The Houston, Texas native Cat Osterman made a homecoming and it may not have been as sweet as she would have liked with Osterman giving up a two-run homerun in the first. Leadoff batter Jessica Valis hit a single and would score when Katie Bush hit a homerun giving the Houston Cougars an early 2-0 lead. They edged their lead to 3-0 when Bush scored off a single by Jennifer Klinkert in the third.

The Red, White and Blue made their showing on the scoreboard when Duran unleashed a ball that went over the fence hitting the outer 250-foot fence to cut Houston’s lead to 3-2. Jessica Mendoza (Camarillo, Calif.) was on base after registering her second single of the game.

After throwing 3.2 innings, Osterman left the game with Monica Abbott (Salinas, Calif.) coming in the circle. Osterman allowed three earned runs, issued three walks with six strikeouts. Abbott entered in the fourth, retiring the last out on three straight pitches.

The more than 3,000 fans saw what they came for in the fourth as the team put up five runs including a three-run homerun by Kelly Kretschman (Indian Harbour Beach, Fla.) and a two-RBI single by Duran.

Jennie Finch (La Mirada, Calif.), with her first extra base hit of the season, hit a ball to right center for a ground-rule double for two RBI to give the team a 9-3 lead. Duran hit a triple to right field for her fifth RBI of the game, to give the team the 10-3 win.

Abbott (5-0) threw 3.1 innings, allowed two hits and no earned runs. She finished with seven strikeouts.

The next stop for the team on the KFC Bound 4 Beijing Tour is Greensboro, N.C., where they will face UNC-Greensboro on Thurs., April 10th at 7:00 p.m. For complete coverage of the event including ticket info, game recaps, photo galleries and live stats log on to www.usasoftball.com

About ASA

The Amateur Softball Association, founded in 1933, is the National Governing Body of softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. The ASA has become one of the nation’s largest sports organizations and now sanctions competition in every state through a network of 83 local associations. The ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 240,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than three million. For more information on the ASA, visit http://www.asasoftball.com/.

About USA Softball

USA Softball is the brand created, operated and owned by the ASA that links the USA Men’s, Women’s, Junior Boys’ and Junior Girls’ National Team programs together. USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting these four National Teams to compete in international and domestic competitions. The USA Softball Women’s National Team is one of the only two women’s sports involved in the Olympic movement to capture three consecutive gold medals at the Olympic Games since 1996. The U.S. women have also won eight World Championship titles including the last six consecutive as well as claimed two World Cup of Softball titles. For more information about USA Softball, please visit http://www.usasoftball.com/.

About KFC Bound 4 Beijing Tour

The KFC Bound 4 Beijing tour is a 45-city nationwide pre-Olympic tour for the USA Softball Women's National team as they prepare to compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Beginning in February, the tour reaches every corner of the country including 23 states while Team USA prepares with 62 total games. The tour consists of five consecutive weekly national televised games on ESPN2 in April and May along with two other bonus games plus four games slated for July that rounds out over 22 hours of original USA Softball branded programming on the ESPN family of networks. Along with the title sponsor, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), other national tour sponsors include Dermabond and Lumber Liquidators.