Received: 8/16/08 9:31:55 AM From: "Gilles LeBlanc" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FORIMMEDIATE RELEASE August16th, 2008 Venezuela Holds Off Canada for 2-0 Win (Beijing,China) Venezuela had nothing to lose, while Canada could not afford to lose.Venezuelan pitcher Mariangee Bogado kept the Canadian hitters off balance allgame, while Canadian pitcher Danielle Lawrie (Langley, BC) only made a fewearly mistakes as Venezuela shutout Canada 2-0. The Canadian loss makes thingsa lot more interesting in the preliminary round standings, as Canada will needto play better against Australia and Japan if they want to keep their medalhopes alive. Venezuelagot things going early in the top of the first inning. Lawrie hit the leadoffbatter, who was then sacrificed to second. Denisse Fuenmayor then hit a singleto right field to score the runner from second base. Venezuela threatened toincrease the lead to 2-0, but left fielder Melanie Matthews (Surrey, BC) threwout Fuenmayor at home on a single by Yuruby Alicart to end the inning. Freshoff her great throw, Melanie Matthews continued the momentum shift by smashinga single through the left side. Despite getting a few runners on base, Canadawas unable to produce the tying run. Both pitchers then got into shutdown mode,retiring the opposing hitters in order until the fourth inning. After quicklyretiring the two first batters, Lawrie delivered a pitch at the heart of theplate that Yuruby Alicart drove over the centerfield fence with two outs,increasing the Venezuelan lead to 2-0. Jennifer Yee (North Delta, BC) then ledoff the Canadian half of the inning with a single, but was left stranded onthird base. Onceagain, both pitchers settled down and retired the opposing hitters in order inthe fifth and sixth innings. After Venezuela received a leadoff hit but wasunable to increase its lead, Canada made a strong push to tie the game in thebottom of the seventh. Jennifer Salling (Port Coquitlam, BC) hit a leadoffsingle to centerfield, and Sheena Lawrick (Calgary, AB) followed with a singleof her own, allowing Salling to advance to third and Lawrick advanced to secondon the throw, placing runners on second and third with no outs. However,Mariangee Bogado took advantage of anxious Canadian hitters and retired thethree next batters, giving Venezuela the victory. Lawriegave up two runs on four hits, and compiled nine strikeouts in the completegame loss, while Bogado relied heavily on her defence, allowing five hits andonly struck out one batter during the game. Each of the first five hitters inCanadas lineup registered a single, including Melanie Matthews, Caitlin Lever(Buffalo, New York), Jennifer Yee, Jennifer Salling and Sheena Lawrick. Theloss dropped Canadas preliminary round record to 3-2, while Venezuela improvedto 2-3. Canada will now need to rebound against Australia (3-2) tomorrow(5:00am, live on TSN, RDS), and will finish the preliminary round against Japan(4-1) on Monday (5:00am, live on TSN, RDS). Box Score andPlay-by-play CurrentStandings Team Wins Losses Runs For Runs Against 1.United States 5 0 36 1 2.Japan 4 1 12 11 3.Australia 3 2 17 9 3.Canada 3 2 17 13 5.China 2 3 18 10 5.Venezuela 2 3 11 21 7.Chinese Taipei 1 4 6 18 8.Netherlands 0 5 4 38 TournamentBatting Leaders TournamentPitching Leaders -SC- Formore information, contact: GillesLeBlanc Manager Marketing and Communications SoftballCanada (613)523-3386 x. 3105 gleblanc(at)softball.ca Al's Fastball News *Email: fastball(at)pmihrm.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] NEWS-1: http://www.AlsFastball.com/ NEWS-2: http://fastpitchwest.com/alsfastball VIA http://www.webbox.com
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