Eager to settle the score with Cuba, the U.S. baseball team moved one step closer to that goal yesterday – completing the preliminaries with a crushing 12-1 win over Australia.
The victory boosted Team USA’s emotions, but the Americans still face a big hurdle before they face their staunchest rivals in a gold-medal showdown.
The United States (6-1) meets South Korea (4-3) in the semifinals tomorrow, and the Americans will need all their concentration to keep from looking ahead to a possible gold-medal game against Cuba (6-1), which plays Japan (4-3) in the other semifinal.
“We want another shot at Cuba, but we have to earn that shot – and that means beating Korea,” said second baseman Brent Abernathy, who had four hits and drove in three runs against Australia.
Although Team USA and Cuba both finished the seven-game preliminary round with equal records, Cuba gained the first seed based on Saturday’s 6-1 victory over the Americans.
The two semifinal winners will play for the gold Wednesday.
If it boils down to Team USA and Cuba, it will once again be a bitter battle of not just baseball teams, but of two opposing governments.
The United States’ ego-blowing loss Saturday left the team stewing and U.S. skipper Tommy Lasorda eating his words about wanting to beat Cuba in the Summer Games as a tribute to all the Cuban immigrants living in Miami.
Cuba’s win proved its team was not about to give up, even after a ridiculous, 4-2 loss to an unheralded Dutch squad knocked the aura of invincibility off Havana’s heroes.
“I think we needed this one,” Team USA first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz said of the win over Australia. “Our emotion was dropping a little bit. Tonight, we got our intensity back and were focused in the right direction.”
But the raw feelings didn’t end with Cuba’s win. After the game, Cuban fans taunted Lasorda as he talked to reporters.
“Hey, Tommy, did you lose it for the Cubans in Miami?” one fan yelled. Lasorda glared back, but didn’t respond.
When asked about Lasorda’s statement, Cuban team manager Servio Borges snickered: “We dedicate this win to all the people of Cuba.”
There are plenty of reasons the Americans want a rematch with a medal on the line. Cuba, which took the gold at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and in Barcelona in 1992, had beaten the United States each of the three times they played prior to the 2000 Games.
Each of those losses shattered the American team’s psyche.
“Hopefully, it will get all the guys on the team fired up and we can make some noise next time,” Team USA outfielder Ernie Young said.
Meanwhile yesterday, Cuba beat Japan, 6-2, with Orestes Kindelan hitting a three-run homer, clinching the medal-round top seed.
Cuba’s top power hitter, Kindelan singled home a run in the third and hit the three-run blast in the fourth, his second home run of the tournament.
The loss to the United States was a bitter finish for Australia (2-4), which hoped to contend for a medal with former major-leaguer Dave Nilsson as catcher.
Rather than play professional baseball in the United States this year, Nilsson played in Japan to be eligible for the Olympics.
“I made it very clear from the start that the Olympics is just a two-week experience, something I wanted to be a part of,” Nilsson said. “I’ve been fortunate to have played some time in the majors. This is something else I wanted to do.”
Nilsson signed with the New York Yankees earlier this month, but the deal was too late to make him eligible for this year’s playoffs.
Nilsson has batted 13 for 23 (.565), tops in the tournament. But no one else hit consistently for the Australians, who finished seventh in the eight-team field.
In their last chance for victory, the Australian pitchers unraveled.
Mark Hutton, who played with the Yankees and several other major-league teams, gave up five hits, four walks and four runs in the first two innings.
The United States sent 10 batters to the plate for four runs in the second. Anthony Sanders and Abernathy had RBI doubles and Ernie Young drew a bases-loaded walk.
Abernathy’s five doubles in the tournament set a U.S. Olympic record.
For the Americans to reach the final, they will have to defeat Korea, a team they beat 4-0 in the preliminary round. In that game, Korean starter Tae-Hyon Chong’s sidearm style baffled the Americans for seven shutout innings. He walked none and struck out five.
The Americans won behind an eighth-inning grand slam by Mientkiewicz.
Team USA expects to start Houston Astro prospect Roy Oswalt on the mound in the semifinal against South Korea, and Milwaukee’s Ben Sheets would likely pitch the gold-medal game.
With the pressure of a possible Cuban rematch looming, it’s unclear whether the United States will be able to concentrate on South Korea.
“Rest assured, we won’t think about anyone but the team we are playing,” Lasorda said.