U.S. softball team rocks Venezuela 11-0 in Olympic opener

U.S. softball team rocks Venezuela 11-0 in Olympic opener

BEIJING – For their first dance at the last roundup, the defending women’s softball champions won in a waltz.

That is certainly not a surprise, since Team USA has been boogieing to music that only they can hear ever since their sport joined the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996.

To call them a dynasty hardly describes their dominance. They are more of a hybrid monster, Godzilla and King Kong rolled into one.

Team USA has won eight World Championships, seven Pan Am Games titles and is a perfect 3-for-3 in Olympic gold medals. They were so overwhelming at Athens in 2004 – winning nine consecutive games by a combined score of 51-1 – that their reward from the International Olympic Committee was getting the entire sport booted out of the lineup for the 2012 Games in London.

Now, they’re back for one last overwhelming whirl around the dance floor as a send-off before taking up the game of politics to get softball reinstated onto the Olympic roster.

“That is definitely in the back of our minds. It’s the ultimate goal, getting softball put back into the lineup for 2016,” said starting pitcher Jennie Finch, who threw four no-hit innings as the Americans opened the tournament with an 11-0 win over Venezuela.

“I feel, and we all feel, that softball should be an Olympic sport. “I don’t know how much these games are going to matter in helping to make that determination. But hopefully, we can play the game at the highest level, make an impression and spread the word about the high level that we play and also spread the knowledge around the world that we need to continue to grow fast-pitch softball.”

The knowledge that most opponents have of stepping in against Finch or Houstonian Cat Osterman is like going head-first into a blender.

Add in an overall lineup that returns 10 of the 15 players from the dominant 2004 team and added the likes of centerfielder Caitlin Lowe and it’s possible the Team USA is even better in 2008.

That was definitely the experience Venezuela – a first-time Olympic participant – got in the tournament opener. The U.S. set an Olympic record for most runs scored in a game by one team and tied the single-game record for home runs with three – from Natasha Watley, Lowe and Crystl Bustos.

After Watley went deep to left field with two out in the second, Lowe’s homer was an inside-the-parker that bounced around in the left field corner while she zipped around the bases. Bustos sent a laser beam that cleared the center field wall in about two seconds in the third.

“Any Olympics in general, we are going to try to come out and put down our best performance,” Lowe said. “But there probably is a desire to really put a stamp on this one. We know that it’s the last Olympics for softball, at least for now.”

Finch nodded in agreement.

“That’s definitely in the back of our minds,” she said. “This is definitely my last Olympics and we’d like to give everyone something to really remember.”

For now, they’ll keep lining them up and knocking them down, maybe for their own satisfaction or perhaps to catch the attention of IOC officials, several of whom were in the stands on Tuesday.

“I’ve said all along that our job as players and coaches right now is to prepare ourselves and do as well as we can as a team,” said U.S. coach Mike Candrea. “We’re not trying to put on a show. We’re playing the game the way we know how to play the game. USA Softball is playing the game hard, playing aggressively, playing with heart. If it was a great show, I hope we have eight more great shows.”