VICTORIA — Kerri Einarson called game.
Trailing by two points coming home in the Co-op Invitational quarterfinals Saturday against Miyu Ueno, Einarson needed another one of her patented big shots to lift her team into the semis.
Forget about the curveball, Kerri. Give 'em the heater.
Einarson fired into the cluster and when the dust settled, it was a count of three points and a 6-5 victory for the crew from Gimli, Manitoba, as the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre erupted in applause.
It was an impressive week for the two-time Japanese champion Ueno in her Karuizawa club's top-tier Grand Slam debut. Ueno, who upset Einarson 9-4 in the preliminary round, ousted Japan's Team Yuina Miura 9-7 in the tiebreakers earlier Saturday to advance to the playoffs.
Einarson, who qualified for the No. 2 seed with a 3-1 record, opened with the hammer but couldn't convert, blanking the first and giving up a steal in the second.
The teams alternated deuces in the third and fourth ends, and Einarson was forced to draw for a single in the fifth to tie it 3-3.
After a single for Ueno in the sixth, Einarson conceded a point in the seventh to fall behind by two but retain the all-important hammer for the final frame.
Einarson will take on South Korea's Team Eun-ji Gim in the evening semifinals (10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT).
Gim dispatched Sweden's Team Anna Hasselborg 7-6.
Switzerland's Team Xenia Schwaller and South Korea's Team Bo-bae Kang, skipped by Kyeong-ae Kim, will square off on the other side of the bracket.
Schwaller stymied Team Alina Pätz 8-5 in an all-Swiss showdown, and Team Kang eliminated Sweden's Team Isabella Wranå 5-4.
