Sichuan defeated Shanghai 1-0 in the final to take the softball title at the 10th National Game on Thursday.

It took Sichuan, listed sixth in the 9th National Game in 2001,two hours to win the final over Shanghai, runner-up in the 9th National Game.

"This is really a tough game." said Deng Houqiang, coach of Sichuan, "We have never beat Shanghai before. We had only one chance today and we grasped it."

"The gold medal is the best reward for our hard effort in the last four years." said Deng.

Playing before crazy 6,000 spectators, Sichuan's starter pitcher Yu Huili held the Shanghai hitless and struck out five through three innings.

In the sixth, Sichuan scored the winning run when Lu Yi hit an three-run infield hit and scored on a single by Tang Ting.

Shanghai, who beat the Chinese Army team 4-0 early on Thursday,ranked second while Chinese Army third.

"The victory over Chinese Army greatly boosted our players morale, but it is a pity that we lost the final with only one point deficit. They were luckier than us." said Liu Yaming, head coach of Shanghai.

In other matches held on Thursday, host Jiangsu beat Hunan to gain the chance to face the defending champion Beijing in the play-off, but failed to advanced further as Beijing trounced Jiangsu 5-1 to take fifth place.

In the ninth place play-off on Thursday, Tianjin overwhelmed Gansu 6-3.