Japanese national team decisively beats ACT 10-0 in four innings

Tuesday, March 20, 2012 

Hawker, Australian Capital Territory — Tonight, in the second match against the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) team before they play a three game test series against the Australia women's national softball team, the Japan women's national softball team beat the ACT team by a score of 10-0 after four innings when the game officially ended. Coaches for both teams and the umpires agreed to play to the traditional seven inning ending because the match was a friendly training match.

ACT players during the lineup announcement before the start of the game
Image: LauraHale.

An ACT batter takes a look at a pitch
Image: LauraHale.

The Japanese team arrived three hours before the start of the game and trained on another field. They moved to the field the game was to be played on 45 minutes before the scheduled start. The ACT team arrived about an hour early and did not take the field to warm up until a half hour before the scheduled start.

Australian national team pitcher Kaia Parnaby started the game for the ACT and had a poor outing. The top of the first started with a single Eri Yamada, and Yukina Seki bunting herself to first and progressing the base runner. Shizuyo Hamamoto hit a double which scored both base runners. This was then followed up by three successive outs by Haruka Fujino, Haruna Sakamoto, and Mika Suzuki. In the ACT's half of the inning with Saturi Yamane pitching to them, Australian national team member and Olympic bronze medalist Brenda De Blaes had an infield groundout to short, Brit Tully bunted herself into an out, and Clare Currie hit an infield ground out to end the inning 2-0 Japan.

Parnaby had more trouble in the second inning, where she hit two batters and four runs scored. In the ACT's half of the inning, they went scoreless with only Jessie Baine getting on base as a result of a walk. The ACT had at least two errors, and the score was 6-0.

The ACT left Parnaby in for the start of the third, where the first Japanese batter Yumi Iwabuchi hit a single to left field, Mari Souma getting struck out and Yamada hitting a double to outfield. At this point, the ACT made a pitching change, bringing in national team pitcher Aimee Murch where there was at least one fielding error by Clare Warwick and additional hits by the Japanese that allowed them to score another two runs before the third out was recorded on a fly ball by Fujino. The ACT's three batters in their half of the inning, including Ashleigh Eldridge and De Blaes, hit balls caught by Japanese fielders. The inning ended 8-0 Japan.

At the top of the fourth, ACT made three fielding changes and left Murch in as the pitcher. The Japanese went through seven batters and scored two runs before their half of the inning ended. The ACT did better in their half of the inning with hits by Currie and Kathe Tye after the first out was recorded, before Caitlyn Bunker was walked to load the bases. Nikki Pallister then hit a fly ball caught by Japan and turned into a double play to end the inning with a score of 10-0 Japan.

The game officially ended at this point but because this was a training match, it was continued to allow players extra time to train and gain more experience. Japan would go on to score at least one more time in the sixth before the game ended after seven.