THUNDER BAY – After Monday’s extra-inning loss to Japan, Canada women’s national baseball team manager Anthony Pluta was proud of how his team performed.
On Tuesday evening, he was left looking for more.
In front of the biggest crowd so far at the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation Women’s Baseball World Cup, the United States (3-0) cruised to a 13-4 triumph over the tournament hosts at Port Arthur Stadium.
While it wasn’t as lopsided as last year’s 23-0 rout in the Group A group stage event in Thunder Bay, Canada (1-2) couldn’t slow the American offence and made one too many errors (five in total) for Pluta’s liking.
“You got to play. You can’t make errors,” Pluta said. “That cost us by not being there mentally.
“We got to show a little bit of fire. We don’t have that right now. We need to wake up and hopefully, we see a different team tomorrow.”
With the loss, Canada finds itself in a three-way tie for third place with Mexico and Venezuela.
The Americans kept pace with Japan to remain in a tie for first in the standings. Chinese Taipei sits in sixth place at 0-3.
The top two teams in the round-robin will play for gold on Saturday afternoon, with third and fourth place squaring off for bronze earlier in the day.
To earn a medal round spot, Pluta said that Canada has to execute in their games against Venezuela on Wednesday night and Chinese Taipei on Thursday evening.
“On paper and in practice, we have a phenomenal team,” Pluta added.
“It’s a fast-paced game and you’re playing against the best in the world here. If you can’t slow the game down in your own head, you can’t slow it down on the field and be able to play.”
“We need to be able to slow the game down, but also keep the intensity up. That’s a hard thing to do and it takes practice, but I think we’ll get there.”
Meanwhile, the United States offence is firing on all cylinders.
They scored a run in every inning on Tuesday except in the bottom of the sixth, but the game was well out of reach at that point.
“We came out with energy and we were ready to roll right from the first inning,” United States catcher Denae Benites said.
“We know that we can’t take anybody lightly here so we have to come out and be ready to rock as a team. The game kind of takes care of itself when we do that.”
Alex Hugo got things started for the Americans with a two-run homer in the bottom of the first.
The two sides traded runs in the second frame, but the United States pulled away with three runs in the third inning to build up a 6-1 cushion.
Benites played a key role in that with a two-run homer to left field that was confirmed following a video review.
“That’s the first home run I’ve ever had so it was a pretty great feeling,” Benites said.
A four-run fourth gave the Americans a 10-1 advantage, but Canada kept things going with three runs of their own in the top of the fifth.
The United States matched that output in the bottom half of the inning to complete the scoring.
Hugo, Benites and Jillian Albayati drove in two runs each for the Americans. Olivia Pichardo struck out four batters in four innings to earn the win.
Andréanne Leblanc led the way for Canada on offence with a pair of hits, including a double, and an RBI.
Zoe Hicks also had a double early in the game, while Allison Schroder took the loss.
In other tournament action on Tuesday, Japan had a dominant 11-0 win over Venezuela in a game that lasted four-and-a-half innings.
Iori Miura and Miu Shiraishi both hit a double and drove in three runs each for the six-time defending champions.
Akino Tanaka and Yuna Tsuchiya combined to strike out five batters and gave up just three hits on their way to shutting out Venezuela.
Meanwhile, Mexico earned their first-ever victory at the Women’s Baseball World Cup as they defeated Chinese Taipei by a score of 9-3.
Marlen Lagunes hit the first home run of the tournament as she had a pair of hits and four RBI to lead the way on offence for her team.
In addition to Canada’s matchup with Venezuela, which begins at 7 p.m., Wednesday’s slate also sees Mexico taking on Japan at 11 a.m. and the United States facing Chinese Taipei at 3 p.m.
A full schedule for the WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup can be found on the event’s website.
Tickets for the tournament can be purchased at Port Arthur Stadium or online.
