Close but no Cuban cigar By Terry Jones, SUN MEDIA

BEIJING – Close. But no Cuban cigar.

Terry Puhl's baseball team was very much the same story as the Canadian Olympic Team in general here Thursday.

“It was a missed opportunity,” said Puhl of managing to lose 7-6 to the best international baseball team in the world despite outhitting it 9-5 and going through five pitchers.

It was a win which would have been so large in terms of the rest of the tournament. If Canada had been able to close, they'd be 2-0 with nobody else better than 1-1 and they wouldn't have to play the Cubans again until the medal round.

Instead, Canada has to rebound for consecutive games this weekend against the rest of murderer's row in this eight-team tournament - Korea, the USA and Japan.

“That's the best team in the world and we deserved to beat them tonight,” said right fielder Michael Saunders, a Seattle Mariners triple A player who hit a home run in the game.

“If we had beat them there would have been a lot of pressure on them,” said designated hitter Nick Weglarz, a Cleveland Indians draftee who hit two home runs in the game, went 3-for-4, scored three runs and had three RBIs.

“Team Canada had a lot of intensity today,” said Puhl, when he sat down in the three-language press conference room.

“I was thrilled with the level we played at against them. If we continue to play in that fashion for the rest of the tournament, we'll be in the medal round. We refused to give in to that game. That's what Team Canada is all about,” he said.

“It was a great game and they just beat us by one run,” said Weglarz, adding that no further analysis was required.

The Canadians stranded runners on second and third in the top half of the second inning and then basically gave three runs away in the bottom half, walking the first two batters and allowing them to score on misjudged balls in the outfield and having another run come in on a Stubby Clapp fielding error.

But a two-out, two-run shot into the night in right by Saunders after Clapp kept the inning alive with a two-out single in the third and a Weglarz home run off a flag pole in left centre in the fourth had the game tied.

Weglarz two-run blast down the line in right in the sixth gave Canada a 5-3 lead with the Canucks out-hitting the Cubans 8-2 to that point.

Puhl looked like a genius when he gave starting pitcher Brooks McNiven the hook after he went around the order once in the first two innings, bringing in Jonathan Lockwood, a pitcher from the Toronto Maple Leafs of the Intercounty Baseball League in Ontario. Lockwood proceeded to retire nine straight batters.

But the second time around, the first three Cubans didn't work out so well. All three reached base to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning, including Michel Enriquez, who hit a two-run homer to tie the game 5-5.

Chris Reitsma came on in relief and gave up a two-run homer before the inning was out.

Puhl brought on Robert Swindle to start the seventh and a fifth pitcher, Steve Green, to start the eighth. Green managed to get in a jam early but got out of the inning after Weglarz scored on a fielders choice to cut the margin to 7-6.

“That is a good way of handling the Cuban line-up,” he said of not giving them more than one look at any pitcher.

Canada went down in order in the ninth and another one went into the books as close but no Cuban cigar.

The Cubans, who opened with a 4-2 win over Japan, have won two of the three full medal status Olympic tournaments, losing the gold medal game to the USA in Sydney when major leaguer Ben Sheets hurled a gem.

The Americans, having lost their opener to Korea, have already made themselves a target in the tournament which also includes the Netherlands and Taiwan, the last two teams Canada plays in the eight-team round robin tournament, and host China who were drubbed 10-0 in a mercy rule abbreviated opener of the tournament Wednesday.