VIERA, FLA. - The USA Baseball Women's National Team picked up a crucial 5-1 victory over Canada to keep its gold medal hopes alive in the 2018 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Women's Baseball World Cup on Wednesday night at the USSSA Space Coast Complex in Viera, Florida.
Seven players collected hits in the contest while Megan Baltzell (Stafford, Va.) and Anna Kimbrell (Fort Mill, S.C.) both had multi-hit games for the red, white and blue. Marti Sementelli (Newton, Mass.) dominated on the mound, giving up just three hits and one run in six stellar innings of work.
After going down 1-0 in the first inning, the U.S. quickly got its offense rolling for the immediate answer. A leadoff double from Kylee Lahners (Laguna Hills, Calif.) and a two-out hit-by-pitch brought Jade Gortarez (Riverside, Calif.) to the plate with runners on the corners. The shortstop did not disappoint, launching the first pitch she saw 329 feet over the left field wall to give Team USA a 3-1 advantage that it would not relinquish.
The stars and stripes added to their lead in the next inning as Baltzell brought out her own power. The right fielder crushed a 360-foot home run - her second dinger of the tournament - to center field to make it 4-1 in favor of the U.S. Baltzell went 3-for-4 on Wednesday and is now hitting .550 with two long balls, four doubles and 10 RBI in the tournament.
Michelle Cobb (Wenatchee, Wash.) followed the leadoff bomb with a single before a Kimbrell double put two runners in scoring position for Alex Hugo (Olathe, Kan.), who reached on an error that scored Cobb. The two-run inning gave Team USA a 5-1 lead that would prove to be the final score on the night as the pitching staff took care of business from there.
After allowing the run in the first, Sementelli locked in. She sat down seven consecutive batters following a leadoff walk in the third and a quick three up, three down sixth inning set the stage for Meggie Meidlinger (Sterling, Va.).
Meidlinger made her fourth appearance of the World Cup when she took the mound to close it out in the seventh. She gave up one hit - her first of the event - but a fielder's choice and a double play erased the threat and finished off the victory for the U.S.
Team USA's final game of the World Cup Super Round will be at 6 p.m. ET on Thursday, August 29, against the Dominican Republic at the USSSA Space Coast Complex in Viera, Fla. The game will be streamed live on the WBSC YouTube channel.
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