The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
USA Baseball wins bronze medal
08.23.2008 | Baseball
Aug. 23, 2008
BEIJING -- The United States defeated Japan 8-4 to win the bronze medal in baseball at the 2008 Beijing Olympics Saturday at Wukesong Stadium.
Texas Ex Taylor Teagarden lined a double off the wall in right centerfield to plate a pair of runs and break a 4-4 tie in the fifth inning. He went 1-for 3 at the plate and threw out one attempted base stealer.
Team USA fell behind early with Japan taking a 4-1 lead heading into the home half of the third, but knotted the game thanks to a three-run home run by Matt Brown.
Tied 4-4, Team USA took the game over with four runs in the fifth inning.
Teagarden hit his wall-banger to break the tie and Jeff Donald followed with a two-run dinger off the leftfield foul pole to inflate the cushion to 8-4 and the Red, White and Blue coasted to victory.
Teagarden started five of the nine games for Team USA at the Olympics. He logged two doubles, two runs scored and four RBI. He was solid behind the plate, going errorless in 46 total chances and throwing out three of four attempted base stealers.
With a win in the bronze medal game, Teagarden joined Kip Harkrider as the only two former Longhorns to ever medal in Olympic baseball. Harkrider earned a silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
In the gold medal game, South Korea bested Cuba, 3-2.
