Sun, Jul 23, 2006 page24

• Team USA leave it late to clinch World Softball title

  BEST DEFENSE It took an extra innings for the defending champion to retain its title as the US girls downed the brave Taiwanese ladies by 4-3

  • By Paul Huang / CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
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  Samantha Finlay's one-out single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth scored the winning runs for Team USA as it rallied from a 3-2 deficit to beat Team Taiwan by a final of 4-3 in the title game of the 2006 World University Softball Championship at Tainan yesterday afternoon.

  The ladies from the US successfully defending their title from 2004 with a valiant effort that included two comebacks in a hard fought match before clinching the title in extra-innings against the previously-unbeaten Taiwanese.

  The highly anticipated showdown between the top two squads in this year's competition was every bit as exciting as it had been billed to be, with the staff ace for each team, Jennifer Ritter (USA) and Chueh Ming-hui (Taiwan), taking the mound in search of the victory.

  

  Samantha Finlay seals the win and the title for Team USA with a clutch hit in the bottom of the eighth.

  PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CTUSF

  After a scoreless first two innings in which Taiwan wasted a golden scoring opportunity with two on and no outs in the top of the first, Team USA was able to strike first with a lining double to left by Lindsay Schutzler that scored the game's first run in the bottom of the third.

  Trailing 1-0, Tung Yun-chi led off the Taiwan fourth with a single to left before being replaced by pinch runner Lin Hsiu-min, who would score one out later on an RBI single by Chen Po-Lung.

  Another run also crossed the plate on the same play as the right-fielder for Team USA's throw to home was mishandled by the catcher to make it 2-1 in favor of the home team.

  Taiwan's lead would last for less than two innings as the US answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the fifth on Schutzler's run-scoring single off right-hander Lai Sheng-Jung, who entered the game earlier in the inning as relief for Wu Chia-yen.

  Lauren Lappin's one-out single in the bottom of the seventh, followed by a fielding error by pitcher Lai Sheng-Jung on the ensuing sacrifice bunt attempt and Christina Boutelle's infield single had Team USA threatening with the bases loaded.

  But a re-entering Chueh Ming-hui (who started the game and left in the fourth), managed to induce a fly-out to shallow-right against Brianne McGowan for the second out of the inning before right-fielder Lai Meng-ting gunned down the runner at the home plate to end the US seventh, setting the stage for the late-game drama

  "It took a total team effort for us to win the game," US head coach Carol Hutchins said after the game.

  Picking up her second win of the day (she was also the winning pitcher in the game against Japan earlier yesterday) was Ritter.

  The right-hander out of the University of Michigan allowed three runs (only one earned) on five singles while fanning four and walking two.

  The five errors committed by her defense nearly cost Ritter the win, but in the end, it all worked out.

  Taking the disheartening loss for the home team was Chueh, who could not escape her second base-loaded jam of the game as she surrendered the game-winning hit to Finlay on a clean shot to left.

  Japan 2, USA 3

  It was Samantha Finlay's liner to left off Japan's Makiko Fujiwara in the eighth that earned Team USA a 3-2 win and the right to play Taiwan in the title game earlier yesterday.

  The Americans also drew first blood in this game with Christina Boutelle's one-run single off Japanese starter Fujiwara in the bottom of the third for a 1-0 lead, only to find themselves behind by a run in the fourth when a past ball by the American catcher coupled with a one-run single by Kaoru Oyanagi secured two quick runs for Japan.

  Kristie Fox's hard double to left would force a 2-all tie in the bottom of the fourth, where the score stayed deadlocked until Finlay's game-winner.

  Final Standings
  

  1st: USA, 2nd: Taiwan, 3rd: Japan,
  

  4th: Australia, 5th: Thailand,
  

  6th: South Africa
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