THUNDER BAY – Although it wasn’t the medal that they wanted, the Canadian national women’s baseball team will come away with some hardware from the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation Women’s Baseball World Cup.
In front of a crowd of 1,278 fans at Port Arthur Stadium on Saturday, Canada doubled up Mexico by a score of 4-2 to win the bronze medal.
“I’m very proud of this team,” outfielder Sena Catterall said.
“We’re a very young team and to bring something back from this tournament is super cool for all of us.”
This is the seventh time that Canada has reached the podium and the third straight World Cup where they’ve accomplished that feat.
They won a silver medal in 2016 in Gijang, South Korea and picked up a bronze medal at the 2018 event in Viera, Fla.
“We continue to build on our success and we’ve learned from our failures,” manager Anthony Pluta said.
“Every game was a building block to take us to where we are now and I think we just put it all together and did exactly what we wanted to do.”
Mexico, who were looking to win a medal in their first-ever trip to the tournament, jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning on a solo shot by Denise Perez.
Designated hitter Andréanne Leblanc brought home a run on a groundout in the bottom of the third inning to tie things up at one.
Canada moved into the lead later in the frame when Ela Day-Bedard was hit by a pitch when the bases were loaded, which allowed Madison Willan to score.
Leblanc helped the tournament hosts increase their lead in the fifth on an RBI double and rounded the bases a few minutes later on a single from Alizée Gélinas to extend her team's advantage to three runs.
“One of our strengths is that we play with our hearts,” Leblanc said.
“It showed during this game and throughout this week. We had our ups and downs and we managed to figure out a way to get the bronze medal.”
Mexico kept the pressure up in the top of the seventh inning as they had the bases loaded and the go-ahead run on first base with two outs.
Their comeback bid ended soon after, however, as Diana Ibarra grounded out to Canadian third baseman Zoe Hicks to end the game.
“It was a little bit of a nail-biter there at the end, so that made everything even more intense,” Pluta said. “What a way to finish.”
Leblanc went two-for-three with a pair of RBI to lead the way at the plate for Canada, with catcher Kaitlyn Ross hitting a double in the triumph.
Raine Padgham pitched four innings to earn the win and Sophy Gagné picked up the save.
Edith De Leija had three hits for Mexico in the loss.
The gold medal game gets underway at 3 p.m. between the United States and six-time defending champion Japan.
The Americans, who ended Japan’s 39-game win streak on Thursday, won the first two editions of the tournament in 2004 and 2006.