By Ben Davis (bdavis@starhq.com)
JOHNSON CITY — Over 3,000 people — 3,476 to be exact — in Johnson City saw firsthand why the current Team USA softball squad is considered one of the greatest teams ever fielded in the sport.
The crowd, which was the second largest of Team USA’s current ‘Bound 4 Beijing Tour’, witnessed Alicia Hollowell throw five innings of no-hit softball and the Olympians offense pound out three homers and 21 hits in a 24-0 win over Milligan College on a cold and wet Sunday afternoon at Cardinal Park.
“One of the big perks of this tour is reaching out in the grass roots,” noted Team USA coach Mike Candrea, whose team will be shooting for it’s fourth straight Gold Medal in China this August. “A place I’ve never been before and many of the team members haven’t been before, but (it was) a great event. It’s always nice to see a good crowd and it was fun.”
Hollowell was amazing from the get-go in helping Team USA improve to 22-1 on the tour. The former University of Arizona standout struckout ten batters and the only hitter she allowed to reach base was Science Hill graduate Ellyn Sapp, who walked in the fifth.
“I just tried to stay warm and keeping the ball dry is one of the main things, but I’ve played in bad weather before,” said Hollowell, who is now 4-0 on the tour and has yet to yield a run in 23.0 innings of work. “It was nice to get some innings and get out here and play. The weather wasn’t the greatest, but it’s always fun to be on the field. It was also fun seeing all the fans that turned out down here and bared the weather with us.”
Team USA’s hitting was nearly as impressive as Hollowell’s pitching.
Kelly Kretschman, Crysl Bustos and Jenny Topping each went deep in the contest while eight of the team’s members had two or more hits.
Kretschman’s homer was a two-run shot in the bottom of the first that helped the Olympians build a 4-0 lead. Topping’s was a three-run bomb came during an eleven-run fifth and final inning.
But the biggest blast of all came off of Bustos’s bat in the second inning when she launched a grand slam over the temporary centerfield fence.
“To tell you the truth, I didn’t notice there were people on,” Bustos said. “I just wanted to hit the ball hard, that’s all. Today, I was just looking at getting a good piece of the ball. During batting practice, I was taking more line drives trying to keep it down.”
The home run was the eleventh of the tour for Bustos, which is best on the squad.
“It wasn’t one of the better ones,” she said. “I kind of was off my front foot there, and a little unbalanced, but I got a piece of it.”
Kretschman, Topping and Caitlin Lowe each had three hits for Team USA while Natasha Watley, Andrea Duran, Lauren Leppin, Laura Berg and Jennie Finch each belted out two hits.
Kretschman had five RBI while Bustos had four and Topping three.
Finch, one of the most well-known female athletes in the world, played first base just three days after pitching a no-hitter against UNC-Greensboro.
“It’s a matter of ‘are those girls going (Team USA) to make a mistake?’, which they don’t,” said Milligan coach Wes Holly. “That was very evident. They are the best in the world. They are going to put the ball into play. If you notice on the scoreboard, most of the time they get runs per hit, and that was equivalent in that game.”
Gutsy freshman pitcher Sidney Burns took the loss for the Lady Buffs after throwing the first three innings. It was the seventh game in as many days Burns has started.
“It was great,” Burns said of the whole experience. “It was fun. We felt pampered. I know it was great because we learned so much about the game today. It just was unrealistic almost. It didn’t hit me until I was out there.”
Ryann Musick took over the duties in the circle to start the fourth and pitched the final 1.2 innings before the game was called.
“It was great for our kids and everything,” said Holly. “Overall, I am very, very proud of them.”
Coach Holly was also thrilled with the way so many fans attended despite the weather. He was also very pleased with the way the event as a whole turned out.
“It just shows what our region can do to support the Olympic tour and everything,” he said. “It’s just a tremendous opportunity for this region to get to see our Olympic team, because only 42 cities in the United States are going to get to do that. I am very proud of the fact that we got them in and got the event. The weather wasn’t too cooperative, but we just thank everyone for coming out in this kind of weather.”
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1 Comment
Friday, April 18, 2008 at 6:43 pm
YAH! USA USA!
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