme and Tyler Stoffel (North Mankato, Minn.) each picked up RBI base hits in the inning.
Three runs in the bottom of the third helped Denmark close its deficit to 6-4. A three-run home run by Tobias Holmelund sparked Denmark's rally but Chason got Nicolaj Kjaer Olsen to ground out to end the inning.
Team USA added three more runs in the top of the fourth to take a commanding 9-4 lead and Denmark again struggled to score any runs in the bottom half. In the top of the fifth, the USA Junior Men add four more runs their lead. A passed ball scored Blaine Milhelm (Eaton Rapids, Mich.) for the inning's first run. That was followed up by a Stoffel double that scored Cody Valeros (Stockton, Calif.) and then a Jimbo Pernetti (Ceres, Calif.) single, that plating DuCharme and Stoffel.
Trailing by nine runs Denmark needed to score in the bottom of the fifth to avoid a run rule but couldn’t get anything going as the USA Junior Men held on to win 13-4.
“I’m really proud of the way our guys played in this opening game,” said Lyon. “We hit the ball well and made some great plays in the field. Now we turn out attention to a tough New Zealand team.”
The Red, White and Blue will return to action at the ISF X Junior Men’s World Championships on Saturday, July 12 when they face New Zealand at 1:30 p.m. (PST) and then Czech Republic at 6:30 p.m. (PST). Visit www.USAsoftball.com to follow live stats and see photos from all of USA’s games at the ISF World Championship.
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.
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.