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First baseman Amanda Asay (Prince George, B.C.) was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles and 3 RBI to lead Baseball Canada’s national women’s team 6-3 past Japan in a crucial battle of undefeated teams today at the Women’s Baseball World Cup in Taipei, Taiwan.

With the win, Canada is now the only undefeated team remaining half-way through the tournament and is one win away from assuring itself of a top-three finish.

Asay, who was named the top catcher at the Women’s National Championships July 20-23, was quick to display her offensive prowess to help Canada strike first in the game and take a 3-0 lead mid-way through the third inning.

The Canadians never looked back as three Canadian pitchers staved off all Japanese comeback efforts.  Martine Nadeau (Québec, Qué.) was credited with the win, retiring all eight batters she faced in relief of starter Kate Psota (Burlington, Ont.).

Psota threw well, giving up three runs behind six hits in 4.1 innings of work, but was replaced by Nadeau before she could meet the five-inning requirement to qualify for the win. Kat Hannah (Kirkland Lake, Ont.) retired the final batter of the game to earn the save.

After going 5-for-5 in a win over Cuba yesterday, third baseman Ashley Stephenson continued to swing a hot bat, going 3-for-4 with a run scored while Samantha Magalas was 2-for-4 with one RBI and two runs scored to help pace the Canadian attack.

Having already defeated the defending gold and silver medalists (U.S.A. and Japan), Canada is now in great position to match and possibly improve on their bronze medal performance from the 2004 World Cup in Edmonton, Alta.

The Canadians will look to improve to 4-0 Friday against the host squad from Chinese Taipei (1-3) before facing the Australians (3-1) Saturday and wrapping the tournament up against winless Hong Kong (0-4) on Sunday.

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