After shutting out the opposition in three of their first four games, Japan is the lone unbeaten team at midway point of the Scotiabank Canadian Open Fastpitch International Championship tournament at Softball City.
Japan will go into the second half of round robin play with the best defensive record in the tournament. The silver-medalists at last year’s World Championship tournament in Caracas, Venezuela, Japan has shut out Canada, the U.S.A and Australia. Venezuela is the lone team to score on Japan, doing so in a 13-3 loss this morning.
Team Canada, 2-0 losers to Japan Sunday morning, will take a 2-2 (won-loss) record into their final four round robin contests, sitting in third place after a 3-1 extra innings loss Monday night to the current world champion United States.
Canada took an early lead in the bottom of the second inning, when Jill Russell got on base with a one-out single, then scored on a double from Danielle Lopez with two outs. The Americans pulled even two innings later on a lead-off home run from Valerie Arioto.
In the top of the eighth inning, the U.S.A. had one runner on base at the start of the inning under the international tiebreaker rule, and added a second on an intentional walk. Molly Johnson then smacked the game-winning hit, a double which scored both baserunners.
Keilani Ricketts struck out three Canadian batters in the bottom of the eighth to end the game.
