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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted at 8:20 a.m., Wednesday, August 20, 2008

U.S. men will meet Cuba in baseball semifinal

By BOB BERGHAUS
Gannett News Service

BEIJING - The U.S. baseball team is on a roll heading into the medal round of the Olympic tournament.

The team is confident and loose, and ready to go after Cuba and Korea, the teams that beat the Americans in round-robin play.

"We've found our groove a little bit," said shortstop Jason Donald, the former University of Arizona player who is in the Philadelphia Phillies' organization.

Preliminary play ended with a 4-2 win over Japan, the only team with a winning record the Americans have defeated.

Korea finished early play with a 7-0 record followed by Cuba, 6-1, the U.S., 5-2, and Japan, 4-3.

The U.S. will meet Cuba in a semifinal game on Friday at Wukeson Baseball Field. Korea will face Japan. Cuba beat the Americans, 5-4, in 11 innings in the third game of the tournament.

Cuba has won the gold medal in three of the four previous Olympics. It won a silver in 2000, the year the U.S. won the tournament.

"I think they have had the most success of any team in the world," said U.S. manager Dave Johnson. "They have been dominant in the World Cups and they have been dominant in most of the Olympics. We are excited to play them. They have been a haven for really great young talent.

"We still think we're the best club in North America as well as South America. So we welcome the challenge."

Cuba had scored a tournament-high 52 runs, followed by Korea with 41 and the U.S. with 40. American pitchers have allowed just 22 runs. Terry Tiffee, who has played parts of three seasons with the Minnesota Twins during his pro career, leads the U.S. team with a .393 batting average.

Five U.S. pitchers combined to throw 10 scoreless innings against Japan. Under international rules, if teams are tied after 10 innings, they both start the next inning with runners on first and second.

Brian Barden, Natt Schierholtz and Matt Brown all had RBI singles and John Gall drove in a run with a groundout for the Americans.

Japan scored two runs and loaded the bases with two outs off Casey Weathers in its half of the inning but the right-hander who played his college ball at Vanderbilt University, retired Abe Shinnosuke on a fly ball to end the game.

"The expectations were high," Weathers said, when asked his emotions about the tournament. "It's been incredibly exciting and draining at the same time but it's definitely fun."