The women’s Olympic softball team defeated the Gold Coast Hurricanes from Florida 8-0 on Monday in Taiwan’s third match in the qualifying rounds of the Canada Cup International Women’s Fastpitch Tournament.
The tournament is being held in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, until Sunday. The 13 teams competing in the event are from Austria, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Japan, Taiwan, the US and Venezuela.
In Monday’s match against the Gold Coast Hurricanes, the Taiwanese team, playing under its Olympic title of Chinese Taipei, used four pitchers who allowed eight hits with no runs, while the team’s eight hits allowed it to score two runs in the third inning and six more in the fourth inning.
Taiwan have so far won two matches and suffered one defeat. In their first match, on Saturday, they beat Venezuela 2-1, with Taiwanese starting pitcher Lai Sheng-jung throwing six-and-one-third innings to allow five hits and one run.
In the second match, on Sunday, Taiwanese starting pitcher Chueh Ming-hui was replaced after the Japanese team’s third batter hit a four-run grand slam homer in the top of the third inning. Relief pitcher Lin Su-hua was greeted with three successive hits, resulting in two more runs.
Throughout the match, Taiwan’s hitters were overpowered by Japanese pitcher Naho Emoto, who threw seven innings and allowed only five hits. It was not until the second half of the seventh inning that Pan Hui-tzu hit a solo homer to deny the opposing pitcher a perfect game. Japan won the game 6-1 and was leading in the tournament with three wins and no defeat.
Taiwan was temporarily placed second in the round-robin standings in the White Pool, along with Venezuela and Washington Absolute Blast.
In the Red Pool, Canada and Australia were out front, each with three wins and no defeats.
The 14 teams will need to compete in two more qualifying rounds, and the top four teams from each pool will proceed to the championship round starting tomorrow.
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