United States continues undefeated streak, defeats Canada at Women's Baseball Wold Cup

The United States continued its roll at the Women's Baseball World Cup on Tuesday night, beating Team Canada 13-4 at Port Arthur Stadium.

The win kept Team USA's undefeated streak going; Japan is the only other team competing in the tournament that's currently undefeated.

"It always feels like a tight game against Canada," USA Manager Veronica Alvarez said after the game. "They play really good baseball, and so we're always looking to play a tough game against them."

"it's just constantly just kind of keeping the foot on the accelerator and not letting up."

Team USA got started early, with a two-run homer by Alexandra Hugo giving the team a lead in the bottom of the first.

Canada responded with one run in the top of the second, but the United States matched it in the inning's bottom half.

The next few innings saw the USA add more runs, with two coming from another two-run shot over the wall, this one from the bat of Denae Benites in the bottom of the third.

This all built up to a tense fifth inning.

To set the stage, the tournament's mercy rule kicks in when there's a 10-point difference after five innings played. And going into the fifth, Canada was down 10-1, meaning they'd either have to score a few runs, or keep the US bats quiet, to avoid an early end to the game.

Canadaloaded the bases twice, earned some walks, and took advantage of some wild throws to bring three runs home, giving them a little leeway heading into the bottom of the inning.

However, the US responded in kind with three runs of their own, meaning Canada was again down nine runs heading into the sixth.

The sixth inning was scoreless for both sides, but Canada couldn't overcome Team USA's lead during what turned out to be their final at-bat in the top of the seventh, and the game ended with a score of 13-4 in favour of the United States.

"The hard part is, you gotta play," Team Canada Manager Anthony Pluta said after the game. "You can't make errors.You make mistakes and you're gonna lose the ball game."

"We've got to show a little bit of fire and we don't have that right now," he said. "They need to wake up."

"Hopefully we see a different team [Wednesday]."

With the loss, Canada slipped to a 1-2 record after beating Mexico on the tournament's opening day, and losing to Japan.They'll next face Venezuela, with that game scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Port Arthur Stadium.

"Hopefully they get a good night's sleep," Pluta said. "On paper and in practice, we have a phenomenal team, and we just have to execute."

"It's a fast-paced game," he said. "You're playing against the best in the world, and if you can't slow the game down in your own head, and you can't slow it down on the field and be able to play, you deserve to lose. And we need to be able to slow that game down. but also keep the intensity up."

"That's a hard thing and it takes practice, but I think we'll get there."

The USA, meanwhile, faces Chinese Taipei on Wednesday afternoon.

"We're very much on a business trip, as we keep saying, and we're locked in on the goal," Alvarez said. "We know that we have tough games ahead of us. It doesn't matter that Chinese Taipei is now 0-3."

"We treat them as just as if they had three [wins]."

Thursday will be another challenge for the American team, as they face Japan. But Alvarez said they're not turning their attention to that matchup just yet.

"One game at a time," she said. "There's obviously a grand plan, but one game at a time. We're focused on [Wednesday] and hopefully we have another solid win."

In other action on Tuesday, Mexico defeated Chinese Taipei 9-3, and Japan beat Venezuela 11-0.

Other games scheduled for Wednesday are Mexico and Japan, and Canada vs. Venezuela.

All games are played at Port Arthur Stadium.