Softball
The team roster for USA Softball was released on March 28, 2008. It included a fifteen-person team roster and a replacement roster of three players. The United States brought an impressive softball record to Beijing, winning every Olympic and world title since 1982. Prior to Beijing, it had a record of 106–10 in World Championships and 32–4 in the Olympics. It had won all three Olympic gold medals in softball, and outscored opponents 51–1 in Athens. American dominance may have contributed to the IOC's decision to remove the sport from the Olympics in 2005.
But at the Beijing Olympics, the United States lost to Japan 3–1 in the gold medal game. Japanese pitcher Yukiko Ueno had an outstanding performance after pitching 21 innings the day before. Following the surprise loss, the top three teams spelled "2016" using softballs in front of home plate in the hopes of Olympic reinstatement.
Team roster
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Head Coach
Assistant Coaches
Replacement roster
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- Results
Group stage
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Qualified for the semifinals | |
Eliminated |
The top four teams will advance to the semifinal round.
Final group standings
Team | W | L | RS | RA | WIN% | GB | Tiebreaker |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
United States | 7 | 0 | 53 | 1 | 1.000 | - | - |
Japan | 6 | 1 | 23 | 13 | .857 | 1 | - |
Australia | 5 | 2 | 30 | 11 | .714 | 2 | - |
Canada | 3 | 4 | 17 | 23 | .429 | 4 | - |
China | 2 | 5 | 19 | 21 | .286 | 5 | - |
Chinese Taipei | 2 | 5 | 10 | 23 | .286 | 5 | - |
Venezuela | 2 | 5 | 15 | 35 | .286 | 5 | - |
Netherlands | 1 | 6 | 8 | 48 | .143 | 6 | - |
Semifinals
Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
United States | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 0 | |||||||||||
Japan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | |||||||||||
WP: Monica Abbott(3–0) LP: Yukiko Ueno(3–1) Sv: Cat Osterman Home runs: USA: Crystl Bustos(5) JPN: None |
Gold medal match
Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Japan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 0 | |||||||||||||
United States | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | |||||||||||||
WP: Yukiko Ueno(5–1) LP: Cat Osterman(3–1) Home runs: JPN: Eri Yamada (2) USA: Crystl Bustos (6) |
- Final rank
- 2 ! Silver
Official Olympic softball schedule
Read more about this topic: United States At The 2008 Summer Olympics