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Koreans beat Japan to capture baseball bronze
= = SYDNEY, Sept 27 (AFP) - Winning South Korea's first Olympic baseball medal was nice, but beating Japan for the bronze to deny their arrch-rivals a medal for the first time made the achievement all the more sweet. Korean southpaw Koo Dae-Sung outlasted Japanese ace Daisuke Matsuzaka in a pitcher's duel and Lee Seung-Yuop shrugged off three prior strikeouts and a poor night's sleep to produce the game-winning hit in a 3-1 triumph Wednesday. "The win against Japan is more meaningful than a bronze medal," Korean manager Kim Euong-Yong said. "Since I was young, Korean players are taught we have to always beat Japan. We got a medal and beat Japan so I'm very glad." Lee smacked a two-run double to left field with two outs in the eighth inning, coming through on a 3-ball, 2-strike pitch and later scored when Kim Dong-Joo followed with a single to right field. "Matsuzaka had considerable speed. Even his slider was 145 k/hr," Lee said. "I just couldn't quite adjust to him. Later in the game I think he was exhausted or else I would have struck out again. "I expected a fastball. I waited for it and that's what I hit." The Koreans, who defeated Japan 7-6 in 10 innings in the qualifying round, took the field less than 12 hours after their semi-final loss to the United States, a game halted for two hours by a thunderstorm. "I didn't sleep well last night," Lee said. "I was a little tired and did not have a lot of confidence." Park Jin-Man slapped a single to left to open the Korean eighth, reached second base on Jung Soon-Keun's sacrifice bunt and took third when Lee Byung-Kyu reached on a throwing error by Japanese second baseman Jun Heima. That set the stage for heroics by Lee, who hit 54 home runs last season to set a Korean league homer record. Japan answered in the ninth inning when Nobuhiko Matsunaka doubled to right field and scored on Yukio Tanaka's single. But Koren left-handed pitcher Koo Dae-Sung struck out Jun Hirose and Shinnosuke Abe grounded out to end the game. Koo and Matsuzaka each allowed only three hits over the first seven innings. Matsuzaka stuck out 10 batters in that span. Koo struck out 10 in the game. "We were a little nervous at the beginning," Koo said. "But as the game went on we knew we could win." Seibu Lions star Matsuzaka surrendered back-to-back singles to open the game, then retired the next 16 Japanese batters, half of them with strikeouts. Korea got runners to third base in the first and sixth innings but Japanese centerfielder Tomohiro Iizuka grabbed inning-ending fly outs each time. Koo saved himself from his worst jam in the second inning by striking out Fumihiro Suzuki with the bases loaded after he had issued a pair of walks. The Koreans were a disappointing sixth at the 1996 Olympics and shut down their league season this time to send their best players here for the first Olympics to permit professional talent. The Japanese, who settled for bronze in 1992 and took silver in 1996, sent eight Japan League stars along with top industrial league players.
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