Team USA, Cuba excited to renew annual baseball series

USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team and the Cuban National Team will compete in a five-game series that will span six days in three ballparks. Here are four things to know about this series, which begins Wednesday night in Cary:

1. USA Baseball and Cuba’s relationship is strong

The Americans and the Cubans will play for the fourth consecutive year after a 16-year hiatus. Throughout Tuesday’s press conference at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, both delegations admired the other and showed a desire to continue the series past this season. Past concerns of defection of Cuban players to the United States have now been eased, Cuba manager Roger Machado said through a translator.

“Like all things in the world, things change and evolve,” Machado said. “These games bring up so many things that are important, and not only just in the game of baseball.”

The Cuban National Team has won two of the three recent five-game series.

2. Wolfpack, Blue Devil pitchers on roster

N.C State pitcher Tommy DeJuneas and Duke pitcher Bailey Clark were added to the USA roster for the five-game series.

DeJuneas, a freshman, was 3-3 with a 1.82 ERA in 392/3 innings. He also had six saves for the Wolfpack.

Clark was 4-5 as a sophomore, and his 2.95 ERA was 10th-best in the ACC.

Four other ACC players made the roster for the Cuba series: Louisville pitchers Zack Burdi and Brendan McKay (who was just named the best two-way player in college baseball), Louisville outfielder Corey Ray and Clemson catcher Chris Okey.

3. CWS champion part of Team USA

Virginia infielder Matt Thaiss was invited to the team after the Cavaliers’ College World Series championship win on Tuesday. Though he failed to make the roster for the Cuba series, Thaiss embraced his achievements of the past week.

“Every kid dreams about winning the College World Series, and this is just an added bonus,” he said. “It’s been a crazy week. It hasn’t set in. It’s pretty awesome.”

Thaiss has known Team USA manager Ed Blankmeyer awhile. He and Blankmeyer’s son played high school ball together in New Jersey. Blankmeyer, the head baseball coach at St. John’s, recruited Thaiss before he chose Virginia. Thaiss led the Cavaliers in hitting and in home runs this season.

4. Cuban legend Linares in town

Cuban baseball legend Jose Linares was known as “El Nino,” or The Kid, during his playing days.

Now, he is distanced from his pro baseball career by a decade and is no longer a young phenom. But he continues his involvement in Cuban baseball, serving as a scout for the national team.

USA Baseball executive director Paul Sailer hailed Linares, who traveled with the team to North Carolina, as the preeminent baseball legend in Cuba during Tuesday’s press conference.

In 20 seasons, Linares was among the leaders in several offensive categories, compiling a .368 batting average that stands as the best in Cuban professional baseball history. Linares was also a linchpin in Cuba’s gold medals in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics.

This story was originally published June 30, 2015 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Team USA, Cuba excited to renew annual baseball series."