By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Baseball Association (BBA) has fielded a 20-member 15-and-under (15U) team to represent the country at the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s (WBSC) 15U Pan American Championship in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, March 16-21.

The moment is an historic one as it’s the first time The Bahamas has competed at a qualifier of this calibre with the potential of advancing to WBSC 15U World Cup scheduled for later in the year.

The announcement was made yesterday by officials at the Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium.

The 20-member national team has a mix of players from New Providence and Grand Bahama with nine hailing from the latter.

Albert Cartwright, head coach of the team, is looking forward to seeing the group in action starting this Saturday.

“These guys get to go out and they get to play a game of baseball. I think after the first inning those butterflies end up going away and it just turns into a baseball game.

“We are not expected to win so it makes it a little easier for me to just watch these guys perform and try to give them something to lean on.

“I think it’ll be fun to watch these guys perform for The Bahamas and I am excited,” Cartwright said.

The 20-member team includes Jordan Archer, Chrishad Thompson, Malique Israel, Khyale Watkins, Antwon Bain, Javan Smith, Jensynn Albury, Kaizen Dorsett, Nathan Fernander, Thaddeus Russell, Amari Knowles, Pedro Baillou, Aaron Taylor, Mario Dean, Caiden Martin, Ryan Wood, Liam Eneas, Tyler Knowles, Sean Forbes and Kamdynn Miller.

Cartwright will serve as the team’s head coach and will be assisted by Geron Sands, Pedro Dean Jr and Donovan Cox. Avard Hart is the team’s manager.

The Bahamas will play in the tournament alongside the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Panama, Brasil, Argentina, Cuba, Nicaragua and Peru.

The team will make their debut in the qualifier against Mexico on Saturday morning.

Coach Cartwright gave a snippet of the team’s strategy heading into this weekend’s competition.

“I think each baseball team from The Bahamas has one strength which is speed. Every time we go away as Team Bahamas we gotta play to our strength which is speed.

“We have to be good on the base paths, we have to take the extra bases, we have to steal bases and that is how we are gonna win games,” he said.

Team Bahamas will play out of Group A with Brasil, Argentina, Panama, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Argentina.

A goal of the BBA is to improve the country’s ranking from 59th on the WBSC World Rankings and coach Cartwright believes that this is a step in the right direction.

“We have been in the works to try and get into these tournaments to be able to pull up our rankings nationally so we could play in some of those big tournaments and eventually go to the Olympics. This tournament is a start to put us in the right direction for that and I think even though it took two weeks to put it together, I think you can see that the BBA is committed to this goal to get baseball internationally on a higher ranking,” he said.

BBA secretary general Theodore Sweeting acknowledged that the 15U team faces a difficult task but he believes that they are capable of getting the job done.

“This is going to be the first event in international baseball where this country is going to compete to qualify for a world tournament in any age bracket. This is going to be a very difficult task, but I think that we are up to it. We can compete and we are going to see just how well we can transition on the international stage,” Sweeting said.

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg gave the team his best regards before their journey to the Dominican Republic on Friday.

“When the vision was placed in the Prime Minister’s mind to build this stadium it was because we saw what baseball was doing in the country for our young men. When we look at the amount of young men that are signing professional deals it tells me that when I look at Albert, Geron and Avard and most of those in the Bahamas Baseball Federation, that they are doing their job and their part in developing our young men and using baseball as a vehicle to take them to the next level in life. I am so honoured and happy to be here because I know that these three young men will take these young men to the next level and we will compete and we will compete well,” Bowleg said.

Taylor, who plays outfielder, is ready to take on the newest opportunity for The Bahamas.

“I think this is a very good opportunity to have. I have no nerves but since we are from The Bahamas they are gonna think that we are the underdogs but we just gotta go out there and prove them wrong. We have been working on our batting because we know there is going to be some hard pitching out there but we will do good, ” he said.

Albury, who is a pitcher and outfielder, is excited and thinks the team is very equipped for the challenge ahead.

“I am very excited. There are a lot of players for The Bahamas and I was selected to be one of the many so I am very excited for us. It has been a lot of preparation, hard work, lots of games, a lot of defence situations, batting practices, but I think that we are well prepared,” he said.

Competition begins on Saturday and wraps up on March 21.