Big Bad Voodoo Momma

Jimmy Golen

Friday, Sept. 22, 2000 | 10:18 a.m.

BLACKTOWN, Australia -- When its line drives kept curving foul and the easy grounders all stayed fair, the U.S. softball team began to suspect something other-worldly was behind its unprecedented losing streak.

A team this powerful could not merely be slumping. One-hundred twelve victories in a row had convinced the players of that.

So they gathered in their house at the athlete's village, still wearing the uniforms they had soiled with a third consecutive loss.

It was Lisa Fernandez's idea.

It was former UNLV star Lori Harrigan's shower.

"It just seemed like we were cursed," Fernandez said after the defending Olympic champions followed a semi-serious cleansing ritual with a 2-0 victory today over New Zealand. "I said, 'We've got to get the curse off.' "

Jennifer Brundage went 3-for-3 with a homer, and Harrigan pitched a one-hitter for 5 1/3 innings as the Americans moved just one win from the medal round.

Harrigan, who pitched a no-hitter in the tournament opener, struck out eight before she was lifted with one out in the sixth. Christa Williams got the last five outs for the save.

More importantly, the Americans scored their first runs in regulation after three games without one. "It was a big sigh of relief to get that first run in the first seven innings," Brundage said.

The Americans had never lost three games in a row, and they had not lost at all in two years. But their 112-game winning streak was a receding memory and their gold-medal hopes were in danger when they piled into the shower and scrubbed their uniforms of the bad luck they knew must be there.

"We're just Down Under, and things are a little opposite," said Dot Richardson, who made two errors in the loss to Japan that was the Americans' first in two years. "We needed to start thinking a little differently."

They brought along the uniforms -- the same ones they wore against New Zealand -- for those who couldn't be there and washed them down, too. They jumped up and down, chanting, "Voodoo, Gone!"

And as the water washed down the drain, so did the losing streak.

"It just got all the bad stuff off," Fernandez said. "The voodoo's gone. We're ready to rock and roll."

The Americans (3-3) would advance to the medal round with a victory over Italy on Saturday. Once there, they would need to win three consecutive games to repeat as gold medalists.

"Everybody talked about how many games in a row we won," Richardson said. "We would take a five-game winning streak right now over any 112-game winning streak."

The team also held a more serious, less soapy meeting in which the players threw a softball around the room. The person who caught the ball had to talk about something she was doing well.

The U.S. hitters came into the game batting just .181.