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Cuba rallies past South Korea 6-5
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Cuba survived its first close call in baseball Tuesday, rallying from a four-run deficit to beat South Korea 6-5 on Juan Manrique's tie-breaking homer in the eighth. Cuba, which has never lost in the Olympics, ran its record to 3-0 and its streak to 21 victories, including gold medals in Barcelona and Atlanta. It took some doing. Korea (1-2) stunned the Cubans by pulling ahead 4-0 after four innings. The Cubans' high-powered offense, which came into the game batting .467, managed only two hits in the first five innings off Kim Soo-Kyung. The Cubans sent 10 batters to the plate for five runs in a fist-pumping sixth inning that started with walks to Omar Linares and Orestes Kindelan, the heart of their order.
Antonio Pacheco drove both of them home with a double. Kindelan was called safe at home on a close play and immediately raised his arms in celebration. Oscar Macias followed with another RBI double and Yobal Duenas pumped his first as he ran down the first baseline after his two-run single put Cuba ahead. Park Jae-hong tied it with a two-out homer in the seventh off Pedro Luis Lazo, but Manrique led off the eighth with a homer well over the wall in left. Lazo pitched out of a threat in the bottom of the inning and retired the side in order in the ninth. "The team's morale remained high and that made all the difference," said Cuban manager Servio Borges, who thinks Korea can beat any team in the field. Cuba and the United States are the only undefeated teams left in the eight-team tournament. After round-robin play, the top four teams advance to the medal rounds.
Also, South Africa showed it is the worst team in the tournament, losing by mercy rule for the third consecutive game, this time 13-0 in seven innings to Italy. Jason Simontacchi pitched six scoreless innings and Alberto D'Auria and Francesco Casolari both homered for the Italians. SportsTicker contributed to this report.
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