Eric Filia and USA baseball teammates earn silver medal as Japan wins gold with 2-0 victory

Former UCLA and Edison High School baseball star Eric Filia and his Team USA teammates brought home the silver medal Saturday after Japan defeated Team USA 2-0 in the gold medal game at the Tokyo Olympics at Yokohama Baseball Stadium.

“What an experience and honor to represent my country,” Filia said on Twitter Saturday. The tweet included graphics of three American flags.

UCLA Athletics and the Seattle Mariners sent out congratulatory notes on Twitter to Filia, the starting rightfielder.

The game was televised nationally at 3 a.m. West Coast time on NBC Sports Network.

Team USA finished 4-2 in the tournament and has now won six medals in Olympic Games history. It was Japan’s first gold medal in baseball. Japan finished 6-0 in the tournament.

The United States team featured another Bruin alum, bench coach Jerry Weinstein, according to UCLA Athletic Communications. It was Weinstein’s second time earning an Olympic medal as a Team USA coach following a bronze at the 1996 Games.

Filia had Team USA’s first hit in the game with a one-out single in the second inning. He wound up 1 for 3 and also reached when he was hit by a pitch in the sixth inning, according to UCLA Athletic Communications.

Masato Morishita got the victory for Japan with five innings of scoreless, three-hit ball. Four relief pitchers then came on to preserve the victroy.

Nick Martinez pitched for Team USA. In six innings, he allowed one earned run. Japan took the lead in the third inning on a home run by Munetaka Murakami.

Team USA stranded nine runners in the game, according to a release from Team USA.

Second baseman Eddy Alvarez, designated hitter Tyler Austin, first baseman Triston Casas and pitcher Anthony Gose were named to the All-Olympic squad while Nick Allen was named best defensive player, according to the Team USA release.

It was the second silver medal for Team USA, which also won silver in the 1984 Olympic Games. Team USA won gold medals in 1988 and 2000, according to the Team USA release.

In games at the Olympics, Filia batted .263 going 5 for 19 and had a .391 on-base percentage. Filia, who is with the Seattle Mariners organization, led Team USA in both hit by pitch (3) and stolen bases (2) and started all six games in right field, UCLA Athletic Communicatns noted.

Filia was a two-year starter at UCLA and batted .283 over 141 career games in college. He started in right field on UCLA’s 2013 National Championship squad, leading the team in hits (68) and multi-hit games (20) and earning All-College World Series Team honors.

In his senior year with the Bruins, Filia batted a career-high .295 with 32 RBI and earned Pac-12 All-Conference honors before being drafted in the 20th round of the 2016 MLB Draft by Seattle. Filia, now in his fifth year as a professional player, has a .314 career average in the minor leagues.

—Courtesy UCLA Athletic Communications