Puerto Rico has a great history of baseball players, with all-time great Roberto Clemente, St. Louis Cardinals legend Yadier Molina and countless other players hailing from the island.

This summer Puerto Rico’s 18U team returned to Cape Girardeau to participate in the Babe Ruth League World Series. On day one, the team suffered a bad loss to the Missouri State Champion Southeast Tropics but has since bounced back for three wins in a row.

After the team defeated Mid-County, Texas, Puerto Rico head coach Hector Soler said he is proud of how his team has stepped up.

“It feels good, we’re a family and even if we have a bad game we’re going to stick together,” Soler said. “We all got here one hour before the game and we were tired. We sat in an airport for 24 hours and ended up sleeping there, so playing on no sleep was hard on the boys. Now we’re ready to bounce back and play baseball the way we know we can.”

Similar to the other teams who have come from out of the country, Puerto Rico’s team said it is unbelievable they can come over 2,000 miles to play in the tournament.

“It’s great for the boys to be able to travel here,” Soler said. “It’s a pleasure to be involved in the tournament, it’s organized very well.”

Soler said it takes a lot of sacrifice by the players and Puerto Rico itself to send the boys to Missouri.

“A lot of processes have to happen for us to be able to make the travel work but before that, it’s all about the baseball,” Soler said. “All of our boys try out and then whether or not their family can afford the travel or not doesn’t matter, we are fortunate enough that the state [Puerto Rico] gives us the means to do that for our boys.”

After a not-so-good start to their trip, Puerto Rico has put together an impressive three wins in a row scoring a total of 28 runs and their goal remains the same, bring a championship home.

“It’s always been a championship,” Soler said. “Just play our games, treat each one like it’s our last, and make sure we have fun.”

Puerto Rico’s round-robin portion of the tournament ended Monday and they will wait to see where they are seeded for the elimination portion of the tournament beginning on Wednesday.