BEIJING – You can knock Jayson Nix down, but you can’t knock him out.

The Colorado Springs Sky Sox second baseman returned to the U.S. baseball team Saturday for an 8-4 win over Japan in the Olympic bronze-medal game, eight days after bunting a ball into his face.

Nix, 25, went 1-for-4 with a single and a walk, scoring in a three-run third inning. He made several sound defensive plays – a stretch far to his right for a groundball in the second and the turn of double plays in the fifth and the eighth.

U.S. Olympic Committee chief medical officer William Kuprevich said last week Nix wouldn’t play again in the Beijing Games after microsurgery for multiple lacerations on his left eyebrow.

Swelling on his forehead, coupled with his eye being dilated, caused Nix to miss six games – wins over Canada, China, Japan, Netherlands and Taiwan in pool play and a 10-2 loss to Cuba in Friday’s semifinals.

He took batting practice Thursday and fielded groundballs Friday, showing no signs of fatigue from a brief stay at a Beijing hospital, where he underwent a CT scan and an eye exam in addition to surgery.

“I was glad I was able to get back out there,” said Nix, sporting a shiner under his eye and a handful of stitches on his eyebrow from the high, tight pitch that took an awkward bounce off his bat Aug. 15 in the 11th inning of a 5-4 setback against Cuba.

Nix will skip the Closing Ceremony today to fly back to Colorado Springs. He plans to rejoin the Sky Sox as early as Tuesday for the end of the final homestand of the season against Tucson, carrying a .300 average with 49 RBIs and 17 home runs.

There’s a chance Nix, the Rockies’ Opening Day second baseman, could get called up next month. He must first be placed on the 40-man roster, not a foregone conclusion given the recent tear by his Sky Sox replacement, Jonathan Herrera.

Nix wasn’t productive in his first stints with the Rockies – 17 games in April and five games last month. He hit .125 and struck out 17 times.

“You never assume anything when you’re playing,” said Nix, selected by the Rockies in the supplemental draft (No. 44 overall) in 2001. “We’ll see what happens when September comes around. Every time you go up there, you get a little more comfortable and you know a little bit better what to expect.”

Nix maintains he’ll remember the road to the bronze as much as the medal itself.

“Playing in these games was a lot of fun,” he said. “Every pitch counts so much, and they were tight games. The Olympic experience, it’s hard to put in words. It’s real special.”