Softball, nothing to do for Italy with U.S.
Italy-United States 0-7
It lasts only an instant, the time for Isabella Dayton to open the match with a leadoff triple, the Azzurro dream of attempting a trip on the United States that would have been sensational. Megan Faraimo, the extraordinary U.S. starting pitcher, after the initial défaillance eliminates at the plate Piancastelli and Barbara and, after a hit by pitch on Filler, kicks off a streak of eleven consecutive strikeouts that nips Italian ambitions in the bud.
On the mound Federico Pizzolini chooses to entrust the ball of the contest to Christina Toniolo and rely on her pitches in the lower part of the strike zone. The qualitative U.S. lineup, however, immediately finds countermeasures and, bringing the first batter – Haylie McCleney – on base, leads him to score with bounces. An inning later, however, it was the power of Jessie Warren to snag a low ball from Toniolo and send it over the fences for a 2-0 U.S. lead.
Team USA stretched further in the third round in a similar fashion from the first point: Flippen beat out a double in the opening frame and two bounces by Lorenz and Alo allowed her to go to the point. The U.S. would have a chance to continue the forcing, but the choice to take over Toniolo with Alexia Lacatena è winning and the Blue relief exits the’inning without conceding any more points.
In the fourth inning, for the first time in the game, the Azzurri defense manages to hold the star-studded lineup to zero runs scored, but Faraimo s dominance against Italia Softball s lineup continues at least until the fifth strike when, a single by Melany Sheldon to right, breaks the streak of consecutive retired batters but does not ignite the Azzurri comeback thanks to Faraimo s ninth strikeout of the game.
The fifth U.S. strikeout è the one that ends the hostilities: Bates (single), Jaquish (base on ball) and Jefferson (single) fill the bases that Warren, the number one danger for the Azzurri defense, empties by impacting Lacatena’s first pitch. With one point to go in the early end of the’match due to mercy rule, the U.S. finds a way to score with Maya Brady s bounce to second base on which Filler chooses to make the assist to first, allowing Warren to put the final word on the’match.
The United States with this success reaches Japan and Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Super Round, while the fourth team that will access the medal round will be discovered only tomorrow, at the end of a Italy-Canada match, which, as easily imagined, will serve as a real playoff. Appointment at 20.30 in Castions di Strada and live on Sky Sport Uno and Sky Sport Arena and streaming on Now.
