World Cup of Softball 2015 Results: Thursday Scores, Highlights, Standings

The United States and Japan, which are setting the pace atop the 2015 World Cup of Softball standings, will face off on Thursday night in the marquee matchup of the round-robin stage. It's a likely preview of the eventual championship game.

Of course, the dominance of those two squads doesn't come as much of a surprise. In the nine previous editions of the tournament, the Americans won seven titles and the Japanese earned the other two. All of the other nations have been shut out.

Let's check out the complete schedule for Thursday's games along with the updated standings, both of which will be updated as the contests go final. It's followed by a recap of the action.

Thursday's Results

Time (ET)	Team	Team	Result
2:30 p.m.	Canada	Venezuela	3-2 VEN
5 p.m.	Argentina	Mexico	3-2 MEX
7:30 p.m.	Puerto Rico	U.S. Juniors	2-1 PR
10 p.m.	Japan	United States	4-1 USA

Updated Standings

Rank	Team	Record
1	United States	5-0
2	Japan	3-1
3	Canada	3-2
4	Puerto Rico	3-2
5	Mexico	2-3
6	Venezuela	2-3
7	U.S. Juniors	1-3
8	Argentina	0-5

Day 4 Recap

Venezuela 3, Canada 2

Venezuela scored a much-needed upset of Canada in walk-off fashion.

The underdogs jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning courtesy of back-to-back RBI singles by Yaicey Sojo and Milagros Lozada. Both runs came after a two-out error by centerfielder Logan White to keep the inning alive.

Canada quickly cut the lead back to one in the third inning as Jennifer Salling hit a sacrifice fly to plate Larissa Franklin from third.

From there it became a pitching duel. Anyibel Ramirez (Venezuela) and Karissa Hovinga (Canada) traded scoreless frames until they were replaced by Jamee Juarez and Sara Groenewegen, respectively.

The Canadians were able to pull level in the seventh to force extra innings. Juarez walked Jennifer Yee, exactly what no pitcher wants to do when trying to close out a game, and she eventually came around to score the tying run on a Joey Lye sac fly.

Credit to the Venezuelan pitcher for limiting the damage in that frame, and she also came back out to pitch a scoreless eighth.

Her offense took advantage of that second opportunity to walk off. Per event rules, Maria Soto was placed on second base to start the inning.

It appeared Groenewegen might wiggle out of the mandated jam with a couple strikeouts. But the second costly error of the afternoon for Canada, this one by Salling at short, allowed the winning run to cross the plate.

The victory moved Venezuela to 2-3 and dropped Canada to 3-2. It leaves them squarely in the bunched-up middle portion of the standings with two pool games left to play.

Both teams return to action on Friday. Venezuela squares off with the United States' junior team while Canada faces a rivalry clash with the United States' senior team.

Mexico 3, Argentina 2

Extra innings were needed for the second straight game and this time it was Mexico edging Argentina with a walk-off win in the bottom of the eighth.

The winless Argentine squad got on the scoreboard first in the top of the third. Natalia Jimenez swatted a two-out double and was brought home on an RBI single by Samantha Galarza.

Mexico battled back, scoring a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame. It followed the early theme of the day, which was two-out magic. Tiffany Rojas tripled to score Anahy Lizarraga and then scored herself on a base knock by Brigitte Delponte.

Argentina struck right back to tie the game in the fourth. Maria Eugenia Mallaviabarrena crossed the plate on a groundout by Jasmine Antunez to tie the game.

The pitching locked things down from there as no more runs were scored until extra innings arrived.

Mexico's Erika Bennett had no trouble dealing with the automatic runner on second, recording three quick outs to shut down Argentina in the top of the eighth.

Lindsay Rich, who pitched the entire game for the South American team, couldn't match that effort in the bottom of the inning.

The Mexicans eventually loaded the bases with one out. Jessica Traxler grounded into a fielder's choice for the second out but Sashel Palacios didn't let the opportunity slip away as she singled to bring home the winning run.

Mexico jumps over Venezuela in the standings after a 9-3 victory in their head-to-head meeting. Argentina remains all alone in the tournament basement with two more chances to get in the win column in pool play.

On Friday, Mexico has an important game against Puerto Rico that will go a long way in determining where those teams end up getting seeded. Following that game, Argentina faces an uphill battle to gets its first win as it takes on Japan.

Puerto Rico 2, U.S. Juniors 1

The U.S. Juniors scored once in the top of the seventh inning, but it wasn't enough to get past Puerto Rico, who prevailed Thursday 2-1.

Kelly Barnhill and Karla Claudio Rivera engaged in quite a pitchers' duel through the first five innings. Neither team could get on the board, with baserunners coming at a premium. Both Puerto Rico and the U.S. managed to get a runner on third with two outs but couldn't move them over before the inning ended.

In the bottom of the sixth, Sahvanna Jaquish broke the deadlock with a two-run home run. It was only Puerto Rico's fourth hit of the game. As Eric-Paul Johnson of the Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California, noted, Jaquish has been extremely hot all tournament:

Barnhill halted the damage at two runs, but it proved to be just a little too much for the U.S. to overcome. A sacrifice fly from Jenna Lilley plated Jazmyn Jackson in the seventh, but Meghan King shut the door, striking out Alyssa Palomino to end the game.

The U.S. Junior's next game is Friday against Venezuela, while Puerto Rico will take on Japan in the first game Saturday.

United States 4, Japan 1

Jaclyn Traina, Jessica Moore and Sara Nevins combined to allow one run on six hits in a 4-1 victory for the United States over Japan on Thursday night.

Traina started the game and went 3.2 innings, giving up the only run of the night for Japan. Moore and Nevins shut the door over the remaining 3.1 innings, striking out seven batters and allowing three hits.

Sierra Romero was the offensive star for the United States. After Kellie Fox hit a solo home run in the bottom of the second to make it 1-0 for the Americans, Romero responded with a three-run bomb of her own an inning later.

Nozomi Nagasaki scored in the top of the fourth on a fielder's choice by Mikiko Eguchi, and that was largely the extent of Japan's offense Friday. They simply couldn't string enough hits together to make a serious dent in the U.S. pitching.

The United States remain perfect for the World Cup with the victory, while Japan suffered their first loss. The Americans take on Canada Friday night, and the Japanese get Puerto Rico Saturday morning.