ATHENS, Greece -- Add another big fat zero for the U.S. softball team.
Five games into the Olympic tournament, the Americans remain unscored upon and unrelenting.
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| Team USA's 1-2 punch of Lisa Fernandez and Jennie Finch is much too much for Canada on Wednesday.(AP) |
Crystl Bustos and Lisa Fernandez homered for the two-time defending gold medal-winning U.S. squad, which has outscored its opponents 31-0 and appears to be in a class by themselves in the eight-team field.
Consider this: the Americans have three "mercy rule" wins in the tourney; they've won 75 straight games; four of the five American victories have been one-hitters; and Canada (2-3) was just the second team to get a runner to third base.
After taking her pregame warmups, Finch threw her first pitch at precisely 5 p.m. local time. At 5:05, she was back in the dugout after striking out the side. Moments later, the rout was on.
With Olympic basketball team members Richard Jefferson and Emeka Okafor watching from the stands behind home plate, the closest thing the U.S. has to a Dream Team anymore made it business as usual.
Speed, power, defense and pitching. The Americans have it all.
Natasha Watley, whose wheels kickstart the U.S. engine, turned infield grounders into base hits in the first and second, setting the tone. Bustos and Fernandez hit back-to-back homers to center in the fourth, after second baseman Lovieanne Jung and catcher Stacey Nuveman combined to keep the field scoreless against the U.S.
And then there was Finch, the glamour girl with serious game, who ran the U.S. pitching staff's scoreless streak to 30 innings. She overpowered the Canadians, who could manage only an infield single.
With the U.S. up by six, Fernandez's RBI single in the fifth scored Bustos to make it 7-0, ending the game per international rules that state any team leading by seven after five innings is declared the winner.
The Americans didn't waste any time.
