Canada’s Lalor takes her hot streak into women’s World Cup super round
Kelsey Lalor wasn’t thrilled to open the women’s baseball World Cup with a 0-for-2 day in Canada’s first game of the tournament last week.
So the outfielder made some adjustments and shook off some nerves. And she hasn’t looked back since.
Lalor had two hits and a stolen base and drove in her seventh run of the tournament on Tuesday, helping Canada to a 5-0 win over Venezuela in the super-round opener for both teams. Batting .529 (9 for 17) through six games with a home run and eight runs scored, Lalor has been one of the most productive players at the World Cup.
Right-hander Amanda Asay of Prince George, B.C., allowed one hit through seven shutout innings against Venezuela on Tuesday afternoon — recovering nicely from hitting six batters — and veteran Kate Psota of Burlington, Ont., playing in her eighth World Cup since the tournament started in 2004, drove in a pair of runs.
Daphnee Gelinas of Repentigny, Que., and Niki Boyd of Surrey, B.C., also had RBIs.
Canada, ranked No. 2 in the world, plays the No. 3 Americans on Wednesday.
The Canadians finished the first round of the tournament in second place in Group B with a 4-1 record. Their only loss was a 2-1 defeat against Japan, a team that’s won 26 straight World Cup games en route to five consecutive championships.
Canada is 2-1 in the super round, where teams carry their records against other secondround squads into the crossover phase of the tournament. They also won’t square off against teams they already faced in Round 1.
Lalor, who also plays basketball at the University of Saskatchewan where she’s completing a kinesiology degree, was instrumental for Canada through most of the first round, including a significant 9-6 win over No. 4 Australia when she went 2-for-5 with an RBI and made an impressive diving catch in left field.
The video of the play — Lalor sprinting in and diving to the turf to make the catch — had more than 5,000 views and over 100 likes on the World Baseball and Softball Confederation’s Twitter page as of Tuesday morning.
She laughed at the notion that she’s gained any notoriety from the clip. But she hopes it can help showcase women’s baseball on a larger scale.
“There have been a ton of highlights — stuff from Japan, the U.S., Australia, the Dominican, Puerto Rico, Canada — big hits and big plays and I think social media can be a very good thing when trying to expose our game,’’ Lalor said.
“The WBSC and Baseball Canada have done a very good job, I think, of showing the world what women’s baseball is all about. Like, this is what women can do.’’