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 runs. 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.