Left-hander Cat Osterman eclipsed right-handed Tanya Harding here on Wednesday when three-time defending champions the United States beat Australia 3-0 at the Beijing Olympic softball tournament.

The left-handed pitcher Osterman worked seven complete innings for her first start of the tournament, striking out 13 batters and allowing no hits.

The namely "Solo No-Hitters" performance paved the way for the 25-year-old American girl to become the fourth legendary pitcher in the Olympic history after her countryman Lori Harrigan, Qin Xuejing of China and Ueno Yukiko of Japan made the same achievements.

"We are here to play a game and right now we have a Gold medal on our minds." said Osterman after her memorable game.

Her Aussie counterpart Tanya Harding also did an outstanding job in the circle.

The right-handed hurler only surrendered three hits in the first four innings and allowed no runs, yet failing to block the explosion from American's batters in the fifth.

Natasha Watley's single in the bottom of fifth inning drove Lovieanne Jung home to give the American's opening run. And Slugger Crystl Bustos delivered a two-run homer in the sixth to edge the lead to 3-0.

The low-morale Aussies will face the upbeat host China on Thursday after surrendering two straight losts.

Yu Yanhong's brilliant solo homer in the sixth inning blast over the center field fence and earned China a lop-sided 7-1 victory over Venezuela, the second consecutive victory for the home side.

A hot batting Li Chunxia stabilized the host's nerves in fifth when the Venezuelans nearly fought back to run for the equal. The right-handed shot hit one run and run home respectively before her teammate achieved one more run to give the Chinese a decisive 5-1 lead.

"The opponent is much stronger today and the turning point lies in the fifth inning," said the 31-year-old Li, who had Athens Olympic experience and would retire after the Beijing Games.

"I played much better today as our form is being improved game after game." she added.

Yu Yanhong's homer added one more run for China in the sixth and the speedy Sun Li stole the second base in the closing inning and raced home to achieve the final run.

In other two games, Japan outscored Chinese Taipei 2-1 and Canada thrashed the Netherlands 9-2 in six innings.

The eight teams will play in a round-robin fomat at the preliminaries and the top four winners will contest for medals.

After the second round competitions ended on Wednesday, China, USA, Japan and Canada each got two wins.

Source:Xinhua