Canada edges Aussies 5-3 at women’s baseball World Cup

GIJANG, Korea, Republic Of – Canada opened the super round of the WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup with a 5-3 win over Australia on Wednesday.

After building a five-run lead and holding Australia hitless through five innings, Canada withstood a late surge by the Aussies.

“Credit to our group for sticking together tonight and overcoming some late adversity,” said Canadian manager Andre Lachance. “Pitching, defence and timely hitting, we got contributions from a lot of players tonight.”

None were perhaps bigger than starter Autumn Mills of London, Ont., who held Australia hitless until allowing a one-out single in the sixth. Mills worked out of trouble leaving the bases loaded in the fourth and struck out six in six innings before Heidi Northcott of Rocky Mountain House, Alta., captured the save with a 1-2-3 seventh.

“I felt great through five,” said Mills. “I think I tightened up a bit sitting on the bench in the top of the sixth, but I was able to battle through.”

After Canada scored three in the sixth to take a five-run lead, Mills walked and hit a batter to start the bottom of the inning before a one-out single ended the no-hit bid and loaded the bases. A walk brought in one run before two scored when a ball got by first baseman Kate Psota of Burlington, Ont.

“We had confidence that Autumn could finish the inning,” said Lachance. “She had a high pitch count but we didn’t want to bring someone in from the bullpen in that situation.”

Burlington’s Jennifer Gilroy got things started for Canada, hitting two-out single in the second to score Jenna Flannigan of Cornwall, Ont., from second base.

In the fifth, Kelsey Lalor of Red Deer, Alta., singled to bring home Niki Boyd from second.

Canada then added three runs in the sixth. Psota drilled a single down the right-field line on an 0-2 pitch to score two before Edmonton’s Nicole Luchanski singled to shortstop and brought in Gilroy from third base.

“Other than a few spots we played our most complete game of the tournament tonight,” said Lachance. “With a quick turnaround against Venezuela tomorrow, it will be important to keep the momentum going.”

Venezuela lost 7-2 to Japan on Wednesday while Taiwan hammered South Korea 11-1.