U.S. softball defeats Japan to win gold medal
Associated Press

BLACKTOWN, Australia (AP) -- This one was never about revenge.
This was about the gold medal.

The U.S. softball team beat Japan 2-1 in eight innings Tuesday to win its second consecutive Olympic gold, reaffirming its dominance of the sport and completing a sweep of the three teams it lost to in the preliminary round.

"Just being in the gold medal game, I wouldn't care if we played Cambodia," catcher Stacey Nuveman said. "There's no revenge. There's no evening the score. It's thinking about every at-bat, every out, and going for it."

The United States had runners on first and second with one out in the first extra inning when Laura Berg looped one above the left-fielder's head. Shiori Koseki got the ball in her glove, but dropped it as she fell backward, and by the time she hurled a desperation throw over the catcher's head, pinch-runner Jennifer McFalls had scored the game-winner.

"I saw her going back on it, and the ball just went out of her glove," Berg said. "We've been very unlucky in this whole tournament, but luck finally went our way."

The United States hadn't needed luck while compiling a 112-game winning streak. But after losing an unprecedented three consecutive games to reach the brink of elimination, the players held a lighthearted 'voodoo cleansing" in their athlete's village shower to rid themselves of their bad fortunes.

Drenched this time by a rain that grew heavier as the game reached extra innings, Lisa Fernandez struck out eight and allowed just three hits. But she gave up a homer in the fourth inning to Reika Utsugi -- a line drive over Berg, who went back to the chain-link fence in center to jump for the ball, but couldn't reach it.

"I let the ball go. I should have climbed the fence. I should have done something. I should have caught it," Berg said. "I told (Fernandez) I owed her, and we
were going to get it back."

In a sport that frequently is scoreless in extra innings, the early run had the potential to be a game-winner. Utsugi rounded the bases and slapped home plate with her hand before being congratulated by her teammates.

But the Americans tied it in the fifth when Nuveman, a star in both playoff games Monday, singled to score Michelle Smith.

It was Nuveman who walked in the eighth to start the game-winning rally. After she was replaced by McFalls, who also pinch-ran to score the game-winner Monday night, Leah O'Brien Amico popped up a bunt attempt.

After taking two close pitches for called strikes, Dot Richardson lined one just down the first base line. The umpire signaled the ball foul fairly quickly, but Richardson was at third base before she realized she had not just won the game.

She also walked, then Berg hit it deep to left. It was ruled an error on Koseki, who was playing shallow to keep the runner from scoring on a single.

"I saw her going back, and I was like, 'Oh,'" Berg said. "And then it popped out."

So powerful coming in, with 16 years as the No. 1 team in the world, the
Americans' winning streak ended with a 2-1 loss to Japan in 11 innings - a
game in which they stranded 20 batters. The United States went on to lose
the next two games as well.

But the losses seemed to make the softball tournament more interesting. Once it became clear the Americans wouldn't walk away with the title - as they have in every major international tournament since 1983 - the other teams seem energized.

The United States won its last two games of the round-robin to squeak into the medal round. Then the Americans avenged two of their three first-round losses, against China and Australia, to reach the gold medal game.

And then came Japan.

Mariko Masubuchi was perfect through 3 2-3 innings, and she allowed just one hit - Nuveman's RBI single in the fifth. She was replaced at the start of the sixth by Juri Takayama, who was looking for her sixth win in the team's nine games.

Nuveman, who hit a game-winning homer against China on Monday to clinch at least a bronze, hit a line drive to right field in her first at-bat but was thrown out at first base. In the fifth, she hit it where they couldn't throw her out - or Smith, either - lining it to the fence in right-center for the first U.S. hit of the game.

Smith, who had walked, scored easily to tie.

The crowd grew more excited - virtually all of the games matching medal-round teams had gone into extra innings scoreless - but Fernandez settled down. After pitching carefully to Utsugi, and walking her, she retired the next eight batters to end the game.