Cuba stunned the United States 10:2 on Friday to enter the gold medal match of the Beijing Olympic baseball tournament, and will face South Korea in Saturday's final.

The Cubans managed four homers to wash out the US team. Afredo Despaigne homered first in the fourth inning, followed by teammate Fredrich Cepeda in the sixth inning, and then Alexei Bell and Ariel Pestano in the eighth inning.

Cuba's team manager Antonio Pacheco said at a post-match press conference that he hadn't expected his team to win the United States over such a large margin.

"The USteam is a strong one, and I didn't expect our team to win over such a large margin," he said. The team manager said the US team has good pitchers and Cuba won the match as they had excellent offense in the competition.

At the same press conference, right field Alexei said he was satisfied with their performance, and were confident about the final match with South Korea.

"We did well today. We don't have much pressure and we will play the game well with South Korea tomorrow," said Alexei.

In another semifinal between two Asian teams, South Korea outscored Japan 6:2. The United States will face Japan Saturday morning for the bronze medal.

US team manager Johnson Davey said after the semifinal, "We're going to try and outscore them. Last game we played against Japan it took until the 11th inning to score the ball. Hopefully, we'll have a little more offence tomorrow morning."

(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2008)