South Korea trounce Japan for baseball bronze

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Sydney: South Korea's Lee Seung-Yop broke up a pitchers' battle with a double in the bottom of the eighth on Wednesday, giving the Koreans a 3-1 win over Japan and clinching Olympic bronze.

It was South Korea's first medal since baseball became an Olympic sport at the Barcelona Games. Japan won a bronze in 1992 and a silver four years ago in Atlanta.

Lee slammed a fastball from Japanese starter Daisuke Matsuzaka to the fence in left field, driving in two runs.

Kim Dong-Joo then slapped a single to right field to bring Lee home.South Korea's Koo Dae-Sung went the distance, striking out 11 and giving up five hits for the win. Matsuzaka also went nine innings, giving up six hits and striking out 10.

Japan challenged in the top of the ninth, with Yukio Tanaka driving in Nobuhiko Matsunaka with a single, but Koo got a strike out and a ground out to end the threat.

The gold medal game was being played later on Wednesday between Cuba and the United States. Cuba beat Japan 3-0 to reach the final, while the Americans needed a home run in the bottom of the ninth to edge South Korea 3-2.

Wednesday's bronze medal clash saw South Korea's second victory over their Japanese arch-rivals in Sydney. They won 7-6 in 10 innings when the two teams met in the preliminary round.



(c) Reuters Limited.