BASEBALL ROUNDUP

updated 4:27 p.m. ET Aug. 21, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - Higinio Velez has joked that being the manager of the Cuban team in the baseball crazy nation can feel about as comfortable as sitting in an electric chair.

Cuba beat Canada 5-2 on Saturday and are assured a spot in the medal round, which will certainly make Velez feel a lot more comfortable.

In Cuba, baseball is more than the national past time. It is the national passion.

Velez shrugged aside the team’s only loss in the round to Japan, their main rival for gold in Athens. For him and his squad mostly comprised of young Cuban talent, the true test of the team will come in the medal round.

“The objective of the Cuban team was to qualify for the medal round and it did not matter all that much if we lost a game or two getting there,” Velez told reporters.

He said that the team’s best play would come in the medal rounds.

Velez dedicated Cuba’s gold medal in the 2003 Pan American Games to Cuban leader Fidel Castro, probably the biggest fan of the team.

Greece 12, Italy 7
Greece won for the first time ever in Olympic baseball Saturday night, getting 14 hits from its Greek-American lineup to beat Italy 12-7 in a showdown between the two weakest teams in the eight-nation tournament.

Eligible for the baseball competition only through its role as host, Greece decided that a team of its homegrown players would be overwhelmed and instead assembled a squad of college and minor-league players recruited in the United States and Canada with help from Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos.

Shortstop Clay Bellinger, center fielder Cory Harris and designated hitter Nicholas Markakis hit home runs, and first baseman Georgios Kottaras had three hits as the Greeks rallied from a 5-0 deficit, scoring at least two runs in the fourth through seventh innings.

Pangiotis Sikaras was the winning pitcher, yielding three hits but no runs in 3 1/3 innings of relief. Reliever William Lucena took the loss for Italy, which got three hits, including a home run, from first baseman Jairo Ramos Gizzi. The Italians left 12 men on base.

A crowd of 6,773 was on hand — the largest so far at a tournament marked by many sparsely attended games. Hometown fans have cheered enthusiastically for Greece, but — with no big-time league of their own to follow — clearly lacked an understanding of the sport’s finer points.

Italy and Greece are both now 1-5 in the tournament, with one game remaining, and — like the Netherlands and Taiwan — have no chance to advance to the medal round.

Japan 4, Taiwan 3 (10 innings)
Japan needed extra innings to defeat Asian rivals Taiwan 4-3 on Saturday to stay top of the preliminary-round rankings. Michihiro Ogasawara drove in the game-winning run.

Japan are also assured a spot in the medal round. Cuba and Japan both have 5-1 records in preliminary-round play.

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