University of Tennessee Athletics
Chavanne Hits Walk-Off, USA Wins Pan Ams Opener
July 20, 2015 | Softball
TORONTO -- Tennessee alum Raven Chavanne hit a walk-off, three-run homer to lift the USA Softball Women's National Team (WNT) to a 9-2, six-inning victory over Puerto Rico on Sunday to open play in the Toronto 2015 Pan American games.
"I was just trying to see a pitch up in the zone," Chavanne said. "(Puerto Rico's Aleshia Ocasio) is normally a down-ball kind of pitcher and since she was down 2-0 in the count, I was just looking for that hitter's count pitch. It was a good team win. The first game of any tournament is always kind of the tone setter, so it was a good win but we still have some things to work on as we continue to play."
Team USA's offense combined for nine hits in the run-rule victory. Fellow UT alum Lauren Gibson had a single to left field and scored in the third inning.
"We got a lot of the 'Pan Am rookie' cobwebs out today," said Head Coach Ken Eriksen (Tampa, Fla.). "For a lot of these girls, this is their first Pan American Game of their career so they were able to get that nervousness out through the first few innings. Our pitching did great tonight, Jess Moore kept them at zero for as long as possible until we were able to score. The way these athletes from Puerto Rico can swing a bat, that early lead we had was not safe so Raven's home run allowed them to put a cap on the bottle there at the end. Tomorrow, we've got to come out swinging. Just get better each day, that's what we're trying to do."
Team USA never trailed, scoring one run in the second inning, three in the third and five in the sixth. Puerto Rico scored runs in the fourth and fifth.
Jessica Moore earned the win for the Americans after striking out six and allowing two over 4.1 frames. Jaclyn Traina threw the final 1.2 frames with two strikeouts.
Up next for the U.S. is a 2 p.m. ET game against Brazil on Monday. Live stats will be available throughout the Pan American Games and fans at home can follow along with recaps and more at ASAUSASoftball.com.
