USA Softball: Caitlynn Neal’s Perfect Pitching, Hallie Wacaser’s Two Homers Highlight Win #4 at Pan American U-17 Fastpitch Championship

Caitlynn Neal (Dewey, Ariz.) hurled a perfect game on Tuesday to lead the USA Softball U-17 Women’s National Team (WNT) to victory over Argentina, 12-0, in four innings at Edgardo Schemel Stadium.

Closing out pool play with a perfect 4-0 record, the U.S. squad will now play Pool B No. 1 seed Canada Wednesday night at 7 p.m. CT.

Setting the tone in the circle from the start was Neal, who struck out the first two batters of the game before a fly out to centerfielder Hallie Wacaser (Centerton, Ark.) brought up the U.S. offense.

Avery Hodge (Fulshear, Texas) drew a leadoff walk but was caught stealing second during Maddie Gallagher’s (Port Washington, N.Y) at-bat. Gallagher singled on a fly ball to left field to collect the first hit for the U.S. but a fielder’s choice and fly out ended any chances of scoring.

Neal retired the Argentinian side via strikeouts in the second before Wacaser got the bottom half of the second inning started with a single to left field. Advancing to second on a wild pitch, Wacaser was held up at second after Haidyn Sokoloski (Flower Mound, Texas) grounded out.

Tieley Vaughn (Tampa, Fla.) drew a walk before a passed ball and wild pitch moved the runners and allowed Wacaser to score the first run. A walk to Claire Ginder (Lithia, Fla.) put two runners on before Riley Blampied (Cordele, Ga.) grounded into a fielder’s choice at second, with Vaughn touching home to put USA on top, 2-0, with two outs. After an error allowed Hodge to reach first safely, a fly out to shortstop closed out the second inning.

Neal continued to keep Argentina off the board with another three strikeouts in the third inning before leading off the bottom half of the frame with a triple to left field. Jessie Blaine (Wentzville, Mo.) then followed with a double before Wacaser went yard to extend the lead to 5-0.

The scoring didn’t stop there as Vaughn drew a walk one out later, advanced to second on a wild pitch and crossed the plate on an RBI single from Ginder. Blampied singled and Hodge reached on a walk to load the bases for the U.S. before Gallagher hit a bases-clearing triple down the right field line.

Gallagher then scored thanks to a single from Neal. Blaine grounded into a fielder’s choice at second and scored after Wacaser sent her second home run of the inning past left field to make it 12-0. Singles from Sokoloski and Vaughn followed but a groundout to the first baseman capped off the 10-run third inning.

Securing the third shutout win of the Pan American Championship for the U.S. was Neal, who fanned another three batters in the top of the fourth inning to add to her total on the day.

In her four innings of work, Neal struck out 11 of 12 batters faced en route to a perfect game.Wacaser went 3-for-3 at the plate, including two home runs, and drove in four runs to lead the Red, White and Blue.

Live stats are available through USASoftball.com while WBSC has provided streaming through Gametime.Sport.

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Road to the Championship

A total of 33 games will be played across nine days as participating countries battle it out to qualify for the 2020 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U-18 Women’s Softball World Cup.

The 10 participating countries were drawn into two groups.

Competing in Pool A, the U.S. is slated for additional matchups against No. 5 Mexico on October 13 at 4:30 p.m. CT and No. 25 Argentina on October 15 at 11:30 a.m. CT after improving to 2-0 in pool play.

Following the conclusion of pool play, the top three finishers will advance to the Super Rounds for a six-team, round-robin schedule.

The top two teams from the Super Rounds will compete for the Pan American Championship Final on October 19 at 6 p.m. CT while the third and fourth-place teams will compete for the Bronze Medal.

2019 U-17 Women’s Pan American Championship Results (USA)

October 11-19, 2019 | Barranquilla, Colombia