Courtesy of USA Softball

Cat Osterman has struck out 232 batters during the U.S. team's tour.

Cat Osterman won Olympic gold four years ago in Athens.

The experience left her anything but sated. The left-hander was determined to pitch for the U.S. in the Beijing Olympics.

"This is the biggest stage that you could possibly play on, especially for our sport," she said in a recent phone interview. "We don't have multimillion-dollar deals coming from professional leagues like baseball and basketball.

"The Olympics is our huge stage. You want to be there as many times as you can, just because it's an amazing feeling to be standing on that podium. Once you taste it once, you want it again and again."

Osterman will start for the U.S. team Thursday at Kiwanis Field. She is 14-0 with a 0.45 ERA and 232 strikeouts in 1081/3 innings on this year's pre-Olympic tour.

She is one of three pitchers on the U.S. team, along with Jennie Finch and Monica Abbott. U.S. coach Mike Candrea said Finch and Abbott throw consistently harder than Osterman, who relies on movement.

"Cat spins the ball probably better than anyone in the world," he said. "Her ball spins faster than anyone I've seen."

Osterman, 25, led Texas to three berths in the Women's College World Series. She was named the USA Softball national college player of the year three times and ranks second on the NCAA's career strikeout list (2,265).

Osterman was still a Longhorn when she went 2-0 in Athens. Candrea said she has "more emotional stability" than she had four years ago.

"She's a perfectionist and she tries to go out there and be perfect, and unfortunately we play a game that's not quite that way," he said. "I think she rebounds much quicker when things happen to her than she did back then."

Osterman has two jobs to return to next year. She is an assistant coach for DePaul and a member of National Pro Fastpitch's Rockford Thunder.

This might be her final Olympic experience. The International Olympic Committee voted softball out of the 2012 Summer Games, although the team hopes it will be reinstated for 2016.

"As young as I am, I could've played at least one more," she said. "To know that we don't have that opportunity, it's a little disappointing.

"We're going to do everything we can to get it back in."