Cuba wins baseball world cup
Campaign News | Sunday, 18 September 2005
Eighth succesive victory
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands 17 Sept: Dany Betancourt gave up four hits in 8 1-3 innings and Cuba won its eighth straight Baseball World Cup with a 3-0 shutout of South Korea on Saturday.
It was the 24th title for Cuba since the competition began in 1938. South Korea was the last team to beat Cuba in the World Cup, in 1982.
Cuba, which won the Olympic gold medal last year in Athens, scored on back-to-back singles by Frederich Cepeda and Ariel Pestano with two outs in the fourth.
In the fifth, South Korea's Sung Kwui Yun walked two and then gave up a run on a wild pitch before being replaced. Rudy Reyes singled in Cuba's third run in the sixth inning.
Reliever Pedro Luis Lazo came on for Cuba with one man on and one man out in the eighth, and promptly got Ki Nam Park to ground out into a double play to end the inning. He then retired the last three batters in order for the save.
Panama finished third in the tournament, with a 7-6 win over the Netherlands earlier Saturday in Haarlem.
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Cuba eliminates US from baseball world cup
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Sept 14: The United States was eliminated from the Baseball World Cup with an 11-3 loss to defending champion Cuba in the quarterfinals Wednesday.
Yuliesky Gourriel hit a two-run homer and drove in three runs for Cuba, which has won the tournament 11 of the 12 times it has been held.
The United States fielded a team of professionals who were not on major league rosters.
In the semifinals, Cuba will play Panama, which beat Nicaragua 2-1. In other quarterfinals, South Korea defeated Japan 5-1, and the Netherlands routed Puerto Rico 10-0.
Cuba opened the scoring in the top of the first inning on Ariel Pestano’s three-run double off losing pitcher Brian Bannister.
The U.S. closed the gap to 4-2 in the third, but Cuba scored four more in the fourth, including two on Gourriel’s homer.
The United States scored its third run on a solo homer by Bryan LaHair in the sixth.
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