BLACKTOWN, Australia -- Japan's shot at gold in Olympic softball slipped through Shiroi Koseki's fingers Tuesday night, ending the team's impressive winning streak but leaving it covered in silver.

Running backward, the 28-year-old left-fielder got her glove to a ball that Laura Berg of the U.S. had smacked off ace pitcher Juri Takayama with the score even in the bottom of the eighth inning with one out and runners on first and second base.

But it didn't stick as Kosei tumbled backward, losing her tenuous grasp on the ball and allowing pinch runner Jennifer McFalls to tear home for the U.S. team.

The error gave the game to the defending champion a one-hit 2-1 victory over Japan, sending the U.S. team into rapturous celebration before a near capacity crowd of 8,000 people who braved pouring rain to see out the gold medal game at the Blacktown Softball Center in Sydney's western suburbs. McFalls had been sent in for Stacey Nuveman after the center-fielder was walked by Takayama.

"As I saw her (Koseki) fall, I knew we had it," Nuveman said. "I grabbed Lisa (Fernandez, U.S. pitcher) and I said, 'We've won! We've won!' "

Koseki refused to blame the wet conditions for the dropped catch. "It was just my mistake," she said.

Team star Reika Utsugi leapt to her defense. "I don't think you can say it was Koseki's mistake because we have been fighting together," she said.

The U.S. triumph came after one of the greatest comebacks of the Sydney Games. Coming off a winning streak of 112 games, the team suffered three straight losses in the preliminary rounds to Australia, China and Japan. But they defeated China and Australia on Monday to make the final against Japan.

"It's been full circle, emotionally and physically," Nuveman said. "Winning tonight shows so much about the athletes that we have, that we can win against those who have beaten us."

It was fitting that Berg's hit closed out the game after she had failed to stop Japan's Reika Utsugi from repeating her home-run performance of the previous night in the semifinal against Australia.

Utsugi, the former Chinese softball international who has become a naturalized Japanese, opened Tuesday's scoring with another homer in the top of the fourth inning, this one sailing over the center-field fence tantalizingly close to Berg's glove.

Utsugi said later she was happy with the silver that lifted Japan's total medal haul at the Sydney Games to 15 - one more than the nation managed in Atlanta.

"Winning a medal was our goal so now I'm very very happy," she said. But she vowed she would not give up on her goal to bring home gold for Japan.

"I still have a task to achieve with Japan and that is to win the gold medal and I think we can do it one day with such a special team and special coach," Utsugi said.

Japanese team coach Taeko Utsugi has formally adopted Reika as her daughter.

Japan had its chance to close out the game in the top of the fifth inning with Emi Naito on third base after stealing second base on a wild pitch from Fernadez to Hiroko Tamoto, and another when Fernandez dropped Haruka Saito.

But Misako Ando was caught out on a foul ball, sending the Japanese team back into the field.

The U.S. drew even in the bottom of the fifth inning when Nuveman drilled a pitch from Mariko Masubuchi into the center-field fence, allowing Michele Smith to run to third base and home plate.

Takayama and Fernandez held their opponents scoreless through the sixth and the seventh, forcing the game into an extra inning.

U.S. coach Ralph Raymond said victory had been sweeter the second time around against a team that could never be taken for granted.

"We had to make adjustments, especially when the Japanese started reading Lisa's pitches. So we reversed the signals for the pitchers," he said.