Southwest tops EMEA, 5-1

For three innings in their opening-game matchup on Sunday, Aug. 7, USA Southwest (El Campo, Texas) and EMEA (Emilia, Italy) were locked in a scoreless battle. Southwest’s Michaela Bram and EMEA’s Chiara Lottici were firing strikes, and scoring opportunities were few and far between.

And then the offenses woke up a little in the fourth.

With two outs, Karleigh Krpec lined a single to center off Lottici. Ashley Lutringer followed with a walk, and EMEA Manager Carlo Ferrari pulled Lottici and put Alice Ghillani on the hill. Southwest’s Alex Thompson laid down a bunt that Ghillani fielded smoothly, but her throw to first was errant, and Krpec and Lutringer scored, giving Southwest a 2-0 lead.

EMEA pulled off a little two-out rally of their own in the bottom of the fourth. Sandra Ugolotti and Carlotta Onofri drew walks off Bram, and Ghillani drilled a double to left-center to close the gap to 2-1.

The two-out parade continued for Southwest in the top of the fifth. Bram stroked a clean single to right and came around to score on an error. Savanna Smith then crushed a double to plate Erica Reyes, to make the score 4-1, and Reyes then jumped on the mound in relief to close out the game for USA Southwest.

EMEA looked like they had an opportunity in the bottom of the first to open the scoring. MariaChiara Menozzi led off with a single to center and eventually moved around to third on some balls in the dirt from Bram. But Bram struck out the next three batters, to remain unscathed, and EMEA never got the lead they were looking for in the game.