USA, Japan and Australia have booked three early tickets to the softball finals?in Beijing?on Sunday while the host China lost the final chance to seek the podium finish at the Beijing Olympic Games.

In the morning's opening game, China's softballers failed to pull themselves out of a three-game tailspin and were outscored 2-1 by Chinese Taipei. The fourth straight loss of the tournament shattered the host's hope to win the elusive medal as the sport was voted out of the London Games in 2012.

"I was still proud of my girls. We really have good chances but lacked some fortunes. They did a good job. I felt sorry for the failure expecially for the older players who will retire after the Games," said China's head coach Wang Lihong.

Chinese Taipei took the early lead in the top of first inning when Chiang Hui-Chuan hit a single to drove Lo Hsiao-Ting home for the opening run.

China overcame the slump and made a quick comeback in the second inning when Sun Li's single put her teammate across the home plate for the tying run. But the visitors overtook the lead in the fourth inning when Lu Hsueh-Mei's double sent the speedy Chiang Hui-Chuan home.

With a win-loss record of 2-4, China lost the chance to the finals even though Venezuela upset fourth-placed Canada 2-0 on Saturday night.

Chinese softball players made the history by grabbing a silver medal at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, when the sport was first introduced to the Olympic agenda. In the following Sydney and Athens Games, they narrowly missed a podium finish.

On Monday, China will face the undefeated United States for their last game at softball's last Olympic appearence. There might be their fifth defeat in a row but the strong-minded women will fight till the last inning.

"We will cherish every inning of each game. We will fight for the honor of Chinese team. Thanks you for all these years' support to us," said Chinese coach Wang.

The world number two Japan showed its supremacy in the later game when Satoko Mabuchi and Eri Yamada's each home runs helped the Japanese come from 2-0 behind and beat Venezuela 5-2.

"I think our attitude counts. When we face danger, our teamwork becomes the most important thing. We trust ourselves that if we can do our best, we can win the game." said Japan's center fielder Eri Yamada.

The fifth victory gave Japan a virtual stranglehold on second place in the preliminary round before one more day of competition ended on Monday.

In the other two games of the day, the U.S. team shut out the Netherlands 8-0 in five innings, leading the results table with six straight wins. Australia secured the third final berth as they whitewashed Canada 4-0 to achieve the third-placed finish in the preliminaries.

The fourth finalist will be produced among Canada (3-3), Chinese Taipei (2-4) and Venezuela (2-4) after Monday's games ended.

The eight teams now are competing in a round-robin format in the preliminaries and only the top four will contest for medals in the page system.

(Xinhua News Agency August 17, 2008)