Jennifer Salling of Port Coquitlam, B.C., doubled home the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning to give Canada a 1-0 victory over Italy at the women's softball world championship Thursday.
Melanie Matthews of Surrey, B.C., opened the inning with a single and stole second before scoring on Salling's drive to left. Canada improved to 4-1 with the win over the Italians (1-4) and faces South Africa (0-5) on Friday.
``Great pitching and defence on both sides made the offence work very hard,'' said coach Lori Sippel. ``We pressed until the very end and came up with the win.''
Danielle Lawrie of Langley, B.C., allowed just six hits in seven innings of work, striking out five. The Canadians now have three shutouts at the tournament and have allowed just five runs in five games.
Matthews collected three of the six Canadian hits.
In other action Thursday, Stacey Nuveman hit two home runs as the defending champion U.S. crushed New Zealand 15-0; China thrashed South Africa 12-0; Japan trounced Botswana 16-0, Australia defeated Venezuela 9-0 and Greece downed the Netherlands 5-0.
Japan, Australia, the United States and China are all 5-0.
A four-member International Olympic Committee team inspected the Fengtai Softball Centre on Thursday to observe its facilities and see how the venue was coping with the championships.
The group checked entrance security, volunteers and TV broadcast coverage.
