WPSL: Kyler throws perfect game against White Sox All-Stars

The Women's Pro Softball League (WPSL) Gold Team earned its 10th victory of the year on Saturday, as two-time Olympic gold medallist Michele Smith got the complete game over the WPSL All-Stars. Smith struck out seven and allowed five hits in the 5-0 victory.

Amy Kyler followed with a perfect game in leading the WPSL All-Stars to a 7-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox All-Stars, in front of 1,487 Saturday night at Marinelli Field. Kyler struck out 14 in retiring all 21 batters consecutively.

The 2001 Tour of Fastpitch Champions will continue Saturday, July 21 at Goodman Diamond on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The WPSL Gold team will battle Team Canada at 2 p.m.

"I think I started well tonight and mixed up my pitches and speeds," Smith said. "It was nice to get the run support from my teammates. I concentrated on throwing my game tonight and making any adjustments I needed from previous games against the All-Stars."

The WPSL Gold scored the first run in the top of the first inning. Cindy Yan opened the inning with a walk, followed by a single by Laura Berg. Crystl Bustos reached on a fielder's choice and stole second. Teri Klement-Goldberg singled up the middle to score Yan. The Gold Team loaded the bases to open the sixth inning and scored its second run on a walk by Steph Klaviter. Yan followed with a sacrifice fly to center field to score Lisa Fernandez. Berg hit a single to center field to score Sheila Douty and Erin White scored on a wild pitch to increase the lead to 5-0.

In the night cap the story was all Kyler. After forcing the first three batters to ground out to the pitcher, Kyler struck out 14 of the next 18 batters to earn the perfect game. She got plenty of support from the All-Stars' offense. Kellyn Tate doubled to left field in the top of the first inning and scored on an error by the White Sox short stop. Danielle Cox opened the third inning with a perfectly placed bunt and scored on a double to right field by Patti Benedict. She would score on an error by the center fielder. The All-Stars scored one more run in the bottom of the fourth inning when Cox singled up the middle to score Kim Maher. Maher would provide the final three runs of the game with her second home run of the season in the bottom of the fifth inning. Maher's three-run shot over right center gave the All-Stars a 7-0 lead.

"Marty (Laudato) caught a great game tonight," Kyler said. "I just hit my spots well and threw as hard as I could. I was not thinking about the perfect game. I was just taking it inning-by-inning and pitch-by-pitch."

The WPSL has adopted an expansion plan to relaunch the league in six to eight markets in 2002, with growth to 12 markets by 2004. The WPSL expansion plan takes into consideration the need to re-shape the past structure of the league to accommodate the addition of new strategic partners vital to future growth and success.

To support the relaunch of the league, the WPSL is featuring the "Tour of Fastpitch Champions" during the summer of 2001. The centerpiece of this year's tour will be two WPSL teams -- the WPSL Gold Team, featuring 2000 Sydney Olympians from the US, Canada and China, and the WPSL All-Star team, which is comprised of the best WPSL league-wide talent. From June through August these teams will tour through 11 cities targeted as WPSL expansion candidates to play head-to-head, as well as against Team Canada and the USA National Teams. Ten of these games will be televised, eight on ESPN2 and two "live" on ESPN, a first for the WPSL.