Guantanamo.- In an official ceremony just hours before leaving for Nicaragua to compete in the 1st Baseball Series of the Americas, the Las Tunas Leñadores players received the banner they will carry to the tournament.
Team captain Yunieski Larduet took the ensign from the hands of Inés María Chapman, deputy prime minister of the Republic of Cuba, who received it in turn from former Cuban catcher and sporting glory Pedro Medina.
Attending the event was Osvaldo Vento, president of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation, who praised the team for their results in the National Championship and urged them to defend with honor the colors of the country in Nicaragua.
“The team is in excellent shape and hopes to give a good performance. We are going for the crown, as such is the state of mind I instill in them”, head coach Abeicy Pantoja remarked.
Sponsored by the recently created Baseball Association of the Americas (ABAM) as an alternative to the countries that are not invited to the Caribbean Series, the tournament is highly significant to Cuban baseball in its effort to regain prominence at international level after finishing second-to-last in the 2024 Premier 12 and falling to tenth place in the world ranking.
The Leñadores will made their debut on Friday against the Nicaraguan team, followed by Panama’s Aguilas Metropolitanas, Curacao’s Goats, Colombia’s Caimanes de Barranquilla, and Argentina’s Club Daom.