Canada falls to U.S. baseball team

Canada's Olympics baseball team squandered a four-run lead on Saturday, falling to the Americans 5-4 in Beijing.

Terry Tiffee doubled home the winning run in the seventh inning, and pitcher Brian Duensing retired 10 of 11 Canadians batters to earn the win. Brian Barden added a home run and tied the game with a seventh-inning double.

The loss significantly hurts Canada's chances of advancing to the semifinals. The Canadians suffered their third straight defeat in the preliminary round after beginning with a promising 10-0 win over host China.

It was the third one-run defeat for the Canadians, who also suffered close losses to Cuba and Korea.

Canada (1-3) next sees action against medal favourites Japan on Monday, before finishing with the Netherlands and Taiwan.

"We have to run the table. We have no choice now," said manager Terry Puhl. "We're going to take it one at a time and not look ahead of ourselves. 

"We're not playing poorly," he added. "We've just found ourselves on the wrong end of some really good ball games."

On Saturday, Canada led 4-0 in the fourth, then watched as the U.S. score two in the bottom half of the inning, and another in the fifth. The Americans (2-2) took the lead for good with a pair of runs off veteran relievers Chris Reitsma and Rheal Cormier.

Canada attempted a comeback in the ninth after catcher Chris Robinson singled with one out. But Jimmy VanOstrand struck out and Stubby Clapp ended the game by lining out to right field.

Cuba 1, Chinese Taipai 0

The defending Olympic champions remained unbeaten (4-0) following a 1-0 victory over Chinese Taipei (1-3).

Frederich Cepeda supplied the game's only run, taking Chen-Chang Lee over the fence in the bottom of the seventh inning, while Elier Sanchez tossed a three-hitter over seven innings for his first win in Beijing.

Netherlands 6, China 4

The previously winless Netherlands busted out for five runs in the fifth inning en route to a 6-4 verdict against host China (1-2) to improve to 1-3.

Sidney de Jong led the way at the plate with a three-run home run. Bryan Engelhardt also went deep in the fifth and Sharnol Adriana added a solo shot in the fourth frame.

South Korea 5, Japan 3

The South Koreans snapped a 2-2 tie with three runs in the top of the ninth inning to extend their win streak to three games (3-0).

Daeho Lee tied the game 2-2 with a two-run home run in support of relief pitcher Suk Min Yoon (2-0).

Takahiro Arai singled, tripled and homered for the Japanese (2-2), who were outhit 9-7.