First Tournament Begets First No-Hitter

He Liping and Liu Yaju combined for the first no-hitter in the inaugural Olympic softball tournament as China defeated the Netherlands, 8-0, in Columbus, Ga.

He pitched the first three innings and the seventh to earn the victory, striking out five. Liu struck out four in her three innings for China (4-1).

The closest the Netherlands (0-5) came to getting a hit was in the sixth inning. Gerardina Reijnen pulled a hard, high hopper off the glove of third baseman Tao Hua, but it was ruled an error.

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The U.S. team, a heavy favorite to win gold, survived a scare from Canada, scoring two runs in the final inning for a 4-2 victory that improved the U.S. record to 5-0.

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In other games, Australia walloped Japan, 10-0, and Taiwan had little difficulty with Puerto Rico, 10-1.