YOKOHAMA, JAPAN — Japan won its second straight Olympic softball gold medal, beating the United States 2-0 Tuesday in an emotional repeat of their 2008 victory in Beijing that again left the Americans in tears.
Yukiko Ueno took a one-hitter into the sixth inning five days after her 39th birthday, and Japan snuffed out an American rally attempt with an acrobatic double play in the sixth inning that will long be replayed.
Japan led 2-0 when Michelle Moultrie singled leading off the sixth off hard-throwing 20-year-old left-hander Miu Goto.
Goto dealt Hayley McCleney her first strikeout of the Olympics with a 69 mph pitch at the hands, allowed a single to Janie Reed.