By Neto Baptiste
Antigua and Barbuda will field a team in the Caribbean Baseball Cup slated for October 1-8 in Puerto Rico.
This was revealed by senior national player/coach Jarred Francis who said a number of players have been preparing for the tournament which also serves as a qualifier for a much bigger tournament.
“It’s held by the same organisation that hosts the World Baseball Classic. It’s sort of a preliminary tournament for that, so if we play well then we have a chance to go on to further tournaments and potentially represent at the World Baseball Classic. We’ve had team practices and we’ve had 15 different faces or players. We have to field a team of 24 and we’re looking for 19 guys locally and leave space for five guys who are based overseas,” he said.
Francis, who previously represented Antigua and Barbuda at the little league level, welcomes the opportunity to fly the country’s flag at his first senior tournament.
“All we had was little league and then after we got to about 14 [years old] it sort of fell off, so this is the first official baseball team that we’ve had to represent the country. If this goes well and we can get it started it can help to promote the sport a lot and also gives us a chance to get back on the field,” he said.
Pablo Franco, another member of the team, underscored the significance of being able to compete in such a tournament.
“We’re actually pretty excited for this event because it is very competitive and compared to the ones we’ve participated in before, this is going to be really competitive. It’s a big deal for us so we are actually trying to practice as much as we can so we can represent the country accordingly,” he said.
Antigua and Barbuda is also preparing to host the 10th Annual Caribbean Little League Championships slated for July 2-9 at the baseball field in Potters Village.
Six teams, including defending champions Curacao, will compete in the championships which cater for players within the 11-13 age category. The other teams expected to take part are Venezuela, Aruba, USVI, the Dominican Republic and hosts Antigua and Barbuda.
