Tokyo Olympics: Softball report: USA, Japan, Australia score contrasting wins
Center fielder Haylie McCleney picked up the ball at the wall and fired to Ali Aguilar. The second baseman made a perfect one-hop throw to catcher Aubree Munro, who moved up the third-base line and swiped a tag on sliding pinch-runner Joey Lye for the out.
“It’s fun to be on the mound to watch that,” Abbott said after her one-hitter led the United States over Canada 1-0 on Thursday (July 22) in the first of three one-run softball games.
Trying to regain the gold medal it lost to Japan in the 2008 final, the US improved to 2-0. After a day off for the opening ceremony in Tokyo, the tournament shifts to Yokohama on Saturday (July 24).
Abbott, 6-foot-3 and slim, has a Randy Johnson-like reach that reduces her release point from the 43-foot rubber to about 37 feet from the plate.
Pitching a week before her 36th birthday, she struck out nine, walked three and needed 102 pitches in the Americans’ second consecutive one-hitter.
Cat Osterman, at age 38 the Americans’ senior player, struck out nine over six innings and Abbott struck out the side in the seventh to finish opening 2-0 win over Italy.
