ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, August 3, 1996 TAG: 9608050067
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
SETH GREISINGER BEARS DOWN in leading the Americans to the bronze medal in baseball with a victory over Nicaragua.
It was the one game Seth Greisinger didn't want to pitch. It was the one his U.S. teammates didn't want to play.
``It was tough coming out here, really tough,'' the University of Virginia right-hander said Friday afternoon, referring to the Olympic bronze-medal baseball date with Nicaragua. ``That game [Thursday night] is one I'll never forget. Hopefully, I won't forget this one, either.''
It was one of his best.
The third-place game at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium may have been a consolation, but it hardly was meaningless.
Nicaragua was playing for its first medal in any sport in the nation's Olympic history dating to 1968. The United States, which was expecting to play Cuba for gold, was trying to salvage something precious from its home Games after losing 11-2 to Japan in the medal semifinals.
Greisinger and four home runs gave the United States its medal in a 10-3 victory. Spotted a 4-0 lead on two first-inning homers, the UVa star headed for the Detroit farm system gave up three runs on two hits, then was gold.
When the first two Nicaraguan hitters reached base, U.S. coach Skip Bertman, taking no chances in the medal game, already had Tennessee's R.A. Dickey up in the bullpen. Greisinger sat him and Nicaragua down.
After Nicaragua had cut the U.S. lead to 4-3, Greisinger faced only one more than the minimum number of hitters through the seventh, before Braden Looper came in from the bullpen to finish.
Only two runners reached base off the U.S. ace after the first. One, who reached on an error when Greisinger couldn't field a bunt, was erased on a double play. Another reached via a wild pitch on a strikeout.
``We lost the one game we really needed to win over two years,'' said Greisinger of Team USA, which he joined this spring after a sensational junior year with the NCAA Tournament-bound Cavaliers. ``It's been a long road for me, too, from where I was. I'm just happy to play on the Olympic team and get a medal.
``It's amazing the amount of disappointment in some of the guys, and we probably might never be able to put it behind us. I still feel it. It won't go away. [But] you have to have pride and go out and play.''
In an Olympic tournament dominated by runs and home runs, Greisinger gave the Americans and a crowd of 41,002 something fans had seen little of in the past two weeks - good pitching.
What Nicaragua needed was its Olympic pitching coach, former major-leaguer Luis Tiant, on the mound. The United States did to the Central Americans what Japan did to the U.S. team less than 24 hours earlier - used power to win.
Eight of the 11 U.S. hits went for extra bases, including homers by Travis Lee, Matt LeCroy, Jason Williams and Troy Glaus.
``I was really nervous at the start,'' Greisinger said. ``I knew what it meant, and I was trying to be perfect, and I was bouncing a lot of fastballs. I couldn't find my curveball.
``Finally, Jerry Weinstein [the U.S. pitching coach] told me to forget the curve. I was just throwing fastballs over and hoping they'd hit them to someone. They did. I was pretty much fastball, changeup the whole game.''
Perhaps what happened the night before shouldn't have been so shocking. The past three American losses in Olympic baseball in final games have been to Japan - Wednesday night, in the bronze game in Barcelona and in the gold-medal game in Los Angeles.
The United States won the Seoul gold medal, the last time the diamond game was a demonstration sport. So, the Atlanta medal is the first ``real'' one for the national pastime's birth nation.
The United States went 7-2 in the Games, with Greisinger 3-0. The No.6 pick in the June draft also had another singular achievement in the U.S. national team program.
With Friday's victory, Greisinger became the first U.S. pitcher to go 9-0 in a Team USA season, eclipsing the eight victories by Jim Abbott and Ben McDonald, among others. Between his UVa and Olympic team seasons, the tall right-hander was 21-2.
``Seth pitched great,'' said Bertman, head coach at Louisiana State. ``I told the boys this has been a great journey. We can't let one game where Japan played perfect and we weren't as good as we could have been spoil the journey.
``It was spectacular. We won 71 and lost 11 [over two years] and I think this is the best USA Baseball team ever assembled.''
When Looper coaxed the final groundout, the U.S. players high-fived one another, and later lifted the stars and stripes and shot a team photo, but there was none of the unbridled emotion that would have accompanied a gold medal.
That flew out of the park with five Japan homers a night earlier.
``Some guys stayed up all night,'' Greisinger said. ``I went to bed because I had to pitch, but it was a tough night, a long night.
``Still, we played in the Olympics. Not many people can say that. It was a privilege for me to be part of this team, whether I didn't play much or was a star.''
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. U.S. starting pitcher and former UVa standout Sethby CNBGreisinger fires the ball toward home plate during the Americans'
10-3 victory over Nicaragua on Friday. color.