TOKYO, Japan — UPDATE: The American cruised past the South Koreans, 7-2, for a second shot at Olympic hosts Japan in the gold medal game.
Conyers native Tyler Austin supplied Team USA with two hits and two RBIs, bringing his RBI total for the Olympic tournament to 7 and raising his batting average across five games to .400.
The gold medal game will be on Saturday at 6 a.m. ET.
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Metro Atlanta native Tyler Austin and Team USA baseball are looking to reach the gold medal game this morning in a contest against South Korea at the Tokyo Olympics.
The winners will get the right to play Olympic hosts Japan for gold. The losers will play the Dominican Republic in the bronze medal game.
Team USA previously lost to Japan, on Monday, and is looking to get into the gold medal game via the backdoor of the loser's bracket. South Korea lost Wednesday to Japan in the winner's bracket semifinal.
The USA-South Korea game Thursday morning starts at 6 a.m. ET. You can watch it play out here.
Austin, who graduated from Heritage High School and was drafted by the New York Yankees in 2010, has slugged two home runs for team USA during the Olympic tournament.
The 29-year-old has been on a tear in Tokyo, hitting .375/.444/.875 with two home runs and five RBIs.
Austin bringing the experience of parts of four Major League seasons to Team USA, spent with the Yankees, Twins, Giants and Brewers. He was last in the Majors in 2019, when he primarily played in San Francisco.
Team USA is attempting to reach the gold medal game in baseball's return to the Olympics for the first time since 2008. It was removed from the permanent rotation of Olympic sports for the 2012 London Games, and did not feature at the subsequent 2016 Games in Rio.
But because Olympic host nations have some input in certain sports being included in their Olympics, and because Japan loves baseball, it returned for 2020.
If the U.S. can win gold, it would be their first victory in an Olympic tournament since the 2000 Games in Sydney.