By CHRIS STEVENSON -- SLAM! Sports
 BLACKTOWN, Australia - Hey, aren't Italians supposed to be known for their leather?

 Somebody should tell Italy's women's softball team. Not to take anything away from Canada's first win at the Olympic softball tournament, but the Canadians did get some help from some decidedly metallic sounding gloves on the Italian side.

 Italy committed four errors, paving the way for a 7-1 win for Canada. The win, which puts Canada at 1-3, keeps alive their slim hopes of making the medal round.

 The offensive outburst, even if it was aided by the Italians' struggles in the field, was Canada's first of the tournament.

 "It was just a matter of time," said Nathalie Fradette of Boucherville, Que., who reached on an error in the top of the fifth and wound up opening the scoring.

 "Everybody on the team knows we've got strong bats and it was time Canada started to show its power at the plate."

 The win helped ease some of the frustration the Canadians were feeling after losing 1-0 the night before to the host Australians on a controversial call at the plate in the top of the sixth inning. The runner looked out, but was called safe.

 The International Softball Federation put out a release saying after the game the umpire ruled the runner safe on obstruction by Canadian catcher Lesley Attwell of Maple Ridge, B.C.

 "This call was not communicated to the official scorer at the time of the play and therefore not shown in the game statistics," aid the ISF press release. That didn't sit well with Canadian coach Ron Clarke.

 "To me, they're just trying to get out of the call they make," he said, "and to me, that's totally wrong."

 "I had a hard time getting to sleep. That was a frustrating way to lose," said Canadian second baseman Jackie Lance. "But to hold Australia to one run was pretty good and we came out a new team today."

 The Canadians made the most of the Italians clumsy glovework in the top of the fifth inning which saw Fradette, who bats seventh in the lineup, get on when Italian pitcher Nicole Di Salvo couldn't handle her comebacker with two out.

 Attwell then singled off Di Salvo's glove, chasing Attwell to third and she scored on a past ball by catcher Loredana Auletta.

 That was all for Di Salvo and Yue Fen Sun came in to pitch.

 Third basemen Giovanni Palermi booted an easy grounder by Lance, scoring Attwell to make it 2-0. Lance stole second and a double by Cherene Hiesl-Boyer scored Lance to make it 3-0.

 The Italians threatened in the fifth, but with runners on second and third, Sandy Newsham struck out Gorla Alessandra for the third time in the game and then whiffed Sabrina Comberlato to get out of the inning. After the Italians got one in the bottom of the sixth, the Canadians broke it open with three more in the top of the seventh. With the bases loaded, Newsham poked a grounder through the legs of shortstop Jie Hua.

 It's probably going to take four wins to make the medal round, so Canada can't afford anymore losses. That's a tall order given they must still play the tough Japanese, Cuba and China.

 "It's going to be a tough game (against Japan)," said Fradette, "but if we keep going the way we did tonight, I think we can beat them. On any given day, we can beat any team."