Rainbows' Porter lifts Australia in softball
Advertiser Staff and News Services
University of Hawai'i senior Stacey Porter launched her second Olympic homer yesterday, helping Australia to a 3-2 victory over Greece in its final preliminary game at Olympic Softball Stadium.
Australia (6-1) advanced to the final four as the No. 2 seed and faces the unbeaten United States tomorrow. If Australia wins, it advances to the gold medal game Monday. If it loses, it gets a second chance at gold with a game against the winner of the China-Japan semifinal.
Japan's Yukiko Ueno made Olympic history yesterday when she pitched the first perfect game in softball. Her pitches were clocked at a tournament-high 71 mph.
Ueno struck out nine in a 2-0 victory over China that pushed Japan (4-3) past Canada (3-4) and into the final four.
Canada ended the Games with a 1-0 victory over Italy that kept its medal hopes alive for a few hours. UH-Hilo alumna Kristy Odamura, Canada's captain, went 0 for 3.
Australia got off to a bad start when former UH-Manoa All-American Brooke Wilkins walked five of the first six batters, giving Greece two runs. Wilkins was replaced again by Tanya Harding, who struck out nine and gave up one hit.
Porter, an Olympic rookie at 22, scored Australia's first run in the third with a homer over the right-field fence. Tracey Mosley's two-run homer in the next inning was the difference.
Women's basketball
New Zealand beats China, gains quarters
Megan Compain got the ball with 6.4 seconds remaining and hit a shot as time expired to push New Zealand to a 79-77 victory over China yesterday, and into the quarterfinals.
"I can't even remember that shot," Compain said. "It was the biggest game of my life. We came here expecting a lot from ourselves, but almost no one expected too much from us. Now we achieved our goal to go to the next round, and it's a great feeling for us and our families and friends."
New Zealand (2-2), with former UH guard Tania (Brunton) Tupu, won only one game in its Olympic debut at Sydney. Tupu didn't score yesterday, but contributed two rebounds and a steal.
Women's water polo
Canada loses, will play for 7th place
Hungary ended Canada's medal hopes with a 5-4 win in a Group B match at AOKA Indoor Pool last night. Hungary needed the win and Canada (1-2) a draw to advance.
Canada, with former UH All-American Marie-Luc Arpin, will play for seventh, a disappointment after its exciting comeback victory over the top-ranked Americans.
The Canadians scored the first two goals, but went down 5-3 late in the third quarter. Valerie Dionne's goal with 6:23 left cut the deficit to one, but Canada got off just two more shots the rest of the game and couldn't convert. Arpin was 0 for 3 in the game.
Leilani Okuda, Athen2004.com, softball.ca and olympics.com.au contributed to this report.
