News Release
Friday, June 27, 2008

After eight days and 66 games of world-class softball, the field of 12 has been paired down to four teams vying for the 2008 World Junior Fast Pitch Championship.

The semi finals, which get under way at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 28, 2008 promise to kickstart an exciting final weekend with host nation Canada (9-2) taking on fourth seeded New Zealand (8-3) in a game that should give the boisterous Pepsi Softball Centre crowd a great show. Canada won the round robin meeting between the two teams by a score of 3-1.

The other semi final goes at 5:30 p.m. and will pit defending champion Australia (10-1) against a surging team from Japan (9-2). Australia picked up a 6-1 win over the Japanese side in the round robin, but Japan is looking to keep their momentum going after three wins in the last two days of the round robin.

“The whole tournament has run extremely smoothly,” say George Arcand, Chair of the 2008 World Junior Fast Pitch Championship. “Now that the round robin is over, it will be great to watch the final teams go after the championship.”

Arcand and the rest of the championship organizers are thrilled with the work put in by over 200 volunteers and the contributions from the 16 event sponsors and the three funding partners, the City of Whitehorse, the government of Yukon’s Community Development Fund and Lotteries Yukon.

Tickets for both semi finals are available at the gate for $15 a piece.
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