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U.S. Baseball Team Wins Bronze

ATLANTA -- The U.S. baseball team rebounded from a semifinal loss to win its first Olympic medal, beating Nicaragua 10-3 Friday for the bronze.

The third-place finish was disappointing for the United States but an improvement over the Barcelona Games, where baseball was an official sport for the first time. The Americans lost the 1992 consolation game and came home empty-handed with a 5-4 record.

After hitting just one homer and giving up five in their 11-2 semifinal loss to Japan, the Americans (7-2) played much closer to form. Travis Lee and Matt LeCroy homered in the first inning -- the Americans' best inning of the tournament -- and Seth Greisinger shut Nicaragua down after the first.

Nicaragua (4-5), trying to win the first team medal for its homeland, managed just two hits, both in the first inning, in seven innings off Greisinger. The right-hander walked one and struck out five before giving way to Braden Looper, who finished off the combined three-hitter.

The United States hit four more home runs, pushing its tournament total to 32. Lee's three-run homer and LeCroy's solo shot off Jose Luis Quiroz, Nicaragua's best pitcher, made it 4-0 in the first. Troy Glaus added a solo shot in the seventh and Jason Williams had a two-run homer in the eighth.

The United States hit 17 homers and scored 31 runs in the first innings of its nine Olympic games.

Quiroz, who came into the game with the best earned run average of any Olympic starter at 0.68, left after failing to get an out in the second.

Greisinger had struggled in his two previous Olympic starts, and began poorly again Friday. He gave up a walk, a single and a triple in the first, when Nicaragua cut it to 4-3.

After Henry Roa's RBI triple, Greisinger retired the next 12 batters. Only two more runners reached against Greisinger, on an error and on a wild pitch after a strikeout.