Havana, January 3 (RHC) – The successful Baseball5 format will open the national sports competition calendar this Sunday in 2026.
Eros Bernal, the sport’s technical director in Cuba, commented that the conditions are in place for the III Heroes of the Trocha Cup to be held in the municipality of Venezuela in Ciego de Ávila province. Eleven teams will participate, divided into two groups.
The beautiful Lázaro Santana field will serve as the venue, and world champions from the elite and youth categories will compete, including Havana natives Briandy Molina and Orlando Amador, considered Baseball5 Legends by the World Baseball Softball Confederation.
Bernal mentioned that there are three teams whose rosters are predominantly youth players: Metropolitanos de la Habana, Avispas de Santiago, and Tigres de Ciego de Ávila. This youth category has achieved excellent results internationally and contributes talent to the national senior team’s pre-selection.
The tournament will feature four players from the island who play Baseball5 in three different countries. Leonardo Yuque and Omar Dionene, members of the Spanish and French national teams, respectively, will represent the team known as Farandurelos.
Omar López and Javier Santos, who play in Mexico, will also showcase their hitting and defense skills, now joining the White Tigers team.
As part of the event, the All-Star Game is scheduled for the 7th, featuring three exciting segments.
First, there will be a skills competition focusing on speed, accuracy, and defense in home-first, double play, and hitting drills.
This will be followed by a game between the Blue and Red teams, in which the 10 top players from the qualifying round (five men and five women) will face off.
And as the main event, a historic clash between the Cuban Senior Team (World Champions in Hong Kong 2024) and the Cuban Junior Team (World Champions in Tepic, Mexico 2025).
A Veterans’ Game between the event organizers and the managers of the participating teams is planned for Friday, the 9th.
Bernal noted, as an interesting detail, that in addition to playing under artificial lights at night, a replay system will be used for plays requested by the team managers. It’s a good idea to use technology for the benefit of the event.
