The Cincinnati Reds showed support for a 10-year-old girl with terminal cancer by inviting her to throw out the ceremonial first pitch before Sunday's game.Ten-year-old Aralyn Slack was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor last month and was given just 10 months to live.Aralyn, who plays softball, has created a bucket list of things she wants to do over the next year, and many community members and businesses have stepped up to help her cross things off her list."People have been amazing. She had a bucket list. One checked off," Aralyn's dad said.Slack has DIPG, the same kind of brain tumor basketball player Lauren Hill was diagnosed with eight years ago.Doctors say Slack has less than a year to live.Earlier this month, WLWT, a Hearst sister station, spoke with some of Slack's softball coaches and teammates, who have been doing whatever they could to support their friend.“She is the kindest person I know and the greatest friend,” said her teammate Livy Waits. “She's a goofball.”The team was determined to make their home opener, and Slack’s last game before treatment, one to remember.“We’re going to treat it as a varsity game,” Waits said.The game was originally supposed to be played on the road, an hour away in New Richmond, Ohio. But Waits asked if the opposing team would mind if they played at home.“I can't explain how important it is for us adults to put on the show for her and allow her to experience everything that she can get out of it,” Waits said.“To me, it's not about the game,” said Michael Trummer, head coach of 9U Felicity Diamond Does. “It's about this little girl having the time of her life.”

The United States had just given up its first run and was two outs away from losing for the first time in the Olympic softball tournament.Amanda Chidester stepped up to the plate with two runners on and slapped the ball into left field.“In my head, I'm like: Score! Score two! Score two! Score two!” she recalled. “When I got up and everyone was running out at me, I was like, We did it!”Pinch-runner Ally Carda and Haylie McCleney came across the plate on Chidester's eighth-inning single, giving the United States a pulsating 2-1 victory over Australia on Sunday and a likely rematch with defending champion Japan in Tuesday's gold medal game. Monica Abbott (2-0) struck out 13 and threw a three-hitter in a 126-pitch complete game, giving up an unearned run when Jade Wall walked on eight pitches with the bases loaded in the top of the eighth to force home the automatic runner.With pinch-runner Ally Carda on second as the automatic runner in the bottom half, leadoff hitter McCleney reached against Tarni Stepto (0-1) with an infield single on a 1-0 pitch. McCleney hit a two-hopper to shortstop Clare Warwick, who set her feet before throwing, allowing McCleney to get on base for the fourth time in the game. She is batting .727 (8 for 11) and has reached 13 times in 15 plate appearances.Janie Reed, the wife of major league reliever Jake Reed, sacrificed for the fourth time in the tournament, putting runners at second and third.“Give me a strike, and I’m going for it,” Chidester recalled thinking to herself.She swung at a pitch on the outer half of the plate and singled sharply past a diving Warwick. Wall picked up the ball two steps onto the outfield grass and heaved home, but first baseman Taylah Tsitsikorinis cut off the throw as Carda and McCleney scored standing up.Chidester slid into second, taking the extra base just in case a runner ahead of her was thrown out. When she popped up, she saw teammates running onto the field to celebrate.“Wow! Incredible softball,” Abbott said. “A lot of tense moments. But you live for these moments. You like to compete in these moments.”Abbott walked six batters, two of them intentionally. She has a 0.00 ERA and two saves, allowing four hits in 17 innings with 28 strikeouts and nine walks. Abbott improved to 5-0 in her Olympic career.After scoring just seven runs in four games, the U.S. (4-0) plays Japan on Monday in a matchup that likely will only determine which team bats last in the gold medal game. No. 2 Japan (3-0) could clinch a berth in that game when it plays Canada (2-1) later Sunday.“We’ve got Fire and Ice throwing for us right now, and they’re throwing the ball really, really well,” U.S. coach Ken Eriksen said, referring to his nicknames for Abbott and Cat Osterman.Abbott escaped a bases-loaded jam in the sixth.Australia went ahead in the eighth after automatic runner Belinda White took third on Leigh Godfrey's sacrifice. Stacey Porter was intentionally walked for the second time, Taylah Tsitsikronis walked, Chelsea Forkin took a called third strike and Wall fouled off a pair of 3-2 pitches before taking an inside pitch. She has driven in three of Australia’s four runs in the tournament.McCleney's first-inning triple was wasted as the U.S. went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position before the eighth, dropping to 3 for 31 in the Olympics. The teams combined for eight hits and through 10 games, the six countries in the tournament were batting .192 with a 555 OPS, making Major League Baseball’s .241 and 720 OPS seem robust.Abbott, who turns 36 on Wednesday, and the 38-year-old Osterman are the last remaining players from the team that lost to Japan 3-1 in the 2008 gold medal game in Beijing.“Hopefully,” Eriksen said, “get back on an airplane to go across the Pacific undefeated.”

Related video above: Japan Tops Australia In Softball As Delayed Tokyo Games OpenThe United States has beat Canada 1-0 for a 2-0 start in Olympic softball. Monica Abbott pitched a one-hitter and center fielder Haylie McCleney and second baseman Ali Aguilar combined to throw out the potential tying run at the plate in the sixth inning.The Americans are getting just enough offense as they try to regain the gold medal they lost to Japan in 2008. Abbott struck out nine, walked three and needed 102 pitches to throw the Americans’ second consecutive one-hitter. Cat Osterman, at age 38 the Americans’ senior player, struck out nine over six innings and Abbott struck out the side in the seventh to finish an opening 2-0 win over Italy on Wednesday.Amanda Chidester hit an RBI single in the fifth off loser Jenna Caira that scored McCleney, who went 3 for 3 with a walk and has reached base seven times in the two games.