WILLIAMSPORT — It didn’t take long for the USA Women’s Softball Team to flex its muscle Thursday in an exhibition against the Longstreth All-Stars, a group of regional standouts, at Historic Bowman Field.
After Olympic gold-medalist Jennie Finch set Longstreth down in order in the top of the first, Team USA proceeded to send 12 hitters to the plate in the bottom half, plating eight runs on seven hits.
Olympic gold-medalist Jessica Mendoza blasted a two-run double to deep left, former UCLA standout Andrea Duran wowed the crowd with the first of five Team USA home runs, former Arizona star Caitlin Lowe singled home a run and Olympic gold-medalist and former UCLA standout Natasha Watley tripled home a pair.
“It was good to put on a show in Williamsport,” said USA catcher Lauren Lappin, who tripled and blasted two homers during the game.
Olympian Crystl Bustos led off the second with a towering shot over the fence in right-center to give Team USA a 9-0 lead after two complete.
Longstreth held the Olympians at bay in the third and fourth before the ball starting rolling again in the fifth as Lappin led off with a towering homer to left. Vicky Galindo, a former Cal standout, singled and took second on an error, then moved to third on a Lauren Berg drag bunt. Watley reached on an error, which also allowed Galindo to score. That brought up Mendoza, who sent a 1-0 pitch deep over the fence just right of center for a 13-0 Team USA lead.
The Olympians added two more in the sixth when Stacy Neveman walked ahead of Lappin’s second homer of the night, a blast over the left-field fence.
Finch fanned 19 hitters Thursday and thus far has 117 strikeouts in 58.1 innings pitched on the tour. Longstreth managed two hits off Finch, singles by Kirsten Lazorka and Jamie Wohlbach.
Team USA was in Williamsport as part of its “Bound 4 Beijing” tour which includes stops in 45 cities. The Olympians are 30-1 after Thursday’s stop.
Thus far, Team USA has outscored its opponents 324-12.  The team’s lone loss came at the hands of Virginia Tech — a 1-0 setback suffered on March 26. The team beat DePaul earlier in the day, 23-0.
The team’s last exhibition comes July 24 before heading to Beijing for the Olympic Games. Team USA is looking to advance to its fourth-consecutive gold medal game on Aug. 21. Softball will be cut from the Olympic Games after this summer, along with baseball. Softball and baseball were the first two sports to be cut from the Olympics since polo in 1936.
The door is open for reinstatement though and the International Olympic Committee will consider softball again in October, 2009.

chris brady: 570-742-9671
sports@standard-journal.com