Prince Albert, Sask. – The Canadian Women’s National Team defeated the Czech Republic by a score of 9-5 in the third game of their Celebration Tour Series at Prime Ministers Park on Thursday. Canada took a lead in the bottom of the fourth and tacked on four runs in the fifth, then held on after the Czechs made a final push in the sixth.
 
The Czech Republic opened the scoring in the top of the first inning, getting a pair of singles to start the game and sacrificing those runners up to second and third before a ground out scored the game’s first run. It took until the bottom of the third for Canada to respond. Victoria Hayward (Toronto, Ont.) led off with a single but was retired on a fielder’s choice, and Kelsey Harshman (Delta, B.C.) and Alysen Febrey (Peachtree City, Ga.) hit back-to-back singles to tie the game with Harshman crossing the plate on an error to give Canada a 2-1 lead. The Czechs tied the game with a run in the top of the fourth.
 
In the bottom half of the fourth, three consecutive singles by Janet Leung (Mississauga, Ont.), Grace Messmer (Surrey, B.C.) and Madelyn McKinnon (Surrey, B.C.) pushed the go-ahead run across the plate followed by a sacrifice fly to right by Hayward to make the score 4-2. Kianna Jones (Surrey, B.C.) led off the bottom of the fifth with a triple, later followed by two more triples by Leung and Erika Polidori (Brantford, Ont.) to bring two runs in to score. Natalie Wideman (Mississauga, Ont.) and Franklin each added RBI singles to give Canada a commanding 8-2 lead.
 
The Czech pulled closer in the top of the sixth, putting two runners on base with a walk and a hit by pitch before hitting two singles to plate three runs to cut the lead to 8-5. Leung hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning to round out the scoring.
 
Box Score: Canada 9 vs. Czech Republic 5
 
Jorde Chartrand (Weyburn, Sask.), Nicola Simpson (Seattle, Wash.) and Sam Ryan (Monroe, N.Y.) shared the pitching duties for Canada, scattering five runs on nine hits and combining for five strikeouts. Febrey led Canada at the plate with three singles and drove in a run, while Leung had a triple and a single with two runs batted in. Messmer connected with two singles, Polidori and Jones each tripled, and Hayward, Franklin, Harshman, McKinnon and Wideman all added a single.
 
The two teams will wrap up the Celebration Tour with a doubleheader at 1:00pm and 3:00pm at Bob Van Impe Stadium on Canada Day on Friday. Streaming for both games will be available on the Softball Canada YouTube channel.