Softball: Brought down to earth with a bump

A day after beating Botswana 8-1 in their opening match of the women's softball world championship in Venezuela, New Zealand were brought down to earth by defeats to the US and Czech Republic.

The White Sox lost 12-2 to the United States and then took the Czechs to an extra inning before going down 5-6.

After the Americans, looking for their seventh consecutive world title, scored six runs each in the second and third innings, the game against New Zealand was stopped in the fourth inning by the "run-ahead rule", which is designed to end lopsided games before the full seven innings. The losing pitcher was Sheree Cartwright.

"What happened today was the team got found out by not playing regular international softball," White Sox coach Dean Rice said. "If not for errors in crucial situations we would have won that game [against the Czech Republic]."

The teams were tied 4-4 after the regulation seven innings and the Czech Republic, batting first, scored twice in their eighth inning. New Zealand could only get one run back.

"The levels from both the USA and the Czech Republic were much higher than the team is used to," Rice said.

The White Sox's next opponents are China (today) and hosts Venezuela tomorrow.

- NZPA