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U.S. one win from title game

By TIMES WIRES
Published September 4, 2006

BEIJING - Jessica Mendoza homered twice and drove in five runs as the United States defeated Australia 11-2 Sunday at the Women's World Softball Championship.

Stacy Nuveman and Andrea Duran also homered for the Americans (8-0), who advanced to face Japan today with a berth in the championship game on the line.

Cat Osterman got the win, allowing two runs on six hits over six innings.

Caitlin Lowe, Crystl Bustos and Lovieanne Jung each added two hits.

CYCLING

Hincapie wows hometown

George Hincapie pulled away from his future teammate to win the road race title at the USA Cycling Professional Championships in Greenville, S.C.

Riding in front of his hometown crowd, Hincapie traded the lead and shared the workload throughout the 121-mile course with Levi Leipheimer, who joins him on the Discovery Channel team next year.

SPANISH VUELTA: Alejandro Valverde of Spain took the overall lead after finishing second to Alexandre Vinokourov in the ninth stage in La Cobertoria. Vinokourov covered a 128-mile route that featured six mountain passes in 5 hours, 50 minutes, 43 seconds.

TOUR OF BRITAIN: Martin Pedersen of Denmark won the overall title, while Tom Boonen of Belgium won a 51-mile sixth stage in London that was marred by a collision involving two motorcycles accompanying the riders.

TRACK AND FIELD

Powell wins in Berlin

Asafa Powell led from start to finish to win the 100 meters in 9.86 seconds at the ISTAF meet in Berlin.

Jeremy Wariner completed a sweep of six wins in six Golden League races, wining the 400 in 44.26 seconds.

Sanya Richards won the 400 in 49.81 seconds with another American, Dee Dee Trotter, second in 50.87.

ET CETERA

RUNNING: Kenyan James Kwambai won the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach, Va., in 1 hour, 3 minutes, 30 seconds. Edna Kiplagat of Kenya won the women's race in 1:11:08.

SOCCER: Christian Gomez scored two first-half goals as visiting D.C. United beat Chivas USA 2-1. . . . Chris Rolfe and Diego Gutierrez scored to lift host Chicago over New York 2-1. ... Brazil defeated Argentina 3-0 behind two goals from Elano and one by Kaka in an exhibition game between the South American powers.

TRIATHLON: Emma Snowsill of Australia became the first woman to win three world championships, winning the Elite Women's title in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2 hours, 4 minutes, 3 seconds.

[Last modified September 4, 2006, 02:27:29]