Dutch Women Softball Team

2010

World Championship

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USA captures seventh consecutive World Title!

Nederlandse tekst

CARACAS (Venezuela) - Team USA on Friday-evening defeated Japan 7-0 in the all-deciding final game of the 12th World Championship to capture its seventh consecutive world title! In 1982, New Zealand won the title when the event to place in Chinese Taipei, but then, in 1986, the USA finished in first place in Auckland (New Zealand) and won the title ever since.

In the final, Team USA struck in the fourth inning when it rallied for five runs to take a commanding lead. Japan reached the final by winning convincingly vs. Canada, 12-3, in the bronze medal game. The recaps are at the bottom of this page.

After completion of the final, the Venezuelan organization put on another great colorful spectacle during the Closing Ceremony, which started at 11:30 PM. Again, there were a lot of dancers, in the first accompanied by wonderful music, which could have come from movie composers like John Williams or Hans Zimmer. In a goosebumps moment, Sofi, the Championship-mascot, waved goodbye and left the stadium in some kind of spaceship.

The Netherlands was well represented in the final, as Carolien Stadhouders and Peter Vonk, the two Dutch umpires who were active during the World Championship, both were assigned to the final of the event. Carolien was the home plate umpire, while Peter was the umpire at second base in the 6-man crew. Marlies Struyvé, who was in Venezuela, as an umpire commissioner, was assigned to the game as the Umpire-in-Chief. Carolien became the first Dutch umpire in history to be assigned as home plate umpire in a World Women's Softball Championship.

This tournament also meant the end of a cyclus of four years for a World Championship to be organized. Since 1974, the Championship was held every four years, but as of now, the event will take place every two years! Therefore, the next Championship will be held in 2012 in Whitehorse (Yukon) in Canada.

In the morning, everyone of the Dutch Softball Team was sitting in front of a television, watching the game of the Dutch Soccer Team vs. Brazil in the quarter finals of the World Championship in South Africa. Except Team Manager Paul Boonstra, who had to attend a meeting of Heads of Delegation and returned when the game was just over. The Dutch Soccer Team won the game 2-1 and therefore qualified for the semi-final of the event. Afterwards, the Softball Team celebrated the soccer-win and in the early afternoon, the players were able to visit a shopping mall, escorted by their private security guards.

Late in the afternoon today, during the bronze medal game of the event, there was a press conference in Estadio La Rinconada, where it was announced that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Frías and Sports Minister Victoria Mata will receive the International Softball Federation (ISF) Medal of Honor. The decoration was first awarded in 1990 and is the highest form of recognition given by the world governing body. In a press release ISF-President Don Porter stated: ,,These are two very deserving individuals. President Chávez has not only been supportive and personally involved with this world championship since it was first awarded to Venezuela at the end of last year, but he attended Opening Ceremonies last week, threw out the ceremonial first pitch, and has now expressed interest in both helping softball return to the Olympics and building a legacy for the venues used for the tournament we’ve been holding here.'' Regarding Victoria Mata, the ISF president pointed to her hands-on involvement with not only this event, but the ISF XXIV Congress held on Margarita Island last October. In addition, Mr. Porter added that although she has just left her position as sports minister, she has echoed President Chávez’s desire to bring more international softball events back to Venezuela in the near future and possibly develop a South American regional training center at the site of the 2010 world championship. ,,Both President Chávez and Victoria have been very visible and very involved and certainly deserving of the recognition for their commitment to seeing that softball continues to grow'', the ISF president concluded in the press release. Initially, the medals would be handed out during this meeting but President Chávez was unable to attend. The medals were now handed out during the Closing Ceremony.

Some facts of Venezuela

Venezuela's official name is the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (República Bolívariana de Venezuela). The country is situated on the northern coast of South America and includes numerous islands off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea. Venezuela was a Spanish colony, until it got its independence in 1821. The estimated population of Venezuela is 26.500.000 million people. Venezuela is known for its petroleum industry. The country's nickname is Land of Grace, which was given to it by famous explorer Christopher Columbus (1451-1506; left) when he sailed near the Orinoco Delta in 1498. A year later, 1499, another expedition, led by Alonso de Ojeda, sailed off the Venezuelan coast. Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512; right) was the navigator during that journey and the story goes that the stilt houses in the area reminded him of Venice in Italy. He then named the region Venezuela, which means Little Venice in Italian. It is believed that Venezuela already was inhabited at least 15.000 years ago. The country was colonized by Spain in 1522 and was then part of New Andalusia. In the early 18th century it became part of the Viceroyalty of New Granada and became an autonomous area in 1776. In those years, Indian natives of course resisted the Spanish colonists, but were defeated. But on July 5, 1811, Francisco de Miranda declared independency from Spain. With this, the Venezuelan War of Independence started. Since then, July 5 became Venezuela's National Holiday and it will celebrate its 200th year of independence next year. The first Venezuelan republic ended, however, due to a devastating earthquake in 1812. The second republic was then proclaimed in 1813, but also lasted only a few months. Venezuela then finally became really independent when Simón Bolívar (1783-1830; left) won the Battle of Carabobo on June 24, 1821. Bolívar was given control of the army by the congress of New Granada and he then liberated several more countries (Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru) and founded Gran Colombia. Venezuela remained part of Gran Colombia until 1830 when a rebellion led by José Antonio Páez (a former aid of Bolívar) started a rebellion and proclaimed the newly independent Venezuela. The country got an economic boom when oil was discovered in 1922. Venezuela has a total area of 916.445 square kilometres (353.841 square miles). The country has several mountain ranges, including the northeastern extension of the Andes. In the south, then Guiana Highlands include Angel Falls, the world's highest waterfall. Venezuela's national tree is the araguaney. The country's fauna include the giant anteater, jaguar, Boto river dolphins and Orinoco crocodiles (who can reach 6.6 metres or 22 feet) and its national bird, the yellow-orange turpial. Venezuela is situated in the tropics and has an average high temperature of 28 degrees (82.4 F). It is divided into 23 states and its most popular sport is baseball. The country is also known for its success in beauty pageants as Miss Venezuela was named Miss World five times, Miss Universe six times and Miss International five times. Current President Hugo Chávez Frías (right) was elected in 1998 was re-elected for a new 6-year term in December 2006.

Bronze Medal Game: Canada vs. Japan, 3-12
Japan, which was cheered the entire game by their enthousiastic and music-making (drums and thundersticks) supporters, dominated in the bronze medal game and convincingly defeated Canada, that reached this semi-final on Thursday after winning twice in the seventh inning vs. Australia and China respectively. However, it took a while for Japan to reach the final. With a scoreless tie in the top of the second inning and a Japanese runner on first base, it started to reain heavily. It then took more than 2 1/2 hours for the game to resume. First, of course, the rain had to stop, but then the grounds crew needed its time to prepare the field for the remainder of the game. When the game resumed, Japan struck right away and scored three runs. By the way, it again started to rain in the third inning and part of the game was then played in the rain. Japan then added a run in all following innings to increase their lead. It also showed some fine defensive plays, like the catch by the centerfielder on a drive by Melanie Matthews in the third inning. Leading 7-2, Japan handed Canada a deciding blow by scoring five more runs in the seventh inning to increase the lead to 12-2. Canada scored its runs in the fourth, sixth and seventh inning and with this loss was eliminated, but won the bronze medal. This was Canada's first medal since winning silver in 1978.

Final: Japan vs. USA, 0-7
After three scoreless inning, the USA struck with five runs in the fourth at bat. Jessica Mendoza led off with a double and scored when Alissa Haber followed with a single and advanced on the throw to home. Next, Kaitlin Cochran also singled to put runners on first and third base. After the latter stole second base, next batter Andrea Duran walked and loaded the bases. A grounder by Ashley Charters then led to the first out, a force out at home. Hereafter, Jennie Finch followed with a single that produced the second American run, but also the second out, as Duran was thrown out at the plate when she also tried to score. Lauren Lappin followed with a 2-run triple to increase the lead to 4-0 and then scored herself on a wild pitch to make it 5-0.
In the fifth inning, the USA reached the 7-run difference. First, Jessica Mendoza singled and then scored when Andrea Duran, with two outs, hit a 2-run homerun over the leftfield-fence.
After the game, Team USA's Head Coach Jay Miller said: ,,It was our goal coming in here to win the world title, especially after losing to Japan in the final of the Olympics in Beijing in 2008. It was therefore something extra that we played Japan today''.