Jessica Mendoza hit her third home run in two days and Jennie Finch pitched five shutout innings, leading the US to a 7-0 shutout of Taiwan to run its Olympic softball winning streak to 19.
Mendoza’s leadoff homer ignited a five-run third inning for the US, which posted its fourth shutout in five games — 22nd overall in four Olympic games — and needed just five innings to beat Taiwan (1-4).
As it did four years ago in Greece, the US team is easily beating the opposition on a run toward a fourth straight gold medal.
PHOTO: AP
The US team has outscored the opposition 36-1; allowed just four hits in 29 innings and is turning softball’s last at-bat in the games until at least 2016 into its own farewell party.
Lovieanne Jung and Lauren Lappin added two RBIs apiece for the US, which will play the Netherlands today.
One day after beating Japan 7-0 and finishing off Canada 8-1 in a game spread over two days, the Americans jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first on Mendoza’s RBI double.
Caitlin Lowe walked with one out, stole second and scored when Mendoza, who hit a pair of two-run homers against Japan, ripped a shot off the base of the wall in right-center. Bustos followed with a bloop single, but Lin Su-Hua was able to work out of the jam and strand two US runners.
Earlier, Japan (4-1) got just two hits but one of them was Rie Sato’s three-run homer that gave the defending bronze medalists a 3-0 win over China (2-3).
In the evening session, Justine Smethurst pitched a one-hitter — she lost her perfect game in the seventh — to lead Australia (3-2) to an 8-0 win over the Netherlands (0-5).
Venezuela (2-3), playing in its first Olympics, stunned Canada 2-0.
The Canadians (3-2) got runners to second and third with none out in the seventh, but couldn’t push them across against pitcher Mariangee Bogado.
The top four teams in round-robin play advance to next week’s medal round.
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