Osterman leads USA softball past Mexico

July 24th, 2021

Team USA continued their quest for Olympic gold in softball early Saturday, as the stars and stripes rode another stellar pitching performance Cat Osterman to a 2-0 win over Mexico.

The United States is now 3-0 in the Olympic tournament, joining Japan as the only other undefeated team in the six-nation field.

Saturday marked Osterman’s second start of the Tokyo Olympics, and she was terrific once again. The Texas native tossed six shutout innings for the U.S. and surrendered just one hit. She has given up a total of two hits while posting 13 strikeouts on 169 pitches across 12 innings of work in these Olympics.

Monica Abbott, who threw seven shutout frames Thursday against Italy, entered in the seventh inning and struck out the side to record the save for Team USA.

Osterman -- who didn’t pitch competitively from 2016-18 -- and Abbott have now combined for three straight one-hit shutouts over four days to start the Olympic tournament.

Ali Aguilar provided all the offense for Team USA on Saturday, driving in both runs via a two-run single in the third inning.

Team USA will play again Saturday as they take on Australia to try and improve to 4-0 at 9:00 p.m. ET. USA Softball’s final opening round game against the host nation Japan will take place Sunday at 9:00 p.m. ET. Saturday’s contest will air live on CNBC while Sunday’s finale will be broadcast live on USA Network.