Surrey, B.C. – The Canadian Women’s National Softball Team made it four in a row at the 2019 Canada Cup International Softball Championship, topping Chinese Taipei 4-2 on Thursday night at Softball City.
 
Team Canada got on the board first on of a single by Jennifer Salling (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) after Victoria Hayward (Toronto, Ont.) led off the inning with a single, stole second and was sacrificed to third by Joey Lye (Toronto, Ont.). Taipei responded with two runs in the top of the second for the first runs and first lead against Canada in the tournament. Chia-Hui Ko doubled home Feng-Chen Lin and a triple from Chieh-Pei Shih plated Chia-Hui Ko to make it 2-1 for Chinese Taipei.
 
Canada took the lead back the following inning. Hayward doubled to lead off the inning for her second hit of the night, and Lye followed that up with a single of her own that advanced Hayward to third. With those two runners on base, Jennifer Gilbert (Saskatoon, Sask.) came up to the plate and smacked a single to right field that scored Hayward. Salling earned her second RBI of the contest on a sacrifice fly that scored Lye for the 3-2 lead.
 
Janet Leung (Mississauga, Ont.) gave Team Canada an insurance run in the bottom of the fourth, singling home Emma Entzminger (Victoria, B.C.) after she tripled to right. From there, the defence took over, completely shutting down the Chinese Taipei offence to secure the win.
 
Box Score: Canada 4 vs. Chinese Taipei 2
 
Making her first start of the tournament, Danielle Lawrie (Langley, B.C.)  earned the win in the pitcher’s circle. She went six and a third innings, allowing two earned runs on four hits with three strikeouts and no walks. Jenna Caira (Toronto, Ont.) came in after a one-out single in the top of the seventh and got the final two outs for the save and secure the victory for Canada.
 
Team Canada finishes off pool play against Triple Crown Colorado on Friday afternoon at 1:00pm PDT and will also play a playoff game against an undetermined opponent at 6:00pm PDT Friday night.
 

 
The Canadian Junior Women’s National Team finished its round robin schedule with a 10-0 loss to Puerto Rico in four innings.
 
Team Canada once again ran into some top-level pitching facing Puerto Rico’s ace Meghan King. Allyse Volpe (Scarborough, Ont.) was the only Canadian player to get into the hit column with a one-out single in the first and a leadoff single in the fourth. Grace Messmer (Surrey, B.C.) was hit by a pitch in the top of the first as Canada had two runner on base with one out, but the next batter grounded into a double play to end the inning. Puerto Rico jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the inning highlighted by a three-run homerun by Shermiah Sanchez. The Puerto Ricans added two runs in the second and three more in the bottom of the fourth for the walk-off win on the run-ahead rule.
 
Box Score: Puerto Rico 10 vs. Canada Juniors 0
 
Maddie Hickingbottom (Glen Williams, Ont.) and Rawnie Weststrate (Delta, B.C.) shared the pitching duties for Team Canada, each allowing five runs.
 
With the loss, the Canadian Junior Women’s National Team finished fifth in Pool B and will play the sixth-place team from Pool A in the placement round at 8:30pm on Friday night.