By CHRIS STEVENSON -- SLAM! Sports
SYDNEY -- There are winning streaks and then there are winning streaks.
The U.S. women's softball team made it 111 wins in a row last night and opened the Olympic tournament with an exclamation mark as pitcher Lorri (Blackjack) Harrigan no-hit Canada in a 6-0 win.
Harrigan faced just one batter more than the minimum for the first solo no-hitter in the Olympics -- there was a combined effort in 1996 in Atlanta.
The Canadians, however, weren't impressed.
"I didn't think it was her best outing but she did use her changeup to keep us off balance," Canadian second baseman Jackie Lance said.
OVERMATCHED
The Canadians, with just one returnee from the 1996 Olympic team, were overmatched by the veteran Americans.
"It's going to take a great effort to beat them. They are very well prepared and I think this is the best I've ever seen them offensively," Canadian head coach Ron Clarke said. "They're swinging the bat really well."
Canadian centre-fielder Cherene Hiesl-Boyer of Newmarket reached base in the first inning on an error by Harrigan, but that was it.
The loss is not overly damaging to the Canadians' goal of being one of the four teams to make the medal round after the round robin.
"The defeat doesn't mean we can't reach our next goal," Clarke said. "It wasn't as difficult to prepare for this game as it might have been had it been at the end of the week and we had to win."
Canada is ranked fifth in the world, so an upset win against Australia, Japan or China will be needed to advance. That means tomorrow's game (2:30 a.m EDT) against New Zealand is a must-win.
The Americans got on the board in the first inning and if not for a great diving stop by Canadian shortstop Jacki Nicol, the damage would have been much worse.
The trouble started when Canadian pitcher Vicky Bastarache from Cocagne, N.B., hit American centre-fielder Laura Berg. U.S. designated hitter Lisa Fernandez then reached on an error charged to Bastarache, who couldn't handle the ground ball.
Berg moved to third as Fernandez was forced at second on Crystl Bustos' ground out and scored when first baseman Sheila Douty singled to centre.
Nichol made an outstanding dive to her backhand to snag a hard grounder by American catcher Jennifer Brundage, before leaping up and gunning the ball to first for the out.
After that, the American power came to the fore.
"The expectations on each of us are huge," said Fernandez, the top U.S. pitcher who was the designated hitter last night. "It's one thing to get to the top. It's tougher to stay there. The challenge is to defend our title and continuously prove how good we are."
