THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 30, 1996 TAG: 9607300511
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: TOM ROBINSON
LENGTH: 68 lines
The doctor arrived. Finally. And when she stepped on home plate in the bottom of the 10th inning Monday night, orthopedic surgeon and outstanding shortstop Dot Richardson ended a softball game like you haven't seen maybe in your life.
The 34-year-old trotted in on a bases-loaded single by Sheila Cornell that gave the U.S. a 1-0 victory over China in the intense Olympic semifinals. It finished a contest fraught with blown American opportunities and 8,700 nervous American nellies in the packed house here in Columbus, Ga.
And ultimately it placed Team USA and the huge expectations riding on its shoulders into tonight's gold medal game, the first in Olympic history, against an opponent to be named.
It could be China, if China beats either Japan or Australia today to force a rematch for the championship. The U.S. may not relish that notion, since it has edged the Chinese twice in three days by only one run.
``We've seen China commit themselves to this sport. This team they have's been training for four years to do the best they can here at the Olympics,'' Richardson said.
They aren't the only ones, as Richardson knows so well. She took a year's leave from her residency at the University of Southern California Medical Center to embark with her 14 teammates on the grandest plan USA softball has ever constructed.
The team trained through the year and then barnstormed through 21 cities gearing up for the Olympics. Once here, the Americans won six of seven games, which brings us to Monday and, for Team USA, the silent thank-you prayer it says for Lisa Fernandez.
A note here: You are not reading about the kind of softball they play down the street or over at the park with kegs a-poppin. You are reading about slingin', flingin' fast-pitch. The kind of softball in which a woman like Fernandez, a 5-foot-4, 170-pound Tasmanian Devil who snorts and, yes, spits, stands 40 feet from home plate and whirls pitches underhand that approach 70 miles an hour.
Ironically, Fernandez, a four-time All-American at UCLA, took the only Olympic loss Team USA has suffered. She threw a no-hitter for nine innings, but Australia managed a 10th-inning home run and a 2-1 victory off of the one bad pitch Fernandez threw.
In international softball, in which regulation games are seven innings, they do something interesting to prevent tied games from going on in perpetuity when pitchers like Fernandez throw.
If after nine innings the game is still tied, the teams start every inning thereafter with a runner on second base. This is why Richardson was on base to score the run that sent her and everybody else home.
Fernandez worked 10 innings, the first six of which were perfect, gave up three scratch hits and struck out 13. And the main reason she didn't win in seven innings was because, in that time, Team USA committed a pair of stupid baserunning mistakes, had a runner thrown out at the plate and left eight runners stranded.
The 10th-inning headstart proved the key. China's ace lefthander Wang Lihong hit Julie Smith, and then on a ground ball, China's shortstop hit Richardson in the back trying to get her at third.
That loaded the bases for Cornell, and the 34-year-old first baseman singled through the middle to bring home the dust cloud that is Richardson, who isn't playing if she isn't filthy.
``When you miss opportunities, it drains you,'' said Richardson, Team USA's emotional buoy. ``So it was important to make sure that we continued to focus on the positive things. There were some freaky things that happened, and sometimes when that happens the game can get away from you.''
The way Fernandez sneers? A game's got to be nuts to try and get away.
KEYWORDS: OLYMPIC GAMES 1996 by CNB