USA uses 5-run inning to beat Korea 7-2 and advance to Olympic baseball gold medal game versus Japan
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<p>The US National Baseball Team will be playing for gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. </p>
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<p>A five-run sixth inning lifted world No. 4 USA to a 7-2 semifinal win over No. 3 Korea Thursday night at Yokohama Stadium. Jamie Westbrook hit a solo homer in the fourth inning while Jack Lopez tallied two RBI and one run scored.</p>
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<p>USA struck first in the bottom of the second when Lopez knocked an RBI single to center field to bring in Mark Kolozsvary, who had walked and stolen second base.</p>
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<p>"We knew it was not going to be easy," Lopez said. "Joe (Ryan) going 4 plus innings, Ryder (Ryan) going for 1 and 2/3. But everybody just chipping in. It was a team effort for sure"</p>
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<p>In the bottom of the fourth, Westbrook crushed an Euilee Lee pitch over the left field pole and sent it into the newly inaugurated second deck.</p>
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<p>Korea came up with two consecutive hits in their fifth at bat to land their first run. Kyoungmin Hur was hit by a pitch with one out and moved to third on a single by Hyeseong Kim. With runners in the corners, leadoff man Hae-Min Park drove in Hur with a run-scoring single to left field. Mike Scioscia pulled out starter Joe Ryan and inserted Ryan Ryder, who escaped with a grounder to second base, very well played by Eddy Alvarez for an inning-ending double play. Ryan lasted 4.1 innings allowing four hits and one run, with four Ks. </p>
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<p>In the bottom of the sixth, USA erupted for five runs. Kolozsvary, Lopez and Alvarez produced one run each, while Tyler Austin hit a two-RBI single to center field. Korea used five pitchers to retire the three outs of the inning.</p>
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<p>In the seventh, Kunwoo Park singled and Ji-Hwan Park doubled to open Korea’s at bat, and one out later Hyeseong Kim hit an RBI single off Scott McGough, who was replaced by lefty Anthony Gose. The left-hander ended the inning with consecutive strikeouts.</p>
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<p>Gose and Anthony Carter blanked Korea in the eighth and ninth to clinch the victory.</p>
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<p>The winning pitcher for USA was Ryan, who tossed 1.2 innings in relief; while Euilee Lee got the loss for Korea after five innings of work with five hits, two runs and nine strikeouts. Korea’s manager Kyung-Moon Kim used eight relievers in the last four innings. </p>
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<p>USA will now meet Japan in the Tokyo 2020 baseball competition final on Saturday at 7 p.m. JST.</p>
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<p>"I get the chills. It's going to be a fun night," Lopez said. "I cannot even think about it."</p>
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<p> It will be USA's second Olympic final after the historic 4-0 gold medal win in Sydney 2000 against Cuba. USA will capture its fourth Olympic medal. </p>
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<p>There will be a new Olympic baseball gold medallist, as defending champions Korea will be playing in the bronze medal game on Saturday, at noon (JST), against Dominican Republic.</p>
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