(Surrey, BC) The United States evened the Canadian Open Championship Marquee Series with Team Canada after defeating the red and white 3-1 in the fourth and final game played at Softball City in Surrey, BC. Both teams will fly to Whitehorse, YK on Monday before playing each other on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Pepsi Softball Centre, which will host the 2012 ISF XIII Women’s World Championship.

Canada seemed poised to score in the top of the first when Caitlin Lever (Buffalo, New York) doubled and advanced to third on a groundout, but Canada was unable to push her in to score.

Team USA got things going in the bottom of the first inning, as Brittany Lastrapes reached on a dropped third strike, advanced to second on a groundout, and scored on a double by Kaitlin Cochran. Megan Langenfeld then hit a single that pushed Cochran in to score, giving the Americans an early 2-0 lead.

From there, starting pitchers Angela Tincher from Team USA and Jenna Caira (Toronto, ON) took over. In the top of the fourth, Jen Salling (Port Coquitlam, BC) led off with a single, stole second base and advanced to third by tagging up on a deep fly ball to center, but Tincher struck out the next two batters to get out of the inning.

That seemed to spark the Americans, as Molly Johnson, Ashley Hansen and Lauren Schutzler all hit one-out singles to load the bases, but only Johnson scored on an RBI groundout, increasing the lead to 3-0.

Team Canada got on the board in the top of the sixth, as Jen Salling got things started again with a two-out single and scored on a double by Kaleigh Rafter (Guelph, ON) to the left-centerfield gap. Heather Ebert (Rosthern, SK) followed that up with a single and advanced on a throw to the cutoff to place runners on second and third, but Tincher notched a huge strikeout to keep a two-run lead.

Canada threatened once again in the seventh as Caitlin Lever was hit by a pitch and Jenn Yee (North Delta, BC) singled with two outs, but Tincher once again shut the offence down by striking out the next hitter to end the game.

Canadian starting pitcher Jenna Caira allowed three runs on six hits, striking out three batters over four innings. Ashley Lanz (Winnipeg, MB) pitched the final two innings, allowing only one walk to go along with two strikeouts. Tincher allowed one run on seven hits with eight strikeouts to earn the complete game win.

At the plate, Jenn Yee and Jen Salling led the way for Canada with two hits each, while Caitlin Lever, Kaleigh Rafter and Heather Ebert each hit one.

The two teams will return to action on Tuesday at 6:30pm PDT at the Pepsi Softball Centre in Whitehorse, YK.

Canada 1 vs. United States 3: Box score and Play-by-Play

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For more information, please contact:

Gilles LeBlanc
Manager – Marketing and Communications
Softball Canada
(613) 797-7171
gleblanc@softball.ca