Winnipeg Lightning batter Lauren Ridd eventually lost this 2nd inning duel with Alabama Rockets pitcher Chelsey Owens. Ridd struck out but her team won the game.

20 TEAMS FROM 5 COUNTRIES PLAY SOFTBALL, THEN EAT THANKSGIVING DINNER TOGETHER
2005-11-24

The 20 teams that came to the International Softball Federation’s (ISF) world headquarters complex in Plant City, Florida, for the III Jr. Girls’ World Cup began facing each other on the diamonds yesterday, continued today, and will compete against one another for three more days. But for a few hours late this afternoon, they all put down their bats, balls, gloves, and other equipment to sit down to a solidarity dinner that featured a menu of traditional Thanksgiving Day fare in the USA.

The participants are all age 16-and-under, and the girls are from Canada, Chinese Taipei, Great Britain, Ukraine, and USA (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Virginia). They sat down together beginning at 4:00 this afternoon, talking softball and eating turkey, mashed potatoes, salad, rolls, and more as the players, coaches, parents, and umpires marked the holiday at tables set up beyond the outfield of one of the fields on the Randy L. Larson Softball Fourplex. In an adjacent tent, a local catering company was preparing food for the hundreds that became one great big softball family in Florida weather of temperatures in the high 70s. Around that tent, smiles and clicking cameras set the scene for an atmosphere of camaraderie.

They had all worked hard for their dinners. A total of 17 games were played today, starting with four games at 9 a.m. and ending with four more at 3:00.

In Pool A today, Team FLA (Palm Harbor, Florida) followed-up last night’s 2-0 win by this afternoon getting past the Diamond Dusters (Pembroke Pines, Florida), 1-0. Left fielder Kelly McCarver scored in the fifth inning and pitcher Kat Gladding struck out nine and held the Dusters to just two hits. The Winnipeg Lightning (Manitoba, Canada) stayed with Team FLA by improving to 2-0 (won-lost) with a 12-3 win over the Alabama Rockets. Winnipeg outscored Alabama 6-3 in the first inning alone. Lightning outfielder Breanne Head went 2-for-2 and scored three runs (was also hit by a pitch). For the Rockets, Emily Daye hit a first inning three-run home run. Alabama, winners yesterday against Chinese Taipei, followed up their loss to Winnipeg with a game against the Suncoast Outlaws, who came in having won big yesterday, 9-0. The team from Brooksville, Florida, continued their winning ways with a 5-2 victory. The Outlaws took a 4-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning, gave up two runs in the bottom half, then held on for the win. The Rockets would later lose their third game of the day, falling 7-1 to the Diamond Dusters. Winning pitcher Lauren Sewell struck out seven and was the offensive hero too, going 3-for-3 at the plate, including a solo home run.

In games Thursday in Pool B, the Seminole Warriors (Longwood, Florida) bounced back from last night’s lopsided loss by winning back-to-back games. They started the morning off with a 1-0 win over the Emerald Coast Comets (Destin, Florida). Centerfielder Amy Joyce scored what would prove to be the game-winning run in the bottom of the first inning. The Warriors followed that up with another shutout victory, 7-0, over the Twilight Twisters (Winter Haven, Florida). The winners got three runs in each of the third and fifth innings. The Davie Power Black (Davie, Florida) beat the Comets by that same count. The game was scoreless after two innings before the Black scored three times in the top of the third en route to evening their won-lost record at 1-1. The other Pool B game saw Chinese Taipei edge the Twisters, 2-1. Each team scored in the third inning, but in the fifth, Kuan Ting Wang singled home Ching Ju Wu for what would prove to be the winning run.

The Auburndale (Florida) Maniacs are looking like one of the teams to beat after improving their record to 3-0 with wins in Pool C today, 8-0 against Team Pride (Plant City, Florida) and 7-0 against Great Britain. Four Auburndale players got two hits each in the win over the Pride, whose whole team was held to just three hits for the game (all singles) in falling to 1-1. The Maniacs then raised their record to 3-0 by beating Great Britain in a game that saw Kaylee West go 3-for-3 on two doubles and a home run, with two runs scored. G.B. managed just two hits the whole game, both off the bat of catcher Candace Horton. The other two games in Pool C today both finished by the same score – 2-0 – with one being in the Canadian Northern Ice’s (Winnipeg, Manitoba) favor and the other going against them. The loss was at the hands of the Xtreme of Georgia (Riverdale), who got both of their runs in the bottom of the fifth. Lauren Peters went 2-for-3 and scored the first run, and Cristina Mullins was also 2-for-3 at the plate. The Northern Ice’s win was against Great Britain. Cyndi Figol, who finished 2-for-3, singled and later scored in the second inning. Bre-ann Robinson (2-for-4), scored the team’s other run in the third inning.

Pool D was the place to see offensive fireworks today as the Jacksonville (Florida) Thunderbolts won two of three games, scoring a combined total of 28 runs. This morning they beat the Ukraine, 17-0, with all of their runs coming in the first (ten) and third (seven) innings. Later they dropped a 5-4 decision to the Tampa ( Florida) Mustangs. In that game, the teams were tied at four before Gina Kafalas got the game-winning RBI in the bottom of the seventh after the bases were loaded with two outs, with Rebecca Vyzas having singled, and then stolen second base and the next two batters walked. The Thunderbolts rebounded by beating the Lady Panthers (Lakeland, Florida), 7-0. Jacksonville’s Jessica Moreland went 2-for-2 (double and a triple) and drove in four runs. The Shamrocks (Fairfax, Virginia) had also won big today over the Lady Panthers, 19-0. Diondra Fryer had a double, a home run, and two runs scored in the third inning alone, when the Shamrocks scored ten times. The other Pool D game today saw the Mustangs do the Shamrocks one better by beating the Ukraine, 20-0. Every Mustangs batter had three or four hits and scored at least one run.

The standings so far...