2003 Pan American Games

The 2003 Pan American Games were held from August 2 through August 12, 2003 in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. They were the 14th Pan American Games and 9th in a row won by Cuba. See 2003 Pan American Games (Rosters) as well.

Round-Robin

Group A

•  Cuba 2-1
•  Mexico 2-1
•  Brazil 1-2
•  Panama 1-2

Group B

•  Nicaragua 4-0
•  United States 3-1
•  Dominican Republic 2-2
•  Guatemala 1-3
•  The Bahamas 0-4

Quarterfinals

•  Cuba 10,  Dominican Republic 0
•  Nicaragua 5,  Panama 2
•  Mexico 6,  Guatemala 0
•  United States 7,  Brazil 0

Semifinals

•  Cuba 2,  Nicaragua 1. Vicyohandri Odelin tosses 8 1/3 scoreless innings of relief after Yovani Aragon starts slowly as Nicaragua is the last team to be handed a loss in the tournament. Nicaragua had outscored opponents 24-3 entering this game, far better than Cuba's 20-7.
•  United States 3,  Mexico 2. Huston Street throws 94 pitches in relief over 8 2/3 shutout innings to get the US into the Gold Medal game. Paul Janish hits the winning sacrifice fly off of Francisco Campos in the 14th inning, scoring Seth Smith.

Finals

•  Cuba 3,  United States 1. The US scores off of Norge Vera in the second when Brent Lillibridge hits a sacrifice fly to score Jeff Larish but they only manage two hits all day against Vera, who allows nothing further. In the 6th inning, Cuba ties it against Jered Weaver, who had pitched 45 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings for the USA that summer. Carlos Tabares bunted his way aboard and came around on a 2-out single by Yulieski Gourriel. In the 7th, Ariel Pestano singled in another run to put Cuba ahead. Pestano tacked on insurance with a solo homer off of Steven Register in the 9th. It would be Weaver's lone loss of the summer.
•  Mexico 6,  Nicaragua 2. Mexico wins Bronze, having beaten the Gold Medal winner in round one and almost beaten the Silver Medal winner in the semifinals.

Top Performers

• Mario Santana of Mexico hit .571, the best, while teammate Ramon Martinez tied for the lead with 3 doubles and Roberto Saucedo tied for the lead with one home run. Luis Garcia hit the most triples (2)
• Eric Patterson of the US tied for the most runs, 6. Danny Putnam tied for the most doubles, 3. Tyler Greene had one of the four homers in the event.
• Yosvani Aragon of Cuba led with 9 strikeouts. Osmani Urrutia (.417, 3 2B) and Yulieski Gourriel (5 for 10) made the All-Star team.
• Eduardo Romero of Nicaragua drove in six runs, the most, while teammate Cairo Murillo had a 0.00 ERA in 9 innings, the best. Jimy Gonzalez led with 9 hits.
• Amilcar Estrada of Guatemala led with 3 steals.
• Jonathan Vega of Panama hit one of the four home runs.