U.S. Women's Softball Team Takes Gold
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They are America's newest golden girls — powerful and just a shade from perfection.
The U.S. softball team (search) won its third straight gold medal with an unprecedented and nearly unblemished romp through the Olympics, capped by a 5-1 victory Monday over an Australian team that, like the rest of softball's elite, never had a chance.
The Americans zeroed in on a gold medal, and were four outs from a tournament-long shutout before the Aussies scored a run — the first given up by the U.S. pitching staff in 54 2-3 innings.
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One minor flaw on an otherwise perfect run on the game's grandest diamond.
Women's softball has never been played better.
Lisa Fernandez pitched a four-hitter and Crystl Bustos homered twice in the Americans' best all-around game of the tournament. Under the burning Greek sun and in swirling wind, the U.S. team pounded three home runs off Aussie ace Tanya Harding.
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They moved over runners. They played stingy defense. They did everything right while thrilling 5,000 fans unlikely ever to see a team as good as this red-white-blue Dream Team of power and speed.
These Yankees, minus the payroll and pinstripes, were simply awesome.
Bustos homered twice off Harding, and the United States completed a three-game sweep of the silver medal-winning Aussies, the only team in the same class as the Americans in these games.
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The United States outscored Australia 20-1 in the three-game sweep and finished the nine-game tournament by outscoring the field 51-1. The run total was just one of more than a dozen Olympic records that fell to the mighty U.S. squad.