China defeat Canada 1-0 to set up first playoff versus Japan

China (6-1) ended Canada's three games winning streak to rank second in Pool A for playoffs with a 1-0 victory, while the United States (7-0) swamped South Africa 10-0 to nail their seventh victory out of seven preliminaries on Saturday at women's softball World Championship.

China will play against Japan (7-0), who top Pool B, in their first playoff game and the United States to take on Australia on Sunday.

Both China and Canada played a defensive game without error all through the game. China grabbed the sole scoring chance to win by turning their only hit into a run against Canada's four hits and no run in the game.

China nabbed the 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning to hold till the end of the game. Zhou Yi ran to the second base on Yu Yanhong's sacrifice bunt after walking off Robin Mackin and then reached home plate on Lu Wei's RBI single, the only hit for China in the game.

In the top seventh, Angela Lichty hit a double after Lu Wei struck out two. The third batter Alison Bradley hit three foul balls in a row on 3-balls and 2-strikes to push the game into pivotal point. Finally Zhou Yi quickly fielded Bradley's ground ball and threw it to Yu Yanhong for the final out to ensure China the win.

China suffered their only loss to defending champions the United States 2-0 on Friday in round-robin preliminaries.

"I think we all played quite well today. We performed actively in offence and defense and won a score in the first inning. With one run in hand, we put pressure on our rivals. Canada did not show their full competence today," starting pitcher Lu Wei said.

China's coach Michael Bastian was quite satisfied with the result and his players. "Exciting! It was a great international softball game. First I have to thank to Canada's coach because they did a very good job in this game. You have to ask Lu Wei some questions because she pitched a great game for us. As we all know we had some opportunities and we got a score in the first inning, so we are very happy to get the victory," said Bastian.

Defending champions the United States thumped underdog South Africa for 10-0 atop Pool A, ending round robin preliminaries with a seven games winning streak.

The Americans are too strong for their rivals as they only allowed one hit in five innings. After Alicia Hollowell struck out the first three batters, the United States led by 2-0 on Natasha Watley and Crystl Bustos' doubles.

Watley contributed another RBI single in the second inning. And then the Americans notched three more runs in the third inning, thanks to Andrea Duran, Victoria Galindo and Caitlin Lowe's RBI singles.

Jessica Mendoza, Natasha Watley, Jenny Topping and Amanda Freed scored another four runs to cap the victory in the fourth inning.

Alicia Hollowell, who pitched for first time in the championship, tossed a complete game with six strikeouts and only one hit.

Candice Stephens posted the only hit for South Africa and was also the only one who reached the second base.

South African starter Zelda Kutumela struck out one and gave up nine hits with one walk. Reliever Nicolene Jones allowed three hits.

Australia was stunned by the Netherlands in a 2-4 loss in a reserved game. The Netherlands were ousted from playoffs in spite of the win, while Australia rested their starting line-up for the challenging collision versus United States.

In other games, New Zealand (3-4) beat DPR Korea (1-6) 4-0; Italy (3-4) edged out Britain (3-4) for the last playoff berth in Pool A against Venezuela; Chinese Taipei (4-3) managed a 8-6 triumph over Greece (3-4) setting up their playoff with Canada (5-2).

The World Softball Championship is the first Olympic test event in Beijing with 16 teams competing in two pools, which will produce four spots (excluding China, the host) participating in the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Source: Xinhua