(Surrey, BC) Fresh off their bronze medal finish at the ISF XII Women's World Championship, the Canadian Women's National Team was back on the diamond on Monday night as they took on the Washington Absolute Blast in an exhibition game. The two teams will play each other again on Tuesday (7:00pm PDT) and Wednesday (7:00pm PDT) before Team Canada takes on Team USA from July 8-11.

 

In the first exhibition game, Canada jumped out to an early lead by scoring two runs in the bottom of the first, as Melanie Matthews (Surrey, BC) singled, and Caitlin Lever (Buffalo, New York) reached on a throwing error to place runners on second and third. Jenn Yee (North Delta, BC) then drove in a run on a groundout to second, and Lever scored on another error.

 

The red and white added to that lead in the third, when Yee forced a two-out walk and scored on a two-run homerun by Kaleigh Rafter (Guelph, ON). Jen Salling (Port Coquitlam, BC) then singled and scored on a single by Heather Ebert (Rosthern, Saskatchewan), who moved up to second on the throw to the plate and scored on a single by Erin Cumpstone (Saskatoon, SK), increasing the lead to 6-0.

 

The following inning, Victoria Hayward (Mountain View, California) reached on an error and Lever singled before Rafter hammered her second homerun of the game with two outs for a three-run shot.

 

In the pitcher's circle, Tina Andreana (Oakville, ON) threw two solid innings, allowing two hits while striking out four. Jocelyn Cater (Maple Ridge, BC), a 16 year old Junior Women's National Team call up, also looked fantastic, also throwing two innings and allowing a hit and a walk with four strikeouts. Another call up, Marina Demore (Richmond, BC), closed out a perfect fifth inning by retiring the three hitters in order with a pair of strikeouts.

 

 

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For more information, please contact:

 

Gilles LeBlanc

Manager - Marketing and Communications

Softball Canada

(613) 523-3386 ext. 3105

gleblanc@softball.ca