by Bob Fromer
Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada: July 17 -- It was a quick, 
efficient and effective performance by the GB Women's Fastpitch Team today at the Women's World Championships in Whitehorse. It took less than an hour for the GB team to score 10 runs on 12 hits in three innings and record a 10-0 four-inning mercy rule win over Mexico.
Stacie Townsend pitched three perfect innings, striking out six to raise her tournament leading strikeout total to 33, and Carling Hare came in to pitch an effective fourth inning, giving up just one infield hit.
But the main story today was the GB offense, which started when leadoff hitter Kristi Yoshizawa singled to get things rolling in the bottom of the first inning and continued unabated against four Mexican pitchers until the mercy rule mercifully brought the game to an end.
Stacie Townsend again led the way with the bat, with a double, two singles, three runs scored and three RBIs in three trips to the plate. Kristi Yoshizawa, Sarah Jones and Leah English had two hits each, and Amy Moore, Naomi Jones and Morgan Parkerson chipped in with one, while Laura Thompson drove in a run on a sacrifice bunt and Jess Legendre did the same with a sacrifice fly. None of the Mexican pitchers lasted for a full inning and none of them could stem the tide.
Run-fest
The momentum from an excellent and aggressive
GB performance against Canada last night, even though it didn't bring a win, was clearly carried over into today's game. After Mexico went down in the top of the first inning, Kristi Yoshizawa singled to right field to lead off the GB attack. Kristi was forced at second base on Amy Moore's grounder, but then Stacie Townsend doubled into left-centre field, sending Amy to third. Laura Thompson's squeeze bunt scored Amy, and Laura was safe when the throw pulled Mexican first base player Nicole Meyer off the bag.
That led to the first Mexican pitching change, with Dominique Alcocer replacing starter Cinthia Villastrigo. But the change didn't slow down the GB attack. Stacie Townsend scored with a head-first slide on Morgan Parkerson's grounder and Jess Legendre's sacrifice fly eventually drove in Laura Thompson for a 3-0 GB lead after an inning of play.
Hit barrage
The attack resumed with a vengeance in the 
second inning as GB opened with four consecutive singles by Leah English, Kristi Yoshizawa, Amy Moore and Stacie Townsend. Laura Thompson grounded out, but Morgan Parkerson singled and that brought on the third Mexican pitcher, Diana Castillo. Sarah Jones ripped Castillo's first pitch into left field for another single and GB wound up the inning with six hits, four more runs and a 7-0.
Diana Castillo was done after facing just four GB hitters in the third inning, with three of them -- Leah English, Naomi Jones and Stacie Townsend -- driving singles to the outfield. That brought the final Mexican pitcher, Janeth Fernandez, to the circle, and she managed to get two outs to retire the side, but not before walking Morgan Parkerson and giving up an RBI single over third base by Sarah Jones to bring the score to 10-0.
And after Carling Hare came on to pitch the top of the fourth inning, and retired the Mexicans while allowing just an infield single to Erika Garcia, a game which had been played in intermittent rain and sunshine was suddenly over, just as really heavy rain set in.
Two more games
The GB Team has two more games in the 2012 World Championships -- tomorrow against the Japanese, softball's equivalent to Barcelona, and Thursday against Australia. With nothing to lose, GB will give everything they've got to pull off a major upset and then see where the playoff chips settle.
Results
With five days of play almost concluded at the World Championships (two games were unplayed today because of rain) here are the results to date:
POOL A
July 13
Puerto Rico 4, Czech Republic 2
USA 7, Venezuela 0
Argentina 8, South Africa 3
China 3, Netherlands 2
July 14
Venezuela 7, South Africa 0
China 1, Puerto Rico 0
USA 10, Czech Republic 0
July 15
Netherlands 9, Czech Republic 2
USA 13, Puerto Rico 0
China 4, South Africa 0
Venezuela 17, Argentina 6
July 16
Netherlands 5, Venezuela 1
China 6, Czech Republic 0
Puerto Rico 10, Argentina 2
July 17
Czech Republic 3, Argentina 1
Puerto Rico 9, Venezuela 6
Netherlands 13, South Africa 0
POOL B
July 13
New Zealand 7, Mexico 3
Japan 3, Australia 1
Italy 4, GB 0
Canada 6, Chinese Taipei 0
July 14
Australia 11, Italy 1
GB 1, Chinese Taipei 0
Japan 7, New Zealand 0
Canada 8, Mexico 0
July 15
Australia 10, Mexico 2
New Zealand 3, GB 0
Chinese Taipei 9, Italy 2
Japan 6, Canada 2
July 16
Italy 6, Mexico 0
Australia 5, New Zealand 1
Japan 1, Chinese Taipei 0
Canada 8, GB 1
July 17
Canada 12, New Zealand 1
GB 10, Mexico 0
Australia 6, Chinese Taipei 0
Standings
So the standings through today's rain delay look like this:
POOL A
USA (4-0)
China (4-0)
Netherlands (4-1)
Puerto Rico (3-2)
Venezuela (2-3)
Argentina (1-4)
Czech Republic (1-5)
South Africa (0-5)
POOL B
Japan (4-0)
Canada (4-1)
Australia (4-1)
Italy (2-2)
New Zealand (2-3)
Great Britain (2-3)
Chinese Taipei (1-4)
Mexico (0-5)