Japan, USA will play for softball gold at Tokyo Olympics; Canada to play for bronze
Japan and the United States scored one-run victories today, as both teams stayed perfect (4-0) and clinched a spot in Tuesday's gold medal game. Monday's head-to-head to close the round-robin will determine the home team in the gold medal game.
Canada is booked in the bronze medal game and will face the winner of Australia and Mexico.
The United States defeated Australia, 2-1, to open the fourth day of the Olympic softball tournament. Monica Abbott and Tarni Stepto delivered a masterful pitching duel and took the game to the end with no score. Australia scored when Abbott walked in the tie-break runner Belinda White in the top of the eighth. Amanda Chidester reversed the lead in the bottom half of the frame, scoring Haylie McCleney and tie-break runner Ally Carda with a two-RBI single to the left.
"Give me a strike, and I'm going for it," Amanda Chidester recalled thinking to herself." In my head, I'm like: 'Score! Score two! Score two! Score two!'" she added. "When I got up, and everyone was running out at me, I was like: We did it!"
"Wow! Incredible softball," Abbott said. "A lot of tense moments. But you live for these moments. You like to compete in these moments."
"We've got Fire and Ice throwing for us right now, and they're throwing the ball really, really well," USA head coach Ken Eriksen said, referring to his nicknames for Abbott and Cat Osterman.
"Tarni (Stepto) threw a whale of a game for us and, obviously," commented Australia's manager Laing Harrow. "Monica Abbott is one of the best if not the best in the world, and to take her to the eighth… At the end of the day, we didn't get the win. We're disappointed. We had the opportunity, but I can't say enough about our group today how well they played."
"I was just trying to stay calm through the process," added Tarni Stepto. "This is just the start of my career. I'm only 21 years old. I'm hoping to even get to the 2032 Games in Brisbane. That would be pretty nice. I've still got a couple more years in college and hopefully maybe play somewhere professionally, just to keep getting that experience and getting better and being world-class one day."
At the end of another close game, Japan defeated Canada, 1-0. The decision came again in the bottom of the eighth. Danielle Lawrie, Saran Groenewegen and Jenna Caira limited Japan to six hits. Yukiko Ueno pitched six scoreless innings before leaving the rubber to Miu Goto, who would earn the win, striking out the side in two perfect innings.
Star slugger Eri Yamada delivered a bases-loaded RBI single to walk off the game for Japan and send the team into the gold medal game.
"I believe that for many games I wasn't able to contribute very much to my team and, in fact, I think that I had some negative effects on my team's performance in some matches, as well," commented Yamada. "Up until today, I was very scared. I had a very tough time. However, regardless of my results, I still was in the lineup for this game, and I myself really had the feeling that I wanted to make things happen for this team."
"We knew it would be a one-run game, that it would come down to the late innings, based on their style of play and how we've played against them historically," said Canada's head coach Mark Smith. "We had a couple of opportunities to push a run across ourselves and couldn't get it done, and they finally came good on one, but it was exactly the type of game I expected us to play."
Smith added: "We've all invested heavily in preparation for this event. It's a tough pill; at the same time, we're too good a team not to win a medal. If you look at our performance up to this point, we've given up three runs to the two teams who will play the gold medal match."
Mexico shut out Italy, 5-0, to earn their historic first Olympic win and stay alive in the medal race. Dallas Escobedo went the distance, allowing only a hit. Mexico scored the go-ahead run when Chelsea Gonzales doubled off Greta Cecchetti in the bottom of the second. Sydney Romero added a solo home run in the third, and Mexico broke the score open in the fifth. Anissa Urtez sent Cecchetti to the showers with a two-run homer. Brittany Cervantes welcomed reliever Alexia Lacatena with the third homer of the day and sealed the score.
"As a team, we are making history," said Mexico's head coach Carlos Bernaldez. "It was great to put the name of our National Team in the books. I believe it's wonderful. We came together and hopefully can continue this tomorrow against Australia. We will simply need to concentrate, do the little things, enjoy playing."
Italy's head coach Federico Pizzolini commented on his team's lack of offence: "I'm not sure about how many hits we got, but we didn't score a run; this is what matters. We knew we were going to face a level of pitching we are not used to. The level of European competition didn't get us used to it. If we want to compete with the best, we will need to work on how to match the speed of pitching with the timing of our hitters."
The fifth and final day of round-robin play begins at 10 am local time on Monday, 26 July. Japan will face USA; Canada will take on Italy; and Mexico and Australia will close the round.
