MEXICO CITY – The Kane County Cougars of the American Association have won the 2026 Baseball Champions League, taking the final 7-3 from the Diablos Rojos del Mexico of the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol.
It was the third edition of the Baseball Champions League and the second contested at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu in Mexico City, the home of the Diablos Rojos.
The 22,000-seat ballpark, which is an absolute gem, wreaked havoc on pitchers – with one exception: the Kane County Cougars managed a rare shutout, stifling the Cocodrilos de Matanzas 9-0 in the early game on March 27.
And by rare, consider this: A post on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, by @AABaseballfan1 noted, “Kane County’s shutout was the first at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu since the Diablos Rojos threw one on July 27, 2024. There was not a single game, regular or postseason, at that ballpark in 2025 that ended with a shutout.”
That was also just the second shutout in BCL history, the first being the Farg0-Moorhead RedHawks 8-0 blanking of the Caimanes de Barranquilla in the championship game of the 2023 Baseball Champions League in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.
No Mercy – As we saw in the Diablos Rojos’ absurd 36-13 win over the Cocodrilos de Matanzas, there was no mercy rule in the BCL. Had they used the World Baseball Classic’s early termination rule, which ends a game when a team leads by 15 runs after five full innings or by 10 at any time after seven innings, that game would have ended in the fifth when the Diablos were “only” up 22-6.
Only one other game would have been stopped by the early termination rule, and that was Thursday’s night’s 16-6 win by the Dantos de Managua over the Cocodrilos, which would have been stopped in the seventh when the Dantos lead reached 10 runs.
And you can’t fault Lorenzo Bundy or his team for keeping their foot on the gas despite the game being lopsided. This is professional baseball, and while it’s too bad that the Cocodrilos got run out of the building twice in four games, they built their roster knowing the level of competition at this event. Don’t forget, the Lenadores de Las Tunas finished second in the 2025 Baseball Champions League Americas, falling in the championship game to the Diablos 6-1.
Some More Facts From That Wild Game – The Diablos Rojos, who were the home team, batted eight times in the game against Matanzas, and they scored 36 runs – which, if you add the numbers one through eight together, adds up to 36. The only inning they didn’t score was the first, and the only total numbers of runs they didn’t score in an inning was one and six. They scored eight in the second, three in the third, four in the fourth, seven in the fifth, five in the sixth, two in the seventh, and seven in the eighth.
The game took four hours and eight minutes, which isn’t surprising, considering there were 49 runs scored. Thirty-four different plate appearances went to three-ball counts, and there were 26 walks in the game, with the Diablos drawing 19 free passes and the Cocodrilos drawing seven. In case you were wondering, the most runs scored by a team in a single MLB game is 36. The Chicago Colts, now the Cubs, hung three dozen on the Louisville Colonels on June 29, 1897.
The Cocodrilos’ 13 runs were the most they scored in any game of the round robin… and they still lost by 23.
Four different Diablos – Ramon Flores (6), Jose Marmolejos (5), Maikel Franco (7), and Bryan Gonzalez (5) – drove in five or more RBIs. Gabriel Gutierrez was the only starter with fewer than two RBIs – he only had one.
Every Matanzas pitcher allowed at least three runs, with Silvio Iturralde allowing the fewest – three runs on three hits in one inning of work.
Noervys Entenza, who mopped up the final 2 1/3 in a game that was over long ago, allowed nine runs on nine hits, but that wasn’t the worst pitching appearance for Matanzas. That non-distinction goes to Yosney Garcia, who allowed seven runs on four hits and six walks in 1 1/3 innings of work, which is a 54.00 ERA.
One of the things I love about baseball, perhaps the thing I love the most, is that anytime you go to the ballpark, you might see something unique. Something wild, something crazy, something absurd, something that’s never happened before. We certainly did that night.
The Complexities of When and Who – While, overall, this edition of the Baseball Champions League was more competitive, there’s still a talent gap between the top and bottom teams in the field. That gap exists partly because of the timing of the event and partly due to the quality of the leagues and teams participating. It’s hard to assemble a tournament field for this event that is both geographically diverse, has relative competitive parity, and that’s always going to be the difficulty in organizing this event and raising its profile.
And like the World Baseball Classic, there’s no perfect time to hold the Baseball Champions League. For the American Association and the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol, the tournament falls during spring training. Cuba’s Serie Nacional playoff ended in February, and the Cuban Elite League is shrouded with uncertainty as to whether or not it will play a season in 2026.
Diablos manager Lorenzo Bundy assembled a team from the players in the Reds’ spring training camp, though he was without regulars Juan Carlos Gamboa, Julian Ornelas, and Robinson Cano. Cano, who won the MVP at the 2025 BCL, had business engagements in the Dominican Republic, and Ornelas played a full winter season that saw him play all 68 regular season games with the Charros de Jalisco, go all the way through the Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico playoffs, the Caribbean Series, and then play three of four games at the World Baseball Classic for Mexico. Gamboa played 38 games over the winter, and has played year-round since the Covid-19 Pandemic.
And he still has players at training camp in Oaxaca, where he and the Diablos who played in the tournament will now head with the BCL over.
For the Cougars, spring training hasn’t even begun. George Tsamis’s team first got together here in Mexico for this event.
“I mean, our season, we’re still like six weeks away, I believe, or six, seven weeks. But we’re still trying to finish off our team,” Tsamis told World Baseball Network following the Cougars’ 9-0 win against the Cocodrilos de Matanzas Friday afternoon. “But our guys have done a really nice job. The first time together we were on the field was Monday at practice for an hour and a half, and so our guys have come ready to play.”
For the CTBC Brothers of the Chinese Professional Baseball League, the regular season in Taiwan’s top league has already begun, so they sent their minor league club, which finished 0-4 and was outscored 54-27 in the four games they played. CTBC’s top club likely would have been far more competitive in the BCL, but they can’t skip out on their league’s regular season.
Where Will We Go Next? – The first three editions of the Baseball Champions League – “Americas” was dropped from the event’s branding this year when the CTBC Brothers from Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League were invited – were all played in Mexico at the home ballpark of the reigning champion of the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol. Merida’s Parque Kukulkan Alamo, the home of the Leones de Yucatan, hosted the 2023 event, and Estadio Alfredo hosted in 2024 and 2025.
A source close to the event told World Baseball Network that Nicaragua, Taiwan, and an American Association venue are all under consideration to host the next Baseball Champions League.
Nicaragua has a beautiful ballpark, Estadio Nacional Soberania, in the capital city of Managua, and Estadio Rigoberto Lopez Perez in Leon, which World Baseball Network visited in February to see Cuba play Nicaragua in advance of the World Baseball Classic, is less than a year old and comparable to any Double-A ballpark in the United States, though perhaps a little more basic.
Taiwan would be an interesting choice, as it would require a lot of travel – Taiwan is approximately a 14-hour flight from Los Angeles – but it would also expose the LMB, AA, and other leagues to the Asian market, and potentially bring the event to a CPBL stadium full of rabid fans.
Looking at a map of the American Association’s 12 teams, it’s pretty easy to figure out which cities wouldn’t be a good choice to host a BCL played in the early spring. Winnipeg, home of the Goldeyes, the northernmost team in the AA, is forecasted to have a high of 32 and is expecting snow today, though if you’ve ever been to Winnipeg in the winter or early spring, you’d know that that’s a heatwave. Fargo-Moorhead, the Chicago and Milwaukee-area teams, and Sioux Falls could likely be ruled out for their lousy Smarch weather as well.
Lincoln, Nebraska, and Kansas City, though, had warm weather this week, with temperatures reaching the 90s in Kansas City late last week, and while that is unseasonably warm, with a little meteorological luck, both those cities could host a BCL. Perhaps we’ll all be channeling Muddy Waters next year.
Attendance – As my friend and former boss, the late Art Clarkson, would say, “The real game is in the stands.” A two-time Sporting News Double-A Executive of the Year when he was the general manager of the Birmingham Barons, Clarkson’s prowess as a promoter was a big part of the rebirth of minor league baseball that started in the mid-1980s and led to the birth of independent leagues like the American Association.
Obviously, drawing a crowd to what is, essentially, a preseason tournament isn’t easy, and while Mexico City is very accessible for international travelers, the BCL is not a huge draw for fans of teams other than the host, at least yet. It can be difficult for Nicaraguans and Cubans to leave their country and Taiwan is a short 15-hour hop by plane from Mexico City.
Aside from the first afternoon game of the tournament, Tuesday’s game between the Dantos de Managua and the CTBC Brothers which drew 100, there was no announced attendance for the afternoon games, as they were closed to all but the teams, media, and tournament staff. But that’s understandable, as firing up the concessions for a doubleheader costs far more than any ticket revenue would bring in. The only game that didn’t involve the Diablos Rojos that had an announced attendance was Thursday’s game between the Dantos and the Cocodrilos de Matanzas, which drew 667.
The games involving the Diablos Rojos drew an average of 3,673, with the wild game between the Diablos and Matanzas drawing a tournament-high 5,878.
2026 Baseball Champions League Schedule
All times Eastern Daylight Time
All games at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu, Mexico City
March 24
Dantos de Managua 17, CTBC Brothers 5
Kane County Cougars 14, Diablos Rojos del Mexico 7
March 25
Cocodrilos de Matanzas 9, CTBC Brothers 8
Diablos Rojos del Mexico 10, Dantos de Managua 6
March 26
Kane County Cougars 16, CTBC Brothers 10
Dantos de Managua 16, Cocodrilos de Matanzas 6
March 27
Kane County Cougars 9, Cocodrilos de Matanzas 0
Diablos Rojos del Mexico 12, CTBC Brothers 4
March 28
Kane County Cougars 9, Dantos de Managua 7
Diablos Rojos del Mexico 36, Cocodrilos de Matanzas 13
March 29
Kane County Cougars 7, Diablos Rojos del Mexico 3
Photo: The Kane County Cougars captured the 2026 Baseball Champions League title with a 7-3 win over the Diablos Rojos del Mexico in the final. (Photo courtesy of the WBSC)
