Filia, Team USA Land Silver Medal at 2020 Olympics
YOKOHAMA, Japan – Former UCLA outfielder Eric Filia and the USA Baseball squad secured a silver medal at the 2020 Olympics after suffering a 2-0 setback to host Japan in the gold medal game on Saturday at Yokohama Baseball Stadium.
The United States finished the Olympics with a 4-2 record, earning a silver medal for the second time (first: 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles). USA Baseball has now claimed six medals in its Olympics history.
Besides Filia, the United States featured another Bruin alum in bench coach Jerry Weinstein. This is Weinstein's second time earning an Olympic medal as a Team USA coach, following a bronze at the 1996 Games.
Filia singled with one out in the second inning on Saturday to collect Team USA's first hit of the game. He ended the contest with a 1-3 line, also reaching base on a sixth-inning hit by pitch.
The U.S. got runners on base in seven of nine innings on Saturday, but could not come up with a timely hit to drive in a run. Masato Morishita picked up the win for Japan with five innings of scoreless, three-hit ball. Four relievers combined to keep the red, white, and blue off the board the rest of the way.
Nick Martinez (six innings, one earned run) countered with a strong outing for Team USA to make it a pitcher's duel, but Japan brought across the eventual game-winning run on a third-inning solo home run from Munetaka Murakami.
Over six games at the Olympics, Filia batted .263 (5-19) and recorded a .391 on-base percentage. He led Team USA in both HBPs (3) and stolen bases (2), starting all six of the team's games in right field.
A two-year starter at UCLA, Filia batted .283 over 141 career games in college. He was the starting right fielder on UCLA's 2013 National Championship squad, leading the team in hits (68) and multi-hit games (20) and earning All-CWS Team honors. As a senior in 2016, he batted a career-high .295 with 32 RBIs en route to Pac-12 All-Conference honors before being drafted in the 20th round of the 2016 MLB Draft by Seattle. The fifth-year pro is a .314 career hitter in the Minor Leagues.
Coming home with hardware 🇺🇸@EricFilia and @USABaseball are Olympic silver medalists! 🥈 #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/4nekERjDTM
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) August 7, 2021