Baseball and softball strike out with IOC

Softball and baseball made dramatic exits from the Olympic stage with Japan and South Korea pulling off shock gold medal wins.

Neither country will have the opportunity to defend their crowns in London in 2012 because both sports have been trimmed from the Olympics line-up.

Japan supplied one of the biggest shocks of the Beijing Games by upsetting unbeaten United States 3-1 to capture the softball gold and end the mighty Americans' reign.