BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS / DAY 9 : U.S. Earns Matchup It Wanted the Least : Baseball: A 7-1 loss to Japan means Americans will have to play Cuba in first medal-round game.

Japan bashed the United States again Sunday night.

This time it was in Olympic baseball. Japan had 14 hits, including two home runs, against four American pitchers and won, 7-1.

The Japanese took away the U.S. team’s ability to run by allowing only seven hits and holding runners extremely tight. They were flawless in the field.

By the end of the game, the Japanese had slapped more high-fives than the Dream Team.

The fallout could be serious. The United States must now face gold-medal favorite Cuba Tuesday night in the opening game of the four-team medal round.

In Sunday’s other games, Cuba defeated Taiwan, 8-1; the Dominican Republic beat Italy, 7-5, and Spain edged Puerto Rico, 7-6.

The U.S. team might have to settle for a bronze medal--or less.

“We wanted to be in the No. 2 or No. 3 position,” said Ron Fraser, the U.S. coach, who met in the dugout with his team for 10 minutes after the game. “That way, we would get Cuba in the championship game and have a chance of at least winning the silver.”

The U.S. team played Cuba last summer during a 30-game exhibition tour and lost five of seven games. The Americans played Cuba last Wednesday night and lost, 9-6.

“We have to play them for nine innings with an I-don’t-care attitude,” said Jeff Hammonds, the Orioles’ No. 1 draft pick. “We probably had to play them to win the gold medal in the championship game anyway; we’re just playing them a game earlier. When we came here, we wanted to be 6-1 (or) 5-2. We’re there, so now we have to take care of business. We’ve beaten them before.”

The United States could have avoided the early showdown against Cuba (7-0). The loss Sunday created a three-way tie for second place with Japan and Taiwan.

The tie had to be settled by using head-to-head results in games between the tied teams. Since each team was 2-1 against each other, the next criterion was runs allowed in games between the tied teams.

Taiwan gave up 10, Japan four and the United States 16.

On Sunday, U.S. starter B.J. Wallace was effective through the first five innings, giving up only four hits and one unearned run. The score was 1-1, with the U.S. run coming a 410-foot home run by Hammonds.

But then Wallace threw a sinker to Koji Tokunaga. He hit it over the wall in dead center field. Shigeki Wakaabayashi then sent a high curveball over the wall in right center. Japan scored two more runs in the inning to take a 5-1 lead.

Wallace was gone after 5 2/3 innings.

“Japan was well-prepared and played extremely well,” Fraser said. “I don’t know if a team can play as well as they did tonight.”

Fraser will find out Tuesday.