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US rolls into final over tamed Taiwan

Joe Borchard of the US, center, is cheered on by teammates Mark Budzinski, right and Orlando Hudson after hitting a home run in the fifth inning against Taiwan in the semifinals of the Baseball World Cup yesterday. Taiwan will play Japan for third place in the competition today. Cuba and the US will face off in the final today. PHOTO: AP

Team USA silenced Taiwan's fans last night in Tienmu, on the back of solid pitching and a two-run homer from Joe Borchard followed by a triple from Mark Budzinski.

Jason Stanford and three relievers combined to hold Taiwan to just one run, putting Taiwan out of the World Cup and disappointing a crowd of 10,000.

The victory put the US in today's gold medal game against Cuba, which defeated Japan 3-1 in 11 innings in the other semifinal game.

Stanford challenged Taiwan's hitters from the beginning. "I went out there with a game plan to throw fastballs inside and be aggressive around the plate," said Stanford, who struck out three over five innings.

"I was able to get ahead of the hitters and it worked to my advantage. We were able to score four runs and that's all we needed."

Shane Nance, Robbie Crabtree and Ed Vossberg finished the job, putting the US in the gold medal game for the first time since 1988.

"I thought our pitching and defense was superb," said US manager Terry Francona.

Watch with Storvick ■ Today's gold medal game will be broadcast live by Videoland Sports and Much TV. ■ English-language commentary will be available on ICRT FM100.7 and is scheduled to begin at 4:25pm. ■ Todd Van Wyk will provide the play-by-play with Jamey Storvick giving the color commentary. Graphic: TT

"All of our pitchers came in and threw strikes, and our defense made the plays. We had just enough hitting to beat a very good team."

The US scored first, on a mammoth 420-foot, two-run home run to straightway centerfield by Joe Brochard off Taiwan's Hsu Ming-chien (許銘傑) in the top of the fifth inning.

Taiwan was able to respond as Cheng Chang-ming (鄭昌明) led off the bottom of the fifth with his own home run over the left-field wall off Stanford.

But it was all that Taiwan could generate, as the US pitchers retired 13 of the next 14 Taiwan batters.

"We just could not hit the US pitchers,' said Taiwan manager Lin Hua-wei (林華韋).

"Their placement kept getting better and better as the game went on."

The US completed the scoring with a pair of runs in the sixth. Ken Huckaby doubled and Matt Erickson singled.

The US scored its final run when Cheng dropped a pop-up hit by Carl Crawford, allowing Erickson to race in from third.

Cuba 3, Japan 1

At Shinchuan Stadium, Cuba scored twice in the top of the 11th inning in an outstanding pitching dual between Japan's Shugo Fujii and Cuba's Jose Contrares.

Both starting pitchers carried a 1-1 game into the 11th.?

Cuba finally broke the tie in the top of the inning when Michel Enrique and Orestes Kindelan hit consecutive singles.

Final matchup

Team USA and Cuba go after the gold medal today, in a rematch of last year's thrilling Olympic final confrontation.

While the US fields a completely different team, the Cubans return many members of the squad that fell 4-0 to the US in Sydney.

US manager Terry Francona tapped Jason Philips as his starter. Philips is 2-0 in the tournament so far and has not given up a run.

The US is going for its third Baseball World Cup title and its first since 1974. The Cubans have won six-straight World Cup titles and 22 overall.
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