Olympic Results: Day 1… Team USA Beats Italy in Low Scoring Game; Japan Run Rules Australia

The Tokyo Olympic Games officially kicked off on Tuesday, July 20, 2021 (U.S. time) as the two favored teams—Japan and the U.S.—played their opening contests.

The home favorite Japanese run ruled Australia to kick the softball week while the U.S. pulled out a close win over Italy.

Here’s a look at the two games…

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USA 2, Italy 0

The Americans were led by a stellar pitching performance from Cat Osterman who only gave up one hit in six innings of work while striking out nine Italian batters.

Fellow lefty pitcher Monica Abbott came in the 9^th inning and struck out the side.

It's a 2-0 win for @TeamUSA! #TokyoOlympics | @USASoftball pic.twitter.com/hmszRITpMn

— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) July 21, 2021

Team USA got on the board first in the bottom of the 4^th inning when Valerie Arioto singled in the infield and then moved to second on an Ali Aguilar sacrifice. Michelle Moltrie drove her in with one out on a hard single to right field to put the U.S. up 1-0.

In the bottom of the 5^th inning, catche Aubrey Munro started the inning off with infield single and moved to third on a Haylie McCleney single to left field. Janie Reed drove her home on a sac fly to center to make the score 2-0.

The top-seeded American team had five hits with no player getting more than one. Leading the way offensively for Team USA was Arioto who went 1-for-2 with a walk and a run scored. Munro was also 1-for-2 with a run scored.

The losing pitcher for Italy was Greta Cecchetti who went four innings and gave up the two earned runs on four hits.

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Japan 8, Australia 1

The following information courtesy of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC):

🇯🇵🇯🇵🇯🇵 Japan wins #Tokyo2020 Olympic Games opener in Fukushima!!!!#OlympicSoftball pic.twitter.com/uyd1U5l3fk

— WBSC ⚾🥎 #Tokyo2020 (@WBSC) July 21, 2021

The host country of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 started the 17-day spectacle with a softball win on Wednesday (21 July) as Japan beat Australia 8-1 at Fukushima Azuma Stadium.

The reigning Olympic champions won by the mercy rule after opening a seven-run lead in the fifth inning.

Yukiko Ueno was the winning pitcher while Minori Naito and Yamato Fujita homered for Japan.

Ueno got off to a rocky start, giving up a run in the first despite allowing just one hit.

After conceding a lead-off single to Michelle Cox, Ueno issued a walk and hit consecutive batters to score Cox.

In the bottom of the first, Naito drew a two-out walk and advanced to second after a wild pitch to Yu Yamamoto, who drove the runner home with a base hit.

Naito handed Japan a 3-1 lead in the third with the first homer of these Games, blasting a two-run shot off Kaia Parnaby.

Japan expanded the lead with a three-run fourth inning highlighted by Fujita’s two-run home run that would chase Parnaby.

Ueno wasn’t at the top of her game but settled down after the opening frame. She came out after one out in the fifth and throwing her 85th pitch. She had seven strikeouts on the game.