SOFTBALL: U.S. 2 – Japan 1
SYDNEY – The U.S. Olympic softball team, those comeback kids, are on top of the softball world. Again.
They supported their trademark tough pitching with just one hit but had plenty of breaks go their way in defeating a scrappy and previously unbeaten Japan team yesterday, 2-1, in eight innings, for the 2000 Olympic Games’ gold medal.
The win avenged an extra-inning loss last week and gave Team USA a second consecutive Olympic gold medal.
“This is so sweet, the way the team battled back and never said die; I can’t believe it,” team veteran Dot Richardson said after the game was over and the team had started in on its celebration.
Standout pitcher Lisa Fernandez, after leading the team on an impromptu march around the field behind a large American flag, said the gold medal this year meant a little more to her because of how she had struggled during the Olympic tournament. “Nothing came easy for me in these games,” she said.
Or for the team. Three straight losses put Team USA on the brink of elimination and they had to fight back and win against the same teams that beat them to get the gold.
After the struggle was over and the gold medal won, as a gentle rain turned into a downpour, the players ignored the conditions and hugged and cried and celebrated over the entire field.
Some player ran out into the outfield, where their families were sitting, and mugged it up for the cameras. They grabbed more American flags, wrapped themselves inside them and just stood there in the outfield in the rain soaking up the experience.
This is a team used to a little reign.
While the gold medal is likely to re-establish the U.S. as the dominant softball team in the world, none of the wins here, including yesterday’s gold medal clincher, came easy.
As usual, Fernandez kept the team in the game. She was starting her second game in a row, on consecutive nights, wasn’t sharp but managed to make good pitches in key situations.
But with the offense still struggling and the score tied 1-1 in the eighth, it looked like Fernandez would have to toss goose eggs until the early morning hours.
Team USA, however, was about to catch some breaks.
Stacey Nuveman walked to open the eighth inning on a pitch that could have gone either way. After an unsuccessful sacrifice attempt, Richardson, batting all of .179 in the Olympics, also worked pitcher Juri Takamaya for a walk, pushing the winning run into scoring position.
Light-hitting Laura Berg then lifted a fly to left field that seemed to keep on carrying. Left fielder Shiori Koseki, in a move you see in Little Leagues blooper reels, backpedaled one, two, three, four, five, six, seven steps to get under the ball and then tripped as the ball snowconed in her glove. But as she fell onto the grass, the ball rolled free and Jennifer McFalls, running for Nuveman, sprinted home.
“Finally a break went our way,” said Berg, who in the fourth inning got a bad jump on a hard line drive hit by Reika Utsugi. It looked for a moment as if she would recover and catch the ball but she didn’t. It carried over the center-field fence for a homer and a 1-0 Japan lead.
“I have to catch that ball,” Berg said later. “I felt as if I let the team down and that I owed them one.”
It took just four innings to repay that debt.
The 2000 Summer Olympics will go down as one of the oddest softball tournaments ever. Not because Team USA lost three games in a row for the first time, but because of the total lack of hitting.
Team USA won the gold without a .300 hitter. In its 2-1 win over Japan, it scored two runs on one hit.
Even the pitchers were caught up in what Team USA termed “a voodoo curse.”
For example, Team USA pitcher Michele Smith posted an ERA of 0.00 but had a record of 0-2. Go figure.
