Issued with the headline “Zimbabwe [B]aseball Names bloated African Championship squad”, the equatorial nation revealed a roster with 37 names for this year’s African Baseball Championship. Although no information about the African Championship has been publicized, Zimbabwe is now the second African baseball federation to refer to the tournament with the expectation of its occurrence this year.
Zimbabwe Baseball Association (ZBA) also named a new head coach, Americo Juma, who has been a member of the national team coaching staff since 2015, including the 2019 African Baseball Championship, and coached for MLB’s PLAY BALL programme in Johannesburg in 2016. A seasoned baseball umpire, Juma is also the head coach of South Africa’s Baseball5 team. Zimbabwe is ranked No. 3 (out of 7) in African baseball and No. 57 (out of 85) in the world by the WBSC. The full roster can be seen below.
A whopping 10 of the 18 members of the 2025 Under-23 African Championship roster graduate to the senior national team this year: Ashton Chivizhe (previously Chivizve), Panashe Chirara, Ropes Gavaneni, Brendon Mazhamba (previously Mazhambe), Marshall Mondo, Clayton Mpofu, Takudzwa Mudzingwa, Albert Mukandla (previously Mkandla), Thabo Ncube, and Phineus Verengai.
Eight players return from the Zimbabwe squad at the 2019 African Championship. The list reveals the growth of baseball in the land-locked country in the nearly seven years since, as five of the seven returning players based in Zimbabwe hailed from Harare whereas just under one-third of the current roster is from the the capital’s baseball association.
- Tadiwanashe Bhasera (2B) went 0-for-3 with two walks.
- Vincent Chiama (previously Vincent Chaima) played RF, going 1-for-6 with a walk, a steal, two runs, and a RBI.
- Vinti Cliff (previously Cliff Vint) (P) topped the African Baseball Championship in strikeouts (11) and was second in innings (11). He earned the win against a strong Burkino Faso squad on Day One, losing to Uganda in the semifinals.
- Blessing Fredy (or Blessing Freddy) was 0-for-4 as a 1B.
- Tanyaradzwa Hungwe (1B-2B-SS) slashed .235/.381/.294 with a team-leading eight runs in five games.
- Tanyaradzwa Katsaruware (CF-P) was 0-for-1 with a walk and a steal and took the loss in his only appearance.
- Tinashe Kwangwari (CF) went 0-for-4, but was also the the MVP of the 2017 Zimbabwean baseball finals [link].
- Emmanuel Moyo (LF) had a superb showing, hitting .500/.571/.667 in three games, scoring six runs, and topping the African Baseball Championship in steals (7-for-7).
ZBA consists of six member associations, some as baseball-only associations (B.A.) and others as baseball and softball (B.S.A.): Bulawayo B.S.A., Harare Metropolitan B.A., Manicaland B.S.A., Mashonaland West B.A., Masvingo B.A., and Midlands B.S.A.
