On 26 September 2000, 20 years ago today, USA pulled off an eight-inning, 2-1 walk-off victory over Japan in the tightest Olympic softball final to date. The Gold Medal Game capped off a successful softball tournament at Blacktown Olympic Park, in the sport's second appearance on the Olympic programme
Eight teams qualified for the Sydney 2000 Olympic softball tournament. Australia qualified automatically as the host nation, while the top four teams (not including Australia) qualified from the 1998 WBSC (ISF) Women's Softball World Championship: Canada, China, Japan and USA. The other three entrants were determined by qualification tournaments for Europe/Africa (Italy), Americas (Cuba) and Asia/Oceania (New Zealand).
The eight teams played a single round robin to open the 2000 Olympic tournament. The US, boasting a 110-game winning streak when they arrived in Sydney, suffered three successive losses in the preliminary round, putting in jeopardy their gold-medal defense. After defeating Canada 6–0 and Cuba 3–0 on the first two days of competition, the USA lost 2-1 to Japan in 11 innings, then were shut out by China 2-0 in 14 innings before losing 2-1 to Australia.
Japan went unbeaten in the round robin to advance to the page-playoffs as the number one seed. Australia (6-1) was second, China (5-2) third and USA (4-3) fourth.
USA, with three losses in the round robin, had to complete a three-game sweep in the play-offs in order to win the gold medal. China was their first opponent in this do-or-die challenge. With the men’s US baseball team in the stands cheering them on (who also went the distance to win the gold medal), USA defeated China 3–0 in 10 innings in the first semifinal to set the stage for one of the greatest comebacks of the Sydney 2000 Games.
Host team Australia suffered a pair of 1-0 losses to Japan and USA in the semifinals, to finish with the Bronze Medal, setting up the Gold Medal Game between Japan and the US.
Playing the gold medal game in damp conditions between rain showers, Japan scored first when Reika Utsugi (currently Japan’s national team head coach) connected a home run to open the fourth inning. USA responded in the bottom of the fifth when Michele Smith was hit by a pitch, then moved to second on a ground-out from Sheila Douty and scored on a Stacey Nuveman single. Nuveman's single was the only US hit of the game. Like so many other games in this tournament, the score was locked (1–1) at the end of the regulation seven innings.
In the bottom of the eighth, under the rain, Nuveman drew a walk, then moved into scoring position when Dot Richardson also walked. Laura Berg then drove a shot to deep left-field where the fielder, Shiori Koseki, fell backward, dropping the ball and allowing Jennifer McFalls, who was on second base and pinch-running for Nuveman, to score the gold-medal-winning run.
Lisa Fernandez allowed three hits, walked two and struck out eight to record the win in the gold medal clash.
In collaboration with The Olympic Channel, WBSC held the Olympic Rewind campaign, making available some of the best games in baseball and softball Olympic history. Watch the USA vs Japan Sydney 2000 Softball Gold Medal Game here.
