'We're coming for the championship': Team USA cruises past Canada

THUNDER BAY, Ont. -- This is what they came for.

Team USA captain Alex Hugo has said it time and again: they’re not here to make friends. That’s probably why she and her teammates had so much fun silencing a packed crowd at Port Arthur Stadium on Tuesday night when the U.S. blew past Canada for a 13-4 win during Day 3 of the Women’s Baseball World Cup.

It was the latest statement in what has shaped up to be an obstinate quest. Team USA wants the gold -- no other result will do.

“We’re here on a business trip,” Hugo said. “We are ready to handle what we need to handle.”

Hugo showed similar surgical precision at the plate in the win over Canada, pushing past boos and chants to crush a two-run homer in the bottom of the first, opening the scoring and signaling what was ahead.

All of Team USA’s starters reached base at least once on Tuesday. They only struck out once. By the time the fourth inning rolled around and Denae Benites added a two-run homer, it looked like the visitors were on their way to another mercy win after breezing past Mexico, 11-1, in five innings the day prior.

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But Team Canada wasn’t going to make it easy, the sting of a 23-0 defeat to the U.S. in the preliminary round last year still very much alive in everyone’s memories.

Tension mounted with every pitch. Bat flips were frequent. Players on both sides celebrated two-out singles like they were Game 7 home runs.

They loved every second of it.

“I think that we're making a really strong statement, that we're steamrolling through these teams,” said right-hander Olivia Pichardo, who pitched four scoreless innings with four strikeouts in the win. “Yeah, we're coming for the championship.”

Pichardo heard the boos, too. After a particularly controversial strike-three call, she allowed herself to look up from the mound and gesture back toward the home crowd: “Keep going, she’s out.”

“I came into the game with confidence,” Pichardo said. “I liked that there was a big crowd and I got to start under the lights.”

The lights are only getting brighter from here.

Team USA had a sobering experience in 2018, the most recent edition of the WBWC, settling for fourth place after an 8-5 loss to Canada in the bronze-medal game. The six years that followed changed everything, though, as the U.S. used the long COVID-induced break to overhaul its program and invest in its talent.

The product of that is reflected in a 3-0 start to the final round.

“Our confidence never wavered,” manager Veronica Alvarez said after the win. “It's not like an arrogance thing. It's more just confidence toward each other and their ability to kind of come together for the win.”

Still, they know that what awaits them down the line is a powerhouse Japan team that has won the WBWC five times in a row. Confidence -- or arrogance, depending on who you ask -- can only take you so far.

“One of our strengths is [power], but we don’t always rely on it,” Alvarez said. “They kind of [went] back to the basics and played the game as a team, and not just trying to be the hero.”

That was evident when Hugo and Benites reached home plate after their homers, their entire team waiting to salute them in celebration.

“I love it,” Hugo said. “I think that the energy from both sides is great for us and our morale, and it kind of makes us lock arms a little more and have each other’s backs.”

The way Alvarez sees it, her team is “a combination of a lot of good parts of the game of baseball.” If you’re on the mound, trust the defense behind you. If you’re in the box, exercise discipline. If you’re on the basepaths, show off your wheels and move with purpose.

And if all else fails, just hit dingers.

Day 3 at Port Arthur Stadium

Mexico picks up crucial win: Marlen Lagunes homered and picked up four RBIs in Mexico’s 9-3 win over Chinese Taipei, its first victory of the final round.

Japan cruises past Venezuela: It was small ball at its best once again as Japan picked up a five-inning, 11-0 win over Venezuela to move to 3-0 in the tourney. Iori Miura continued to shine, collecting two hits and three RBIs. Miu Shiraishi had a three-hit, three-RBI game, and Akino Tanaka struck out four over four scoreless frames. Japan and the U.S. are the only remaining undefeated teams in the final round.