Terry Puhl

Terry Puhl, Field Manager of Canada’s entry in the 2008 Olympics, was a Major League outfielder for 15 seasons with the Houston Astros and the Kansas City Royals. He was a National League All Star in 1978 and played in the 1980 National League Championship Series vs. Philadelphia, setting a then-NLCS record with a .526 batting average. He holds the Major League record for career fielding percentage (.993).

Puhl’s day job is Coach of the University of Houston-Victoria Jaguars, an NAIA program entering its second year. He gave this interview on his way home from Beijing.

Bob Broughton, The College Baseball Blog: Do you think that baseball should be an Olympic sport? Read the rest of this entry »

BEIJING, CHINA — A four-run fifth inning highlighted by Taylor Teagarden’s two-run double and a two-run homer from Jason Donald helped lift the U.S. Olympic Baseball Team to an 8-4 win over Japan clinching the bronze medal for Team USA. Matt LaPorta and Matt Brown added home runs as well as the U.S. rallied from an early three-run deficit to earn the victory. Team USA finishes Olympic competition with a 6-3 record.

Full Story coming soon

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
BEIJING — Three-run homers by Alexei Bell and Ariel Pestano highlighted a six-run eighth inning as Cuba broke open a close game en route to defeating the U.S. Olympic baseball team, 10-2, on Friday evening in semifinal action at the Wukesong Main Field. Read the rest of this entry »

The United States Olympic Baseball team is taking on the Cuban Olympic team in the semifinals of the Olympic Baseball Tournament at 6 am Eastern time on Friday. The United States is expected to start San Diego State junior to be Stephen Strasberg to the mound where he was outstanding against the Netherlands in his only Olympic start. Read the rest of this entry »

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE

USA Baseball Photo

BEIJING — The field is set for the medal rounds at the Summer Olympics, with the United States getting its rematch against Cuba on Friday and unbeaten Korea meeting Japan in the other semifinal.

That was determined by the Americans’ 4-2 victory over Japan in 11 innings on Wednesday night at Wukesong Main Field. Capitalizing this time on the new extra-innings rule, the U.S. broke a scoreless tie in the top of the 11th on three consecutive singles, and then closer Casey Weathers escaped a bases-loaded jam after allowing Japan two runs. Read the rest of this entry »

Canada lost to Chinese Taipei 6-5, in 12 innings.

Chinese Taipei led 5-3 after two innings. Canada got one back in the fourth when Adam Stern (Nebraska) hit a triple, and came in on a ground out by Emmanuel Garcia. They tied the game in the seventh on a home run by Stubby Clapp (Texas Tech).

Because the game went more than ten innings, a special Olympic rule came into effect. In the 11th and 12th innings, both teams started the inning with runners on first and second, and no outs. Chinese Taipei got the winning run when the the first batter of the 12th inning, Chih-Hsien Chiang, hit a single to bring in the baserunner planted on second.

All five of Canada’s losses were by one run. Story from CBC: Canada drops another close game in Olympic baseball.

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE

FROM USA BASEBALL

BEIJING — Dexter Fowler (Atlanta, Ga.) went 3-for-3 with a triple and an RBI double, and John Gall (Stanford, Calif.) added a solo home run as the U.S. Olympic baseball yeam earned a spot in the medal round with a 4-2 win over Chinese Taipei on Tuesday evening. Read the rest of this entry »

Brooks McNiven

Team Canada got brilliant pitching performances from Brooks McNiven (British Columbia), Jonathan Lockwood (Louisiana Tech), Rheal Cormier, and Tim Burton. They held The Netherlands to two hits, and got a 4-0 win.

McNiven, the starter, went six innings, and didn’t allow a hit until the sixth inning. The Netherlands’ only other hit came off Burton in the ninth, but Burton struck out the other three batters he faced. Read the rest of this entry »

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
BEIJING, — Starting pitcher Jake Arrieta (Farmington, Mo.) threw six scoreless innings and Nate Schierholtz (Danville, Calif.) went 2-for-3 with three RBIs as the U.S. Olympic baseball team defeated China, 9-1, on Monday evening at the Wukesong Main Field. Read the rest of this entry »

From USA Baseball

NBC will providing a live stream of the USA-China matchup on Sunday that begins at 7am Eastern time. The stream has been very good throughout the tournament and has been good enough that I have personally watched three of the games without any hiccups. Read the rest of this entry »

This time, it was a 1-0 loss to Japan. Yoshihisa Naruse, Kyuji Fujikawa, and Koji Uehara combined to hold Canada to two hits. The only run of the game was a home run by Atsunori Inaba in the fifth inning.

Story from the Toronto Star: Canada’s Olympic baseball hopes fade after 1-0 loss

Brian Duensing

The starters are James Avery (Niagara) for Canada, Brett Anderson for USA.

Canada leads 1-0 after one inning.Canada’s run came on an RBI double by Emerson Frostad (Lewis-Clark State).

8:15 PM PDT: Canada leads 3-0 after two innings. Emmanuel Garcia hit an RBI triple, then scored on a ground out by Michael Saunders.

8:35 PM: Canada leads 4-0 after three innings, and they are hitting Anderson at will. The fourth run came from an RBI single by Adam Stern (Nebraska). Great defensive play by Stubby Clapp (Texas Tech) at second base in the bottom of the third.

9 PM: Canada leads 4-2 after four innings. USA got on the board with a home run by Brian Barden (Oregon State), got the second run on an RBI single by John Gall (Stanford). Avery was replaced by R.J. Swindle (Charleston Southern). Read the rest of this entry »

Keunwoo Jeong

Canada out-hit Korea 5-3, but the only run of the game came on a home run by Keunwoo Jeong in the top of the third, off Canadian starter Mike Johnson.

Hyunjin Ryu pitched a complete game for Korea, struck out six, walked three. Johnson went six innings, allowed all three of Korea’s hits. David Davidson and Tim Burton were Canada’s relievers.

Canada’s best chance to score came in the bottom of the ninth. Mike Saunders opened the inning with a hit, and was on third with one out after Nick Weglarz got a hit. Brett Lawrie flied out. Matt Rogelstad (Arkansas State) drew a walk, loading the bases and and moving Weglarz, the potential winning run, to second. Ryan Radmanovich (Pepperdine) flied out to end the game with the bases loaded. Read the rest of this entry »

FROM TEAM USA RELEASE
BEIJING — Playing for the first time under the new extra-innings rule for Olympic competition, Cuba scored twice in the top of the 11th inning with the U.S. only able to plate one run in the bottom half, giving Cuba a 5-4 victory over the U.S. Olympic Baseball Team on Friday afternoon at the Wukesong Main Field. Read the rest of this entry »

The USA Olympic Baseball team takes on Cuba tonight at 11:30 pm Eastern time. The game can be watched online for free by clicking here.

Trevor Cahill will take the ball for the US team and Cuba will send Luis Miguel Rodriguez.

UPDATE #1: Cuba and Team USA is tied at 2 in the bottom of the sixth inning.

UPDATE #2: Cuba and USA start the tenth inning tied at 3. Cuba’s Bell hit a leadoff triple to center field to start the inning off well. Kevin Jepsen is able to get the next two batters to strikeout and then gets the final batter of the inning to ground out to third base. Team USA is coming up to bat right now.

UPDATE #3: Taylor Teagarden gets hit by a pitch to start the bottom of the tenth off well for Team USA. Jason Donald lays a bunt down to get Teagarden to second with one out. Cuba gets the next two guys to pop up. We are off to the 11th inning. This is going to be the first time the new rules of having two runners on base to start the inning is in effect.

UPDATE #4: Cuba scores two runs in the top of the 11th while USA only scores one in the bottom of the 11th so the Cubans stay undefeated while USA drops to 1-2 in the tourney.

A FULL RECAP WILL BE UP TOMORROW