NEW YORK — Softball great Lisa Fernandez is hopeful the sport will return for the 2016 Olympics.

The three-time Olympic gold medalist says it all comes down to the International Olympic Committee vote on Aug. 14. Softball is up against six other sports.
“Hopefully, the voters will have an open mind,” Fernandez said Monday. “We have yet to get an explanation — if it was grouped with baseball or we were too dominate. It doesn’t make sense. If that’s the case, they would get rid of men’s basketball.”
Softball was dropped from Olympics for the 2012 London Games when it didn’t receive support from IOC members.
Fernandez was in New York to hand out the Honda-Broderick Award to Georgia gymnast Courtney Kupets as the college top athlete. Fernandez won in 1993.