On day one of the USA Softball International Cup, the U.S. Women’s Elite Team faced Chinese Taipei at Devon Park. This was a tough one for the U.S., but a two-homer day from Ana Gold helped it to a 6-4 win in eight innings.
To begin the game, Chinese Taipei retired the U.S. Elite team while allowing only a Sharlize Palacios walk. Ke Hsia-Ai kept things quiet early on.
Megan Faraimo took the circle for the U.S. and quickly retired the bottom of the first inning in order, recording back-to-back strikeouts to start. Then, with two outs in the bottom of the second, Shen Chia-Wen doubled to left field for the first hit of the game before the side was retired.
Gabbie Garcia led off the top of the third with a single for U.S. Elite’s first hit of the game. Taylor Shumaker fought Ke before flying out to deep center.
In the bottom of the third, Faraimo tacked on 2 more strikeouts to bring her total to 4. She put two on with two outs via a single and hit-by-pitch but escaped unscathed. Heading into the fourth inning, this game was a pitchers’ duel with only 3 hits total.
Finally, in the top of the fourth, Sahvanna Jaquish hammered a one-out solo home run to left-center to put U.S. Elite up 1-0. Then, Morgan Zerkle followed with a solo shot of her own to increase the lead to 2-0. That was all for Ke, and Chinese Taipei went to Tu Ya-Ting. Then with two outs, Ana Gold added a third home run in the inning to make it 3-0.
Chinese Taipei opened the bottom of the fourth with a couple reaching on a single and a walk. Faraimo responded with her fifth strikeout of the game, but Shen lined an RBI single that ricocheted off Faraimo to score Yang An-Chi. Faraimo stayed in the game, but with Chiang Ting-En up to bat, a wild pitch got away from Palacios, allowing Lin Chih-Ying to score, cutting the U.S. lead to 3-2.
After a Chiang groundout, head coach Patty Gasso went to Keilani Ricketts out of the bullpen. She inherited a runner on third with two outs but escaped without further damage.
Sydney McKinney singled as a one-out pinch-hitter in the top half of the fifth. She advanced to second on a Reese Atwood groundout and was stranded. In the bottom half, Chinese Taipei’s Yeh Kuei-Ping dropped a one-out single just beyond second base. But Ricketts left her stranded and recorded her first strikeout of the outing to end the inning.
U.S. Elite threatened to add insurance in the top of the sixth. Jaquish led off with a single and, with two outs, moved to third on a Gold double to left field. Then, Kendall Wells got her first at-bat as a pinch-hitter for Garcia. Wells saw Chu Yi-Shan, who took the ball for Chinese Taipei, and was placed on first intentionally to load the bases. That gave Shumaker a chance to bring runners in, but a seven-pitch at-bat ended in a groundout to leave the bases full.
Those runners left on turned out to be important. Chinese Taipei took the lead in the bottom of the sixth. Ricketts gave up a leadoff walk to Lin, and Chen Chia-Yi followed with a two-run home run to give Chinese Taipei the 4-3 lead.
Then with one out, U.S. went to Ally Carda. She got out of the inning without allowing another run. Gold made a great defensive play, charging in to throw out Liu Hsuan and end the inning.
U.S. Elite was down to its last three outs. Then, with two outs, Bubba Nickles-Camarena singled through the right side, and Jaquish followed with an intentional walk to put two on. That brought Zerkle up to bat, and a clutch two-out RBI double scored Nickles-Camarena to tie the game. Jaquish attempted to score but was tagged out at home.
Carda shut down Chinese Taipei in the bottom half and retired the side in order, including her second strikeout. That sent the game to extras. Zerkle began the eighth on second base. After moving over on a Baylee Klingler flyout, she came home on Gold’s second home run of the game to take a 6-4 lead. Gold had a great game, finishing 3-for-3 with 2 home runs and 3 RBIs.
Li Szu-Shih was placed on second in the bottom of the eighth for Chinese Taipei, but Carda and U.S. Elite nailed down the win. U.S. Elite team will face American Samoa, Friday at 4 p.m. CT on ESPN+.
