SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – Osmany Urrutia trusts that all his Cuban teammates will return home after the inaugural World Baseball Classic rather than defect from the communist island as major league pitchers Jose Contreras, Orlando Hernandez and Livan Hernandez did years ago.

“I think that the team that is representing our country is going to do it with dignity,” Urrutia said Tuesday. “And we’ll return to our country with the medal of dignity. We will never betray our “comandante.”‘

Team Cuba met President Fidel Castro on Sunday before flying into Puerto Rico for the first round of the tournament. Cuba practiced Tuesday at Hiram Bithorn Stadium, the site for Pool C.

Manager Higinio Velez said he had not decided on a starting pitcher for Cuba’s opening game against Panama on Wednesday.

“We have many options,” Velez said. “Panama has some new players that we’ve never seen before. So we’ll be closely watching (Tuesday night’s) game against Puerto Rico.”

Velez said he wasn’t worried about the stadium’s artificial turf, a surface that Cuba rarely plays on.

He thanked federal authorities for letting Cuba enter Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, to play in the tournament.

“We told the State Department that we wanted to come here to play baseball, not to make money. So we donated all our money to the victims of Hurricane Katrina,” Velez said.

Urrutia said Cuba, the 2004 Olympic champion, is ready for the challenge presented by Puerto Rico and other teams with major league stars on their rosters.

“This is one of the toughest tournaments that I’ve been in,” the designated hitter said. But “facing these major league players is normal.”

Local tournament organizers have said the final game in Pool C on Friday between Cuba and Puerto Rico is sold out.

AP-ES-03-07-06 1742EST