Arioto And Team USA Take The Silver

TOKYO – Valerie Arioto and the U.S. Women's National Softball Team will be heading home with the silver medal after falling to Japan, 2-0, in the gold medal game Tuesday morning at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
 
Prior to the gold medal game, Team USA went undefeated in the opening round, finishing 5-0 with an aggregate score of 9-2.
 
Over the course of Team USA's six games, Arioto posted three hits, an RBI and a run scored. Arioto started every game, batting in the cleanup spot in each contest.
 
A native of Pleasanton and graduate of Foothill High School, Arioto claimed her biggest hit of the tournament in the final contest of the opening round against Japan. She slapped an RBI single to left, tying the game at 1 before the Americans garnered their second straight walk-off win, 2-1. In the Olympic opener against Italy, Arioto singled and scored Team USA's first run of the Games.
 
Arioto, the 10th Cal softball Olympian in program history, became the fourth Cal softball player to win a medal in the Olympics. Vicky Galindo won the silver medal with Team USA in 2008 after Gillian Boxx and Michele Granger won the gold with Team USA in 1996. The 2008 Summer Olympics were the last Olympic Games that featured softball before this year.
 
A three-time All-American and three-time all-conference first-team selection at Cal, Arioto was the 2012 Pac-12 Player of the Year, and she led the Golden Bears to their most-recent conference title during her senior campaign in 2012.
 
Full coverage of Cal at the Olympics can be found here