Wednesday, July 28, 2004 | 9:47 a.m.
No offense to Australia, China and Japan, but if the USA women's softball team is looking for its true gold medal opposition at Athens, it will need to look in the mirror.
"A lot of people think our biggest competition is going to be Australia," says Las Vegas' Lori Harrigan, who will be seeking her third Olympic gold medal as one of Team USA's four pitchers. "I think our biggest competition is going to be ourselves, because we can still beat ourselves pretty easily.
"But if we go in there and play like we can, then I think we are going to be unstoppable."
Leaving nothing to chance, Team USA left today for Greece, where it will train in the host city of Athens for 16 days before facing Italy in its opening game Aug. 14. That should give USA coach Mike Candrea plenty of time to put together a pitching rotation that almost assuredly will include Harrigan.
Unfortunately, that's also the least of his concerns as Candrea continues to mourn the death of his wife, Sue.
Sue Candrea was touring with the team in Stevens Point, Wis., on July 18 when she was struck by a fatal brain aneurysm.
"Sue was so excited about the upcoming Olympics and would want me to continue with the team," Candrea, the head coach at Arizona, said in a statement. "Our entire family is behind this decision and we know this is what she would want us to do."
Obviously, the passing of Candrea's wife has given Harrigan and her teammates even more to play for.
At 33, Harrigan is the oldest player on the team or "Team Mom," as her younger teammates like to tease her. She was the least used of the four pitchers on Team USA's "Road to Athens" tour, going 9-0 against some of nation's best college and amateur squads.
Harrigan, one of two lefties on the staff, struck out 97 batters while walking just three in 54 1/3 innings, although her 0.83 earned-run average, if you can believe it, was the highest of the four pitchers.
The first pitcher in Olympic history to toss a solo no-hitter during the 2000 games in Sydney, Harrigan is confident Candrea will call on her at some point in Greece.
"The role that I play and have played (with the national team) is our coach has always said he's going to go with his gut feeling -- and I think Mike Candrea is going to do the same thing," said Harrigan, still UNLV's career leader in wins, saves, strikeouts, ERA, complete games, shutouts and innings pitched. "He's going to go with who's hot.
"Coaches always slip back to what they know or who they feel comfortable with. It just depends on how everybody is throwing and what's going on, but I'm to the point now where I'm good enough to pitch in any one of those games."
But on a staff that includes former UCLA great Lisa Fernandez, media sensation Jennie Finch (who played for Candrea at Arizona), and University of Texas ace Cat Osterman, Harrigan knows innings will be hard to come by.
"If the coach is only willing to call on me for a certain amount of innings, then I'm willing to do whatever it takes to win, because that's what you have to do to be a team player," said Harrigan, a security supervisor at the Bellagio when she's not throwing rise balls past overmatched hitters.
After the game against Italy, the U.S. will face 1996 and 2000 bronze medalist Australia the very next day, 2000 silver medalist Japan on Aug. 16 and 1996 silver medalist China on Aug. 17. So if Team USA is to be tested, it won't have to wait very long to find out.
"Obviously, we are concerned about Japan, Australia and China, because those have been the medal contenders in the last three Olympics," said Harrigan, who already has announced that these Games will be her last. "Then you have the Greece team, which is put together with all Americans, and the Italian team, which has five American players, some of which are pitchers. So everybody is going to be a threat over there."
Still, Team USA, which is to international softball what the former Soviet Union was to hockey, will be the overwhelming favorite.
"We raise the bar when we go over there," Harrigan said. "Everybody wants to beat the U.S."
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