The United States retained its baseball World Cup title yesterday at Nettuno, Italy, with a 10-5 victory over Cuba that was powered by four RBIs from Lucas May, including a three-run home run.

"Other than playing in a World Series, this is as big as it gets," said May, a Los Angeles Dodgers prospect, who went 2 for 4. "It feels good to wear a gold medal."

The U.S. team, consisting entirely of Triple-A and Double-A players, finished with 14 straight wins after opening the competition with a loss to Venezuela.

"It was a difficult loss and the players took it to heart and we just regrouped and did some different things and everything else is obviously indicative," U.S. manager Eddie Rodriguez said. "They persevered through a lot of things."

The Americans also beat the Cubans in the 2007 final, snapping their run of nine consecutive titles.

The U.S. set up the victory by rallying for six runs in the seventh off three Cuban pitchers to snap a 4-4 tie.

U.S. starter Cory Luebke struck out seven and walked none over 4 1/3 innings, and Brad Lincoln (3-0) pitched the next 4 1/3 innings for the win.

Nate Field came on in the ninth after the Cubans loaded the bases with two outs. He earned the save by getting Cuban slugger Alfredo Despaigne to fly out to deep left.

U.S. first baseman Justin Smoak, a Texas Rangers prospect, led the U.S. with nine home runs and 22 RBIs to earn the tournament's MVP award.

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Volleyball: Cuba beat the United States, and Hawai'i's Lindsey Berg and Heather Bown, in five sets in the bronze medal match of the NORCECA Continental Championship yesterday at Bayamon, Puerto Rico.

The scores were 17-25, 16-25, 28-26, 25-16, 15-11.

Bown, a University of Hawai'i alum, tallied nine kills, four aces and a block for 14 points. Berg, a Punahou School alum, had 11 assists.

In the gold medal match, the Dominican Republic saved four match points in the fourth set and went on to defeat Puerto Rico, 19-25, 25-23, 16-25, 32-30, 15-8.

NBA: Cavaliers guard Delonte West, facing gun possession charges, is expected to report to Cleveland's training camp today.

West was arrested Sept. 17 after police said he was carrying two concealed handguns and a shotgun when he was pulled over on a three-wheel motorcycle near his Maryland home.

Beach volleyball: Albert Hannemann and Austin Rester won the U.S. Open of Beach Volleyball, beating Michael DiPierro and Adam Roberts, 21-17, 21-14, at Manhattan Beach, Calif.

In the women's final, Kim McGiven and Juliana Evens edged Iwona Lodzik and Sarah Straton, 21-13, 21-15.