Australia eliminates Canada with 5-3 comeback win
Aug 20, 2008 - 05:02 AM
Doug Smith
BEIJING-They gathered one last time down the left field line when the final game ended, tears welling in their eyes, disappointment hanging thick in the air, emotions raging.
Canada’s softball team bowed out of the Olympics here Wednesday afternoon and it brought to a close not only this tournament, but an era in the history of the sport in Canada.
A 5-3 loss to Australia relegated Canada to fourth place here and if it’s hard for many to understand what it means to be an Olympian, it’s impossible for many to understand what it means to perhaps never have the chance again.
“Everything,” said pitcher Lauren Bay Regula of wearing a Canadian jersey at an Olympics.
“Everything,” she added as the emotion washed over her.
“I’m sorry,” she finished, unable to complete the thought.
While there is a chance the sport could be resurrected for the 2016 Games – it’s definitely out for 2012 - that will be too late for many members of this team. They had their one shot at a medal, one shot at giving Canada its first team medal in a Summer Games since a men’s basketball silver in 1936, denied them here.
“It’s a bittersweet moment because with the youth of our team, the next one would have been the big one,” said coach Lori Sippel of a team with an average age of under 25.
“For the group of young ladies on this team and how young they are, sticking around four years would have been an easy call. Sticking around for eight? There are going to be some people who are going to have to think about it.”
The elimination was particularly bitter because the Canadians feel they never played a solid all-around game. They went 27 innings without a run in their five straight losses to end the tournament and even a breakthrough at the plate Wednesday wasn’t enough.
“I’m not sure what happened with those last few games,” said Regula, the ace of the staff who took a complete-game loss against Australia. “I know we’re a better team than those last few games showed and I think this is more indicative of the type of team we are.”
Australia snapped a 2-2 tie by scoring two runs in the top of the sixth without a hard-hit ball. After striking out the first two hitters, Regula walked Danielle Stewart and gave up a bloop single to right to Belinda Wright to put runners at the corners.
A stolen base and an intentional walk later, Regula got up 0-2 on Australia’s Kerry Wyborn, a lefty hitter who hit a jam-shot floater over third for a two-run single.
“Lauren did a great job, the last two runs they scored, they got the two little bloopers,” said catcher Erin Cumpstone. “Those were great pitches, she jammed them and they got little bloops.”
Down 2-0 after a homer by Australia’s Sandy Lewis leading off the second and unearned
Aussie run in the third, Canada finally broke out of its collective slump by getting three in the third.
After Australia starter Melanie Roche gave up a lead-off single, got two outs and then walked two to load the bases, reliever Tanya Harding came in to walk Megan Timpf of Port Dover, Ont., to give Canada its first run in 27 innings.
-- Torstar News Service
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