REALITY BITES – Aussie Women fall to USA

After two near flawless performances to open their World Cup campaign the Australian Women’s Baseball Team ran into a serious reality check in the form of a disappointing 11-1 loss to the United States on Day Three.

Despite the loss, head coach John Gaynor remained positive as the team enters the 2^nd phase of the tournament, confident his troops can bounce back.

“We were nowhere near our best today, but if there was ever a time to have a bad game, today was it,” Gaynor said.

“Admittedly the conditions weren’t he best but our pitching was a certainly off today.

“Anytime you give up 10 walks and hit three batters in a game it is always going to be tough…that’s a lot of people on base,” he said.

For the Aussies the major damage came after a short rain delay disrupted play in the bottom of the 3^rd – with the US scoring three runs without registering a safe hit.

That opened the flood gates as the US scored seven times over the final three innings including a 3-run inside the park Home Run from Malaika Underwood who finished with 4 RBIs.

For Australia, their lone run came courtesy of a two-out double off the bat of WA’s Christina Kreppold – one of only four hits the Aussies registered on the day.

“The good thing is we have already proved during this tournament that this team is a great deal better than that…we still have our sights firmly set on Gold,” Gaynor said.

Those sights will first need to focus on the target of undefeated tournament hosts Japan in their opening game of the “Cross-over” 2^nd round on Wednesday evening (7:30pm AEST).

Australia will then go on to meet Canada in the final game before the medal round on Friday.