International: Team USA Wins Gold Medal at Pan American Women’s Championship; Scores Six In Bottom of 1st & Never Looks Back in 12-1 Win

The U.S. Women’s National Team (WNT) once again looked unbeatable and, after scoring six runs in the bottom of the 1^st and adding two runs each in the bottom of innings 2, 3 and 4, ended the Pan American Women’s Championship after just four innings by score of 12-1 thanks to a walk-off two-run home run by Amanda Lorenz.

The Eagles combined for 12 hits in the win with home runs off the bats of Sahvanna Jaquish and Lorenz while Aubrey Leach shined with a 3-for-3 day at the plate – her third perfect offensive performance of the tournament.

Lorenz, the former great for the Florida Gators, had a huge night offensively going 3-for-4 with a home run, triple and single and drove in four of the Eagles’ runs while scoring two herself.

Aubrey Leach (Tennessee) also drove in two.

Meanwhile, in the circle for the Americans, Megan Faraimo  (UCLA) cruised through the first three innings without giving up a run and allowing just one hit. Rachel Garcia stepped in for their final three at-bats in the top of the fourth inning – two of which were retired via a strikeout.

The Canadiens broke through for its first and only run of the contest in the top of the 4^th when Erika Polidor homered to left field, but that would be it as Faraimo would finish giving up just three hits over four innings.

The contest was a rematch of the Thursday win by Team USA 8-2 victory over Canada in the first game of the Playoff Round. Tonight’s gold medal victory earned the Red, White and Blue a spot in the Stage 1 qualifying event for the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) World Cup – the first WBSC event to be played under the two-stage format.

Overall, in nine games, the champions were overpowering scoring 116 runs to the opponents’ 13 runs making the average being an average score differential of 13.2-to-1.4.

Team USA’s closest win was the eight-run victory over Canada to kick off the playoff round, but, really, this week was all USA—both offensively and pitching-wise.

Saturday night, for example, the Eagles offensive didn’t waste time as Lorenz let off with a triple, came around to score on a wild pitch before Sis Bates (Washington) walked and Mia Davidson (Mississippi State) singled.

Next, Leach singled to drive in Bates and, after a walk and fielder’s choice plated Davidson and Leach to make it 4-0. With two outs, though, the Americans weren’t done as Janae Jefferson (Texas) bunt singled, Shannon Rhodes singled and Lorenz—in her second at-bat of the inning—singled to drive in Jada Cody (Central Florida) and Jefferson.

Score: 6-0 before some fans at the finale had time to take their seats.

The bottom of the 2^nd was more of the offensive fireworks as Leach doubled with two outs and would score on a big homer to right field by Savannah Jaquish (LSU) to put the score at 8-0 after just two innings.

In the bottom of the third inning, Jefferson led off with a double and would eventually score on a two-out wild pitch to put the score at 9-0, but the Eagles weren’t done. The bases would become loaded when Leach would single to right field to plate courtesy runner Lorenz to give the USA a double-digit 10-0 lead.

In the bottom of the 4^th, the night ended with Lorenz’s homer that capped the perfect weekend for Team USA as it captured the 1^st place trophy at the 2022 Pan American Games.

— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball

Game-by-game recaps of each of the nine USA wins…