The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Hoagland and USA Softball down Australia, 14-2
07.14.2011 | Softball
July 14, 2011
OKLAHOMA CITY - Texas rising junior Taylor Hoagland and the USA Softball Women's National Team defeated Australia 14-2 on Wednesday at the Canadian Open Fastpitch International Championship in Surrey, B.C. Hoagland started at left field against the Aussies and moved to shortstop later in the game.
Whitney Canion earning her first International win pitching 5.0 innings and allowing only four runners to reach base with two walks and two hits with no runs scored. The United States will compete in their final game of preliminary round play tonight against Canada at 10:30 p.m./CT.
With one swing of the bat, the U.S. took an early 2-0 lead in the second inning off a Jenae Leles (Sacramento, Calif.) home run. The red, white and blue stretched their lead to 5-0 in the third inning, scoring three runs off of one hit and capitalizing on one error. Again the U.S. took charge with two outs on the board when Kaitlin Cochran (Yorba Linda, Calif.) doubled to score Rhea Taylor (Buford, Ga.). Cochran scored when an error by Australian first baseman Bowering allowed Leles to reach first. Stacey May-Johnson (Reno, Nev.), who drew a walk, scored the final run of the inning when Ashley Holcombe (Fayetteville, Ga.) was hit by a pitch.
After scoring one in the fifth off a Brittany Schutte (Fountain Valley, Calif.) single, the offense exploded in the top of the seventh scoring eight runs off of eight hits. Highlighting the inning was a three-run homerun by May-Johnson which also scored Megan Langenfeld (Bakersfield, Calif.) and Cochran who both singled to reach first.
Chelsea Thomas (Pleasanton, Iowa) and Keilani Ricketts (San Jose, Calif.) also saw time in the circle with a combined four strikeouts, two apiece. Thomas allowed two runs.
The seed of the USA will be determined after tonight's game. Be sure to log onto www.candianopenfastpitch.com for complete coverage of this event including live video, stats and box scores.
