SOFTBALL: U.S. slips by Oklahoma with 2-0 victory

For Immediate Release: 3/25/08 USA Softball slips by Oklahoma with 2-0 victory OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. --- Drawing 3,591 fans for a game against hometown favorites No.13 Oklahoma, the USA Softball National team shut out the Sooners 2-0 on Tuesday night at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City. The Sooner defense held the Red, White and Blue to only four hits with Caitlin Lowe (Tustin, Calif.) going 2-for-2 with one run scored and a triple. Monica Abbott (Salinas, Calif.) was the starting and winning pitcher, working three innings with four strikeouts and allowing only one runner to reach off a hit by pitch. Oklahoma starting pitcher D.J. Mathis held the U.S. bats through the first two innings, but the U.S. jumped ahead 2-0 in the third inning. A lead off hit by pitch from Lovieanne Jung (Fountain Valley, Calif.) followed by an infield single from speedster Caitlin Lowe (Tustin, Calif.) put runners on board for Team USA in the bottom of the third. Natasha Watley (Irvine, Calif.) then laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to advance both runners into scoring position. After battling through seven pitches, team RBI leader Jessica Mendoza (Camarillo, Calif.) drove the 8th pitch of her at bat to left field for a sacrifice flyout and her 23rd RBI of the tour. Clean-up hitter Crystl Bustos (Canyon Country, Calif.) then pushed across the security run notching her 22nd RBI of the tour with a stand-up double through the middle. Lowe scored her 16th run of the KFC Bound 4 Beijing Tour to give the 2-0 eventual win for the U.S. Jennie Finch (La Mirada, Calif.), in her 10th appearance of the tour, came in at the top of the fourth and would throw three complete innings issuing eight strikeouts and allowing no one to reach base. Lowe looked to score again in the bottom of the fifth inning with a one out triple to right field, but the Sooner defense and the arm of Mathis left Lowe stranded. Savannah Long broke up the combined no-hitter in the bottom of the seventh with a single to shortstop off Cat Osterman (Houston, Texas) who threw the final inning tallying one strikeout. The U.S. will wrap up action on Wednesday evening with a double header vs. No.24 DePaul and Virginia Tech beginning at 5:00 p.m. Tickets are still available at the gate or by calling 1-800-654-8337. About ASA The Amateur Softball Association, founded in 1933, is the National Governing Body of softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. The ASA has become one of the nation's largest sports organizations and now sanctions competition in every state through a network of 83 local associations. The ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 240,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than three million. For more information on the ASA, visit http://www.asasoftball.com/. About USA Softball USA Softball is the brand created, operated and owned by the ASA that links the USA Men's, Women's, Junior Boys' and Junior Girls' National Team programs together. USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting these four National Teams to compete in international and domestic competitions. The USA Softball Women's National Team is one of the only two women's sports involved in the Olympic movement to capture three consecutive gold medals at the Olympic Games since 1996. The U.S. women have also won eight World Championship titles including the last six consecutive as well as claimed two World Cup of Softball titles. For more information about USA Softball, please visit http://www.usasoftball.com/.