USA's Caitlin Lowe is congratulated by teammates following her home run against Venezuela in the second inning during their women's softball preliminary game at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

BEIJING — Like school girls nervous about their first day of class, several members of the U.S. softball team laid out their new uniforms the night before their Olympic opener.

They couldn't wait to wear them, and once they slipped them on, the Americans looked a lot like they did four years ago.

Superb.

Picking up where they left off in the Athens Games, the U.S. team started its bid for a fourth straight gold medal with an 11-0 rout of Venezuela on Tuesday that set an Olympic record for runs scored in a game.

"We were so amped up when we got here," said Crystl Bustos, who hit a solo home run. "We couldn't wait to get into a game and get this thing started. We're so sick of practice."

Jennie Finch pitched four no-hit innings and Caitlin Lowe hit an inside-the-park homer as the U.S. won its 15th straight Olympic game and dispatched the Venezuelans in five innings due to the run-difference rule. Andrea Duran drove in three runs and Natasha Watley contributed a two-run homer.

The Venezuelans, Olympic rookies who never had a chance, dropped to 0-7 against the U.S.

"When we face the USA we have all kinds of problems," catcher Zuleyma Cirimele said. "We always lose by four or five runs. We should have done better."

Following pre-game introductions and the traditional gift exchange between the teams, U.S. coach Mike Candrea gathered his team near the dugout and asked, "Who do you play for?"

"U-S-A," shouted the world's top-ranked team.

Finch then proceeded to dominate on the mound. Watley and Lowe set the tone at the top of the order and Bustos, capable of hitting 300-foot-plus blasts, lined a screamer over the wall in left-center field, leading off the fifth to make it 5-0.

By then, any thoughts the Venezuela team had of staging a historic upset were, well, history.

"This was a great start," said Finch. Her husband, Casey Daigle, a pitcher in the Minnesota Twins' organization, and their 2-year-old son, Ace, stayed up late to cheer her on.

"There's only so much scrimmaging you can do," Finch said. "We needed to play somebody else."