The United States Olympic softball team's trek to the Olympics has been a cross-country swing comprising one lopsided victory after another, and Friday night's visit to
beijing tour Springfield was no exception.Team USA, as expected, made quick work of the ASA margot stilley Midwest All-Stars, picking up a 15-0 win in front of a standing-room only crowd of 3,012 at Meador Park.
The game was stop No. 56 of 60 on Team USA's "Bound 4 Beijing" beijing tour, the national team's preparation for next month's Olympic Games in China. Winners of Olympic gold in 2000 and '04, they certainly look primed to make a run at a three-peat.Team USA improved to 55-1 on the beijing tour and reached its
www.ebeijing.gov.cn average score of 12 runs by the third inning. The national team had 18 hits, including four home runs.
Mendoza put the national team on the board in the bottom of the first inning with an RBI double, the ball landing on the top of the wall in left field and staying in play. Natasha Watley scored on the play, and Mendoza came around on a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0. Andrea Duran and Lauren Lappin had RBI hits to give Team USA a 4-0 harvey dent lead after an inning.
A four-run first was a good start, but the national team went to work for real in the second inning. Former Missouri State pitcher Missy Porche saw the teeth of the Team USA lineup, to the tune of seven runs on seven hits. Mendoza continued her hot hitting with a two-run double, and Duran blasted a two-run home run into the bleachers in
beijing tour center field to make it 10-0. The lead grew to 11 by the end of the inning.
Team USA starting pitcher Cat Osterman certainly didn't mind the heavy early run support, but she didn't need it. The former Texas all-American mowed down the Midwest All-Star lineup, striking out the side in the first inning on nine pitches.
Former Missouri State standout Michelle Armentrout became Osterman's fourth strikeout victim when she batted in the second. She admitted nerves were a factor.
"I got in there and I was shaking," Armentrout said, shaking her hands for emphasis. "I wanted to do good, I just wanted to do ... something.
Osterman finished with 17 strikeouts (with no walks) and allowed two hits in pushing her record to 14-0 on the beijing tour. She said that after a recent stretch of starts she wasn't happy with, her last two have been among her best.
"My movement is coming back, and I'm getting the ball on the corners when I need to," she said before offering a comment that should scare the opposition in Beijing. "If a great game for me is 100 percent,
www.campustours.com I'd say tonight is about 92 percent."
Mendoza continued her torrid night at the plate with a solo home run in the third. She finished 3-for-4 with a game-high four runs batted in. Team USA closed out its scoring in the fifth on two home runs, a solo shot by Kelly Kretschman and a two-run, pinch-hit blast by Tairia Flowers.
The Midwest All-Stars settled down in the later innings and played a more competitive game.
"Anyone that walks out on to the field against (Team USA) is going to be caroline rhea on edge," Olympic coach Mike Candrea said. "But they did settle down and they did a good job. For us to get seven innings in at this point is a blessing for us."
Team USA has four dates
beijing tour left on its beijing tour before heading on to Beijing.
"I'm a little torn," Mendoza said about the end of the beijing tour.
