Australia's hopes of a baseball medal in Athens had gone pretty much out the window on Monday after their second loss in two outings, done by Taiwan.

This is the Olympic News Service's wrap on Monday's baseball action.

Day 2: Canada, Cuba, Japan continue winning ways 17 Aug. 2004

ATHENS, 16 August - Cuba, Japan Canada continued their winning ways to remain the only undefeated teams in the preliminary round of the Olympic Baseball tournament.

TPE v AUS
In the day session's first game Chinese Taipei (1-1) rebounded from its Day One loss with a solid 3-0 shutout of Australia. The 1992 Games silver medallists rode the steady arms of WANG Chien-Ming (TPE), a member of the USA Major League's New York Yankees organisation, and TSAO Chin-Hui (TPE). WANG pitched seven scoreless innings to earn the win, and TSAO picked up the save with two innings of scoreless relief work.

Most of the offensive load was carried by Chinese Taipei professional league batting leader PENG Cheng-Min, who had two hits and two RBIs.

Starter John STEPHENS (AUS) allowed seven hits and three runs in 7 1/3 innings and took Australia's win-loss record to 0-2.

CAN v ITA

Olympic debutante Canada (2-0) used its big bats to humble European qualifying champion Italy 9-3.

Italy struck first when designated hitter Jairo RAMOS GIZZI (ITA) drove in leftfielder James BUCCHERI (ITA). But the lead was short lived. Canada's deep lineup scored nine runs in the next two innings, keyed by a seven-run second inning.

Catcher Pierre-Luc LAFOREST did the major damage, smacking a three-run homer off losing pitcher David ROLLANDINI (ITA). He led a balanced attack with four RBIs. Canada also benefitted from three Italian errors in the second and third innings.

Pitcher Jason DICKSON (CAN) had problems with his control at times, but only gave up two runs in six innings to pick up the win.

JPN v NED

Atsushi FUJIMOTO's (JPN) two-run blast in the eighth inning broke open a tense game as Japan (2-0) turned back the Netherlands 8-3 remained undefeated.

The contest was also marked by controversy over a player eligibility dispute in the fifth inning that delayed the game nearly a half-hour and seemed to take the Dutch out of their rhythm.

The Dutch chased Japanese starter Hisashi IWAKUMA after only 1 2/3 innings, but the Netherlands' offence was cooled off by Hiroki KURODA (JPN), who entered in the fourth inning with the Netherlands leading 3-2. KURODA pitched five scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out seven while notching up the win for the former Olympic silver medallists.

When the Netherlands attempted to bring in reliever Eelco JANSEN during a fifth-inning Japanese rally, manager Kiyoshi NAKAHATA (JPN)protested, arguing that JANSEN had not been included on the lineup card the teams exchanged before the game. It took the technical commissioners more than 20 minutes to sort out the details. They determined that all 24 men on each team's roster were eligible and that Japan's protest had been unfounded.

The Netherlands then protested that Japan had attempted to use tactics to shorten or delay the game. Its protest was also denied.

The delay seemed to unravel the Dutch and put the powerful team of Japanese professionals back on track.

The team of professional all-stars from Japan's major leagues broke the game open with four runs in the eighth inning, keyed by FUJIMOTO's two-run homer. The second baseman finished with one run, two hits and three RBIs.

CUB v GRE

The home team almost played spoiler as Greece (0-2), down 5-1 heading into the ninth inning, mounted a furious comeback only to come up short and lose 5-4 to Cuba (2-0).

With Cuba up 5-1 heading into the bottom of the ninth inning, the Greek team, comprised of mostly north Americans of Greek heritage, never gave up and used a raucous home crowd filled with citizens of their ancestral homeland to their advantage in the ninth.

With Chris DEMETRAL (GRE) and Clayton BELLINGER (GRE) on base, Nicholas MARKAKIS (GRE) ripped a two out triple which scored the two baserunners. Nick THEODORU (GRE) singled to left centre to score a run.

The comeback ended when Pedro Luis LAZO (CUB) entered the game. LAZO struck out James KAVOURIAS (GRE) spoil the rally and Greece's shot at victory.

ONS dr/jc/eg

The ONS expands further on the Japan-Netherlands controversy in their match report:

When the Netherlands attempted to bring in reliever Eelco JANSEN, Japanese manager Kiyoshi NAKAHATA protested, arguing that JANSEN had not been included on the lineup card the teams exchanged before the game. It took the technical commissioners more than 20 minutes to sort out the details. They determined that all 24 men on each team's roster were eligible and that Japan's protest had been unfounded.

The Netherlands then protested that Japan had attempted to use tactics to shorten or delay the game. Its protest was also denied.

Here is a report on the Japan-Netherlands game in Dutch. (I never knew that the Dutch word for baseball was honkbal. Well there you go!)