Americans settle for baseball bronze

Four years after stunning the baseball world by failing to qualify for the Olympics, the U.S. squad won a bronze medal with an 8-4 win over Japan on Saturday.

With the score tied 4-4 in the fifth, Taylor Teagarden broke open the game for good when he smacked a two-run double. Jason Donald then followed up wth a two-run home run that rang off the left-field foul pole.

The victory salvaged a podium finish for the Americans, who were dominated by archrival Cuba 10-2 in the semifinals.

Japan, winners of the inaugural 2006 Baseball Classic and one of the favourites heading into Beijing, concluded the tournament with a disappointing fourth-place result.

Japan jumped out to an early lead courtesy a home run from Masahiro Araki off American starter Brett Anderson.

But in the second, Matt LaPorta stepped in against Japan's Tsuyoshi Wada and drove the tying run high over the left field stands.

Wada, a lefthander, walked the next two men but was able to escape by getting Dexter Fowler to line out to second.

Japan's bats came alive again in the third.

Anderson walked two of the first three hitters and an out later, faced Norichika Aoki, who took him over the wall for the three-run homer that put Japan in front 4-1.

The Americans rallied with a little help from the Japanese defence in the bottom half of their inning.

Brian Barden led off with an easy fly to left that Takahiko Sato dropped, and when Jayson Nix walked, the Americans had three runners on base.

A strikeout later, Matt Brown powered one over the left field wall to score three and tie the game at 4-4.

That was it for Wada, who was replaced by Kenshin Kawakami.

The defending champions from Cuba will try and lock down the last Olympic baseball gold medal when they face South Korea in the final.

Cuba will be seeking its fourth Olympic championship (1992, 1996, 2004) and some revenge following a 7-4 loss to the Koreans in the preliminary round.