The Day in Review : Baseball

In a game that meant little to the U.S. team, Todd Greene of Martinez, Ga., kept it from being a day for the Americans to forget.

Greene, a reserve third baseman with only nine at-bats at the Pan American Games, went 4 for 5 with a towering two-run home run Tuesday as the United States beat Canada, 9-5, in 11 innings.

The Americans, with a berth in this weekend’s medal round and a trip to next summer’s Olympics firmly in hand, gave their sluggers a respite from the tropical heat as the team toiled through its second four-hour contest in less than 24 hours.

The Americans, with only a 3-2 loss to Cuba, finished round-robin play with a 7-1 record heading into Friday’s semifinal game against Puerto Rico.

In other games Tuesday, Cuba beat the Dominican Republic, 16-5. The two teams will face each other again in the other semifinal game.

Also, Nicaragua shut out Aruba, 15-0 and Puerto Rico beat the Netherlands Antilles, 13-3.

Cuba, the United States, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico finished in the top four of this tournament to secure a spot at the 1992 Olympics.

Basketball

In a men’s losers’ bracket, Venezuela beat Uruguay, 85-79, behind the 20 points of Carl Herrera, who played at the University of Houston.

In the other game, Brazil defeated Argentina, 95-64.

Boxing

There are only six remaining American fighters after Tuesday’s bouts, but they will enjoy a bit of the good life at a new luxury Havana hotel before their fights, part of an effort to boost the health and morale of the boxers.

Most of the American team has been beset by illness and fighters have complained constantly about the food and living conditions at the athletes village.

In Tuesday’s action, Michael DeMoss of Camp Lejuene, N.C. won at 165 pounds and Patrick Byrd of Flint, Mich., lost at 147.

Cycling

Jeanne Golay of Hollywood, Fla., won the gold medal and Jan Bolland of New Brighton, Pa., took the bronze in the women’s individual road race. Golay was timed in 1 hour 31 minutes and 21 seconds to edge Odalis Toms of Cuba, who finished at 1:32:31.

Robinson Merchan of Venezuela won the men’s road race in 3:49:57.

Field Hockey

In the men’s medal round, Canada defeated the United States, 4-2, to drop the Americans to fourth place.

The U.S. team, which has a record of 2 wins, 1 loss and two ties, will play Barbados (3-1) in Thursday’s finals and undefeated Canada (5-0) will play Argentina (3-0-1).

In other games, Argentina beat Barbados, 6-0, Cuba downed Trinidad, 2-1 and Chile shut out winless Venezuela, 3-0. Jamaica beat Guyana, 2-1, for its first win of the competition.

Roller Skating

The Americans won gold medals in both men’s and women’s artistic figure skating.

Scott Cohen of North Brunswick, N.J., the only man to win four world titles in singles skating, added his fifth when he finished with 84.2 points. Shayne Bayford of Canada won the silver (81.3), followed by Jose Ferreiro of Argentina (74.9).

April Dayney of Maumee, Ohio, a 10-time national champion, took the gold in the women’s division with 82.7 points, followed by Alison Keagan of Canada (81.5) and Beatriz Hambek of Uruguay (78.2).

Softball

The U.S. men’s team scored quickly in the first inning but were shut out the rest of the way to lose the game and the gold medal to Canada, 3-1. The Americans took the silver.

In an earlier game, Alan Rebeling of Fairfield, Iowa, pitched the United States to a 2-1 victory over Cuba to advance to the title game against Canada.

Cuba won the men’s bronze medal.

Swimming

Dorsey Tierney of Louisville, Ky., broke the Pan American Games record in the women’s 200-meter breaststroke twice and Lisa Jacob of Mission Viejo took the gold in the 200 freestyle as U.S. swimmers captured four more gold medals and three silvers.

Tierney’s time of 2:28.69, was nearly seven seconds faster than the record she broke earlier in the day. The NCAA champions time was the second best ever by an American and second fastest in the world this year.

Jacob finished with a time of 2:02.06, winning by a body length over Barbara Metz of Stanford.

In the men’s competition, Alex Kostich of Stanford and Jody Braden of Seattle, swam to a gold-silver finish in the men’s 400 freestyle. Kostich led throughout the race to win in 4:23.96.

The U.S. men won the gold in the men’s 800 freestyle relay, with a time of 7:23.39, a tenth of a second off the Pan Am record.

The only race the Americans haven’t won among 10 in two days of competition was the men’s 100 butterfly, the speciality of Olympic and Pan Am champion Anthony Nesty of Surinam. Nesty won in 53.45 seconds, well ahead of silver medalist Mike Merrell, 18, of Charlotte, N.C., who will be attending USC.

Water Polo

Cuba defeated the United States, 9-5, to win the gold medal in what is being called the biggest upset of the Pan American Games.

The U.S. team, which won the FINA World Cup last month, was sluggish throughout the game against an inspired Cuban team which had never won the gold medal before.

The United States had won the last six Pan American titles without losing a game.

In other games, Brazil won the bronze medal with a 7-6 decision over Canada, Mexico took fifth place with a 16-12 victory over Puerto Rico and Argentina took seventh with a 13-2 rout of Jamaica.

Yachting

Lanee Butler of San Juan Capistrano won the women’s sailboard competition for the first of four gold medals claimed by the United States Tuesday.

Amy and Susan Lawser, sisters from Holmdel, N.J., won their sixth race in the 470 class.

In men’s racing, Steve Callison of Columbus, Ohio, Sean Fidler of Troy, Mich., and Matt Fisher of Westerville, Ohio won the lightning class and Ted Huang of Los Altos took the sailboard competition.

In the sixth race in the snipe class, Peter Commette of Ft. Lauderdale Fla., and Tarasa Davis of Atlanta finished second.