Cuban baseball coach Alfonso Urquiola will lead team in Panama

January 14, 2023

Cuban coach Alfonso Urquiola, who directed the Pinar del Río baseball team in the National Series, has taken the reins of a new team in Panamanian baseball, according to information from sports reporter Ernesto Amaya Esquivel.

"Alfonso Urquiola, an experienced director from Pinar del Río, will command the Bocas del Toro team in the upcoming Panama Baseball League competition. Urquiola began training the pre-selection squad (44 players) on Tuesday, January 10, at the Calvin Byron stadium in El Empalme", wrote the journalist on his Facebook profile.

In November 2021, the Cuban manager was crowned champion again of Professional Baseball in Panama after winning the title with the Federales de Chiriquí team.

The squad directed by the Pinar del Río native defeated Panama Metro 4-2 in the title series in a best-of-seven format. The Chiriquí team won, as visitors, 11 runs to three in the sixth game of the final.

In 2004 and 2007 the same Panamanian team won the championship of that country under the command of Alfonso Urquiola.

The Cuban mentor was the architect of Pinar del Río's most recent triumphs, both within and outside the country. He won in Cuba in Series 37, 50, and 53 and, furthermore, won the Caribbean Series in 2015 with the Vegueros.

Urquiola also directed that year the Panamanian team that participated in the Caribbean Series. The Pinar del Río native won the Caribbean Series with the Cuban team of the "Vegueros" of Pinar del Río in the 2015 edition in Puerto Rico, while in Panama he directed in national tournaments the provinces of Chiriquí and Los Santos. Now he will test himself with this new team.

"The best of the best, that and much more, is what 'the prof' deserves, since they didn't know how to value the class of a powerful director we are losing", acknowledged a Cuban baseball follower after learning about this new "task" of the mentor.