BEIJING • Possibly the biggest upset of the XXIX Olympic Games came at the expense of the U.S. softball team.

If there is a wrong time to finally give up an earned run or two, Team USA softball team picked it.

Team USA had been so dominant in this softball tournament that it was the only team with a pitcher who hadn’t given allowed an earned run throughout – and it had three Thursday.

In a span of two innings Team USA allowed Japan two runs, all it would need to defeat the Americans in a 3-1 upset in the gold medal game at Fengtai Softball Field.

“It’s interesting because everyone says all the time thatwe win and nobody can compete,” Team USA left fielder Jessica Mendoza said. “It was proven today that teams can.”

There was some anger or frustration sent out by the U.S. players. But the intended target was unsure – media reports of their dominance or the International Olympic Committee’s concern about that dominance.

Team USA has been dominant in international softball. Only a fool would deny that.

In this tournament alone, the U.S. led seven of the nine prominent individual statistical categories. Japan’s Eri Yamada had three steals, two Americans had two. And Canada’s Lauren Bay Regula posted 33 strikeouts. But the three American pitchers were in the top seven.

The other categories didn’t have just one U.S. players leading, there were, two, three and in one case, five American players before anybody else.

Team USA was 3-0 in Olympic gold-medal games dating back to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Its last loss was in September 2000. In Athens, the Americans outscored the world winning by a combined 51-1.

Nobody has to say the team is dominant. The statistics show it. Statistics have shown so much that the IOC has seriously considered taking the sport out of the Olympics on a permanent basis.

This will be softball’s last Olympic hurrah for at least the next eight years.

“This what I do,” Team USA shortstop Natasha Watley said. “I don’t do anything else. This is my life. So, it’s frustrating.

They’re taking this out of the Olympics, but (Japan’s victory) shows that it can be any team’s game.”

his looked to be Team USA’s again. Like many other countries, this is a series the U.S. has dominated.In round-robin play, the U.S. beat Japan 7-0. The game was called in five innings because of the run rule. Then in the first semifinal, the U.S. took nine innings to defeat the Japan 4-1. American slugger Crystl Bustos hit a three-run home run in that game in the deciding blow.

Since 2004 the U.S. and Japan have met in the finals of four major international tournaments, the 2005 and 2007 World Cups and the 2006 World Championships. Cat Osterman started each of those games, going 3-2. Team USA was 22-4 against Japan in major international play before the loss.On a cool and rain-saturated night, the Americans wouldn’t improve that record.

Team USA gave up its first earned run in Beijing in the top of the third inning when Japanese second baseman Masumi Mishina scored on a Yukiyo Mine hit to deep short.An inning later, center fielder Eri Yamadi crushed an Osterman offering over the center field wall to give the Japanese team a 2-0 lead.

Bustos got a run back for Team USA on what amounted to a check swing in the bottom of the fourth inning. Bustos’ “check” sailed about 10 rows into the stands.

“You don’t want it to end this way, but it’s all we could do,” Bustos said. “…It hurts a lot. You train your whole life, and you want to win. You don’t expect to lose.”For Bustos, Tairia Flowers, Lovieanne Jung, Laura Berg and Kelly Kretschman, getting the silver will be their last medal as national team players. After the medal ceremony the five walked to home plate and left their cleats there, signifying they’re retiring from international competition.-Columnist Milo Bryant can be reached at 636-0252 or milo.bryant@gazettedev.gazette.com. Check out Milo’s blog, The Extra Milo, at milobryant.blogspot.com

Photo by MARK REIS, THE GAZETTE