• Submitted by: lena campos
• Sports
• 07 / 21 / 2012

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Cuba rallied from a three-run deficit with one out in the eighth and scored twice in a 10th-inning tiebreaker as the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team dropped a 5-3 decision in the semifinals of Honkbal Week on Saturday at Pim Mulier Stadium.

Team USA will close out its stay in the Netherlands at 6 a.m. today when it plays for the bronze medal.

“While this was clearly a very tough loss and we may not have gotten the results we wanted, we will walk out of this stadium with our heads held high because we are proud of the effort our team put forth out on the field today,” Team USA manager Dave Serrano said. “You have to tip your hat to Cuba. Baseball is a nine-inning game and they fought all the way until the end to get it to a tiebreaker where they executed and we didn’t.”

After Cuba overcame a three-run deficit in the eighth and neither team could push a run across in the ninth, Saturday’s semifinal became the first of the tournament to go to extra innings where it was played under international tie-breaker rules.

Starting with runners on first and second and nobody out, Cuba was able to get a sacrifice bunt down to move both runners into scoring position. After a walk loaded the bases, another free pass to Frederich Cepeda brought in a run to give Cuba its first lead of the game. Alfredo Despaigne followed with a sacrifice fly to left that made it a two-run lead at 5-3.

Durham-based Team USA failed to score in the bottom of the 10th.

Source: Heraldsun.com