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In the first game of the day, Japan beat Canada 1-0. Atsunori Inaba hit a solo home run in the fifth for the only run of the game. Yoshihisa Naruse, Kyuji Fujikawa, and Koji Uehara combined on a 2-hit shout. Japan is 3-2 in the tournament and almost assured of a spot in the medal round. Canada fell to 1-4 will be eliminated if the USA beats China later in the day.
Korea scored 7 runs in the first against Taiwan and held on for a 9-8 win. Korea has moved on to the next round.
Cuba needed only 8 innings to polish off the Netherlands, 14-3.
The USA beat China 9-1 in a contentious game. Matt LaPorta bowled over Chinese catcher Wei Wang while scoring the USA's fourth run, knocking out Wang with a knee injury.
In the sixth, Nate Schierholtz knocked over China's backup catcher, Yang Yang, in a similar play, although Yang was able to return, but China's manager Jim Lefebvre was ejected for complaining about the USA's penchant for trying to kill his catchers. LaPorta also got a pitch to the helmet, knocking him out of the game, courtesy of Zheng Xu Chen Kun. Zheng Chen and China's pitching coach, Steve Ontiveros, were ejected after that play.
China's only run came on a 9th inning home run by Yang off of Blaine Neal.
Cuba and Korea have advance to the medal round and play later tonight (7:30 pm PT, but 10:30 am in Beijing on Tuesday) to decide first place in pool play. Japan and the USA are 3-2. Taiwan, China, the Netherlands, and Canada are all 1-4. If the USA beats Taiwan tonight, the Americans will advance to the next round. Japan will advance with a win over China tonight.
China had previously only hit five in all their other combined games. Mostly I'd subscribe it to China not being good, but this has come after the US took down China in basketball.
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