SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico—Cuba’s team will go head to head against Major League players for the first time in an official tournament today when, at 2 p.m. (local time and Cuban time), the game begins between Cuba and Panama, as part of Group C of the World Baseball Classic.

The Cuban team trained yesterday for the first time in Hiram Bithorn Stadium for two-and-a-half hours. First they warmed up and stretched, with the 14 pitchers grouped into centerfield, under the coaching of José Elosegui and Juan de Dios Peña, and the 15 infield and outfield players along the third-base line with the supervision of Higinio, Benito and assistant coaches Cepero and Escaurido.

They followed that with sprints between home and first base and home to second, and then batting practice, with lefthanders Yosvani Pérez, Maikel Folch and Yulieski González, preparing for Panama’s pitcher, left-hander Bruce Chen.

The regulars batted first, in this order: Eduardo Paret, Michel Enríquez, Yulieski Gourriel, Osmani Urrutia (designated hitter), Frederich Cepeda, Ariel Pestano, Joan Carlos Pedroso, Alexei Ramírez and Carlos Tabares.

Higinio explained the line-up that will be presented today as follows: the first three are firmly decided, no discussion, and with regard to Urrutia, he carried out that function in Athens, it’s nothing new for him. "We are putting Pedroso among the first against a rival left-handed pitcher, and also as seventh in the line-up to ‘freshen it up’ and adapt to the tournament. If the Panamanian opener were a right-hander, Ariel Borrero would be fourth at bat and play first base, and Urrutia would go to Pedroso’s place."

While there are no surprises in the batting line-up, the selection of who will be on the mound was not quite what was expected. Right-hander Pedro Luis Lazo is the man who will try to dominate the Panamanians, at least for the first five innings.

"Nobody has any doubt that Lazo is our best pitcher, the one with the most experience, and with a temperament that has been sufficiently demonstrated in countless international events. We need to keep the Panamanians at zero – or reduce them to the minimum, while the rest of the team ‘breaks the ice’ after so many training sessions."

The Santiago-born head coach also holds that he prefers to use (Lazo) now, in a game that is key to Cuba’s aspirations of classifying in the first round, rather than saving him for the sake of preserving a hypothetical advantage in later games. "If we don’t make it to the eighth or ninth (inning) with an advantage, and I don’t use my best pitcher, that wouldn’t make any sense."