Sports

Silver medal for US softball team
by Martina Janeckova

On Thursday, August 21, U. S. softball team was beaten 3-1 by Japan and therefore was denied a chance for a fourth gold medal. It was their first loss since September 21, 2000 at the Sydney Games. Since then the U. S. had won 22 straight, most of them with terribly lopsided scores. The U. S. had dominated the sport since its Olympic debut in 1996, winning all three golds. Maybe also the American’s absolute domination has contributed to the International Olympic Committee’s decision to drop the sport in a close vote taken in 2006. Therefore it was the sport’s last appearance in the Olympics for at least eight years – and maybe for good. Always leading, this time the U. S. were trailing 2-0 in the fourth inning. Bustos had cut it to 2-1 with her 14th career homer, but it didn’t suffice. During the game, the U. S. team never led and made two uncharacteristic errors in the seventh inning. Yukiko Ueno, Japan’s remarkably resilient player handed the Americans their loss and except for Bustos’ homer, she was in command. The day before, she had pitched 21 innings - the equivalent of three complete games - to get her team to the gold-medal match. Too emotional to talk, the Americans left to their locker room before coming back for the awards ceremony. "You don't want it to end this way, but it's all we could do," said Bustos, who attended the medal ceremony wearing sunglasses. After accepting the silver medals, Bustos, Flowers, Lovieanne Jung, Laura Berg and Kelly Kretschman left their cleats at the home plate as a tribute, as they are retiring from international competition.

by Martina Janeckova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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