The No. 1-ranked women’s fastpitch country in the world is leaving the Semiahmoo Peninsula this week with not one, but two, Canada Cup trophies.
On Monday night at Softball City, Japan’s senior national team – runners-up at last year’s Surrey-hosted world championships and the world’s No. 1-ranked national squad – earned a women’s international division championship with a convincing 7-1 victory over Australia.
The championship win came just a day after the country’s national youth team, called Japan GEM-2, was victorious in the Canada’s Cup’s youngest division, the under-16 Showcase Gold tournament. On Sunday night, the U16 visitors defeated Chinese-Taipei’s U16 team 4-0 in the title tilt.
In the U19 Futures Gold competition, which also wrapped up Sunday, the Firecrackers – based out of Huntington Beach, Calif. – defeated the Northwest Bullets 7-0 to win the tournament.
In the women’s international competition, Canada – third in world rankings – finished off the podium after a bronze-medal performance at both world championships last summer, and the World Cup of Softball earlier this month. The host nation was eliminated from contention Saturday afternoon after a 6-3 loss to Philippines. It was the second time in five days that the Canadian national team fell to the Philippines, having also opened the tournament with a 6-2 loss to the Southeast Asian country on July 11.
On Friday, Canada wrapped up the round-robin portion of its schedule with a loss to Australia and a win over Canada Elite, the country’s development squad.
Japan earned its way to the women’s final without ever having lost a game. In Sunday’s semifinal of the double knockout draw, they defeated Australia, which bumped the Aussies into a do-or-die game against Venezuela Sunday evening, right before the 8 p.m. gold-medal tilt.
The Australians won that game 7-0 to set up the rematch with the Japan.
The final was never truly in doubt for the Japanese squad, as they scored once in the top of the first inning, added two more in the second, and led 6-1 through four innings.
Yuka Ichiguchi was the offensive star for the winners, going 3-for-4 with a home run and three runs-batted-in.
Yamato Fujita started the game and pitched five innings for Japan to earn the win in the pitcher’s circle, and was relieved for the last two innings by longtime national team star Yukiko Ueno, who struck out two batters.
Since the Canada Cup began in 1993 – and including the Canadian Open, which briefly replaced it – Japan has been the most successful team to take part, winning multiple international-division titles, including five straight between 2011 and 2015.
