Premier 12 training sessions

Havana, Sept 19 (JIT) - The Cuban baseball pre-selection team began training on Wednesday at the Latin American Stadium, in preparation for its participation in the Premier 12 Tournament.

From this pre-draft roster, composed of 60 players -including those playing in foreign professional leagues- will come the 28 players that must be confirmed to the WBSC by October 10.

Twenty-nine players attended this first training session. The remaining players who are on the island must confirm their names between Thursday and Friday.

On Wednesday, there was jogging along the field, an excellent warm-up, batting practice and severe defense work, mainly for the fielders.

"In the last few tournaments we have had serious problems with defense and we are going to emphasize working hard in this area. We still have to incorporate many athletes so we can assess who are in better condition to join the team," said mentor Armando Jhonson to JIT.

"For today (Wednesday) being the first day of training, I have seen that those present complied with what was requested of them and worked in their respective provinces, so as not to arrive at this training camp at zero," said the manager of Pinar del Río.

The young Tunero slugger Denis Peña expressed that he will give everything to be chosen in the final cut.

"I had an excellent season, I played in several positions and I was among the first in home runs and runs batted in. I am ready for training, as I have not stopped working individually," he commented.

Cuba was placed in group B, which will start next November 13 in China Taipei, along with Australia, Dominican Republic, South Korea, Japan and the host team.