Cuba and States face tough semi-final encounters

Add as a preferred source on Google

Sydney: Defending Olympic champions Cuba and the United States must both get by tough semi-final opponents on Tuesday to set up a showdown for the Sydney Games baseball title.

Big-hitting Cuba play Japan in one or the semi-finals and the United States, who used strong pitching to place second behind Cuba in the preliminary round, take on Asian champions South Korea in the other.

The semi-final winners will meet for the gold medal on Wednesday while the losers play for bronze.

The heavily favoured Cubans, who have won two golds and lost only one of 25 games since baseball became an Olympic sport in Barcelona in 1992, out-slugged everyone in Sydney with a team batting average of .344. But Cuba's stranglehold on the Olympics faces a bigger challenge in Sydney than in the past because of the introduction of professional players for the first time.

Both Japan and South Korea have players from their pro leagues, and the United States have promising minor leaguers along with a few veterans at the tail-end of their careers.

Cuba are led by captain Antonio Pacheco, who batted .450 and drove in six runs, and say they are ready to take the gold again after going through the preliminary round with only a surprise loss to the Netherlands.

"We're as ready as we'll ever be for a gold medal," said Cuban pitcher Lazaro Valle. "The team is tuned for the championship. We all want to take the gold medal back to Cuba with dignity."

Strong hitting

Japan have also had strong hitting, with third baseman Norihiro Nakamura driving in eight runs and batting .323 and the team averaging .308.Japan brought eight professionals to try to improve on their bronze in Barcelona and silver in Atlanta, where they were beaten 13-9 by Cuba.

Japan also may start 20-year-old Daisuke Matsuzaka against Cuba. Matsuzaka has two no decisions after pitching 10 innings in a loss to the United States and nine in another loss to Korea.

Until their final 12-1 blow-outs over Australia, the United States struggled at the plate and relied more on pitching than hitting to win. They finished the seven games with a team batting average of .267, only fourth best of the eight teams, but had the lowest earned run average of 1.45.

Right-hander Jon Rauch struck out 21 in only 11 innings and reliever Ryan Franklin picked up three wins without allowing a hit in 6-1/3 innings. Despite being South Korea 4-0 in the earlier round game, the United States said they were not looking past their Tuesday match-up against the Koreans.

"We're not thinking about Cuba. We have to beat Korea, everybody knows that," said second baseman Brent Abernathy, who is batting .433.

South Korea struggled early in the tournament but won their last three games. Centrefielder Jung Soo-Keun has stolen five bases while third baseman Kim Dong-Joo is batting .375. Korean home run champion Lee Seong-Yeop snapped a 0-11 slump with a two-run shot in the win over Japan on Saturday.



(c) Reuters Limited.