Designated hitter Orestes Kindelan hit a tiebreaking three-run homer Sunday to power Cuba to a 6-2 victory over Japan in a rehearsal for their semifinal matchup Tuesday in the Sydney Olympic baseball competition.
Kindelan, a longtime cleanup hitter for Cuba, connected off reliever Shunsuke Watanabe in the fifth inning to break a 2-2 tie in a game between teams which had already secured their places in the final four.
Juan Manrique's RBI single in the sixth made it 6-2 and the Cubans went on to clinch the top spot of the eight-nation preliminary round with six wins and one loss.
Japan finished fourth in the round-robin preliminaries with a 4-3 record behind the United States and South Korea. "Somehow, we attained our pre-Games goal of reaching the semifinals, but it would have been better if we had finished the first round in a higher place," Japan manager Kozo Otagaki said.
"Both teams tried to study each other," Otagaki said, as both managers refused to make use of their key pitchers in anticipation of Tuesday's matchup.
Cuba went up 2-0 on RBI singles by Danel Castro in the second inning and Kindelan in the fourth off Japan starter Akichika Yamada.
Japan tied the game in the bottom of the fourth on a throwing error by Cuba's second baseman Oscar Macias and a sacrifice fly by Yoshihiko Kajiyama, only to see the Cubans retake the lead for good in the next frame on Kindelan's homer.