{"id":27717,"date":"2015-06-29T10:42:25","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T17:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=27717"},"modified":"2015-06-29T10:42:25","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T17:42:25","slug":"canada-edges-defending-champion-kiwis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=27717","title":{"rendered":"Canada edges defending champion Kiwis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_6324\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6324\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/softball_canada_logo.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/softball_canada_logo.png\" alt=\"Click logo for official Softball Canada website\" width=\"210\" height=\"196\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6324\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6324\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click logo for official Softball Canada website<\/figcaption><\/figure>From the Star Phoenix<\/p>\n<p>Team Canada outfielder Mathieu Roy lets a pitch from Team New Zealand go by him during the WBSC Men&#8217;s W<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestarphoenix.com\/touch\/story.html?id=11174582\" target=\"_blank\">orld Softball Championship at Bob Van Impe&#8230;moreA+By Scott Larson, The StarPhoenix June 29, 2015<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Canada top of pool with 4-0 record<\/p>\n<p>Steve Mullaley cracked a two-run homer and Sean Cleary threw a four-hit gem as Canada downed defending champion New Zealand 2-1 at the 2015 WBSC Men\u2019s World Softball Championship at Bob Van Impe Stadium Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>The win runs Canada\u2019s record to 4-0 to sit atop their pool.<\/p>\n<p>A pitching duel between Cleary and Kiwi starter Heinie Shannon kept the game scoreless until the sixth inning when reliever Kurt Schollum issued a leadoff walk to Brad Ezekiel. Mullaley then stepped to the plate and hammered a pitch over the right field fence to give the Canadians a 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey had a new pitcher who was struggling up until that point,\u201d Mullaley said of his decisive at-bat. \u201cI had struck out twice (before) and I asked the coaches to keep the faith because I felt like I was seeing the ball well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was looking for a pitch away and wanted to hit the ball hard the other way. Luckily, I found one that was a little over the plate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pinch-hitter Wayne Laulu bashed a one-out homer in the seventh to make it interesting, but Cleary struck out the final two batters to preserve the win.<\/p>\n<p>Cleary finished the game, giving up one run on four hits while striking out nine.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestarphoenix.com\/touch\/story.html?id=11174582\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to read the complete article.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Star Phoenix Team Canada outfielder Mathieu Roy lets a pitch from Team New Zealand go by him during the WBSC Men&#8217;s World Softball Championship at Bob Van Impe&#8230;moreA+By Scott Larson, The StarPhoenix June 29, 2015 Canada top of pool with 4-0 record Steve Mullaley cracked a two-run homer and Sean Cleary threw a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,9,23,82],"tags":[71,193],"class_list":{"0":"post-27717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-international","9":"category-tournaments","10":"category-wbsc","11":"tag-isfmens2015","12":"tag-softballcanada","13":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27718,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27717\/revisions\/27718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}