HOUSTON -- Team USA is the gold medal favorite in softball for the Beijing Olympics, but that does not bother the pitcher at all, KPRC Local 2 reported.

Houston native Cat Osterman, 25, said the team is ready, despite having a target on its back.

"I think as a team, we're kind of used to a target always being on our back. Team USA Softball has a tradition of being No. 1 in the world for so long. We know coming into this program that that's the way things go and that's the tradition we have to keep," she said.

Osterman said the coach drives home an important goal.

"I feel like we go on the field knowing everyone's aiming for us and that the coach makes a good point every day -- that we have to keep raising the bar and, yeah, everyone is trying to catch up to that bar. But the more we keep pushing it, the better we are," she said.

Beijing will be the second Olympics for Osterman, won made her Olympic debut in 2004 as the youngest member of the U.S. team.

She went 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in Athens, allowing just two hits, five walks and striking out 23 in 14 2/3 innings for the gold medal-winning U.S. team.

Her signature outing at the 2004 Games was a 3-0 win over Japan in which she threw eight shutout innings, allowing one hit, one walk and striking out 11.

Osterman said life is different now that she's a fulltime player and coach.

"I'm definitely experienced. And I went through two more years of college and got a lot more experience there. It's just different because you're older and you know what to expect. I'm basically a veteran now," she said. "As a pitcher, I'm definitely stronger. I'm more mentally stable than I was before and I think that's going to help carry me through."

During her career at the University of Texas, Osterman achieved something resembling celebrity status, receiving thousands of hits each week on her blog, "Cat's Corner," and an overwhelming amount of friend requests on her Facebook page, according to NBCOlympics.com.

Osterman describes herself as a "computer nerd" who loves to spend time using her laptop. She also says she usually text messages non-stop throughout the day.

A gold medal in Beijing will be even more important to the team because in 2005, the International Olympic Committee voted softball and baseball off the program for London's 2012 Games.