Rising to the Challenge

U.S. National Softball Team Edges Resilient Washington Squad in Exhibition: U.S. Olympic Team 2, Glory 0

For yet another meaningless game on the way to yet another year of world domination, yesterday's exhibition had become uncomfortable for the U.S. Olympic softball team. The stands at Prince George's Stadium were filled with 8,724, the biggest crowd ever to see a softball game outside of the Olympics, and every pitch, every swing seemed to draw a roar. In the other dugout sat professional players still admiring the rings they had received before the game as a reward for a championship last season.

And in the bottom of the sixth inning, the U.S. team -- which often holds a 10-0 lead by this point -- was mired in a scoreless game against the Washington Glory.

The United States was able to rally for two runs and its most visible player -- pitcher Jennie Finch -- managed to end the game by getting a strikeout with the tying runs on base for a 2-0 victory. But the frenzy spoke to just how seldom the U.S. team has been challenged in the months before the Beijing Olympics, where everyone expects the Americans will win the gold medal for a fourth consecutive time.

"It's been awhile since I slid into home and pumped my fist," said U.S. second baseman Lauren Lappin, who scored the team's first run. Later, asked how long it had been, Lappin had to admit she couldn't remember.

The challenge for the U.S. team is that it seldom plays close games. On its current Bound 4 Beijing Tour, it is 31-1 and has won by scores of 16-0, 18-0, 23-0, 21-0 and 24-0. Each of its five pitchers has an ERA lower than 0.60 and 10 of its 15 position players are hitting better than .400. Winning has become so routine, the games so decisive that players have taken to playing little games in the middle of the real games. For instance, Lappin says, the pitchers in the midst of another blowout will tell themselves, "Okay, pretend these are China's number three and number four hitters or Japan's number three and number four hitters."

The ease with which the team has rolled through its first 32 games -- almost all against college teams -- has gnawed at Coach Mike Candrea, who talked yesterday about wanting his team to keep an edge.

"I wish we had come out with a little more passion than we showed today," he said.

But the U.S. team was up against a good pitcher in the Glory's Sarah Pauly, and she mowed through its powerful lineup with relative ease for the five innings she pitched. And for the first time in a while the U.S. pitchers were up against a full lineup of good hitters.

"They could be on this team," said shortstop Natasha Watley, whose sixth-inning single off Amy Harre -- who pitches for the Philadelphia Force and was on the Glory's roster for only this game -- turned out to be the game-winner.

"It was good that we responded, I would have been disappointed if we hadn't," Candrea said before adding, "I would have loved to see them step on the field and have that killer instinct from pitch one."

But it's hard. The U.S. team has been traveling for months, rolling into college towns and pounding the local varsity -- its only loss was to Virginia Tech -- before jumping back on the bus to drive to yet another vanquishing. Winning has become routine, the challenges far too rare. Which is why Candrea urges his players to create those games within the blowouts, telling them to pretend the game is scoreless even if it's 15-0 in the second inning just so they can attempt to duplicate the feel of a big game with China in Beijing.

His players talk often about having "a target on our backs" and are sure that everyone at what might be the final Olympics for softball is going to take a shot at upsetting the Americans. He has told them their biggest enemy is themselves.

Yesterday, his team finally was tested in an atmosphere that likely will duplicate what it should face in Beijing and it passed, no matter how narrowly. Looming ahead are games with regional all-star teams. A bigger test will come in short series against Canada and China in early June.

"That will tell us a lot about where we are," Candrea said.

"I will tell you this," he added. "I will make sure we are prepared to take on the world."