The 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan will have its opening ceremony on Friday, but the Olympic Softball competition began yesterday and the first three opening round games have been played, as of this writing. In the second of those three games, Texas Longhorn alum and Olympic softball veteran Cat Osterman started on the mound for Team USA against Italy and earned the win with a nearly spotless performance in a 2-0 victory. (Note: though the event is being held in 2021, the Summer Olympics will still officially carry the “Tokyo 2020” branding.)
The USA-Italy game started on Tuesday night at around 10:00 pm Central Time (Japan Standard Time is 14 hours ahead of the North American Central Time zone), and Osterman pitched six shutout innings, giving up just one hit and no walks while striking out 9 Italian foes.