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The 2035 Baseball Grand Championship was the 26^th edition of the event and was hosted in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Earning the auto-bids were MLB’s Houston and Louisville, CABA’s Torreon and Jamaica, EAB’s Hamamatsu and Busan, BSA’s Arequipa and Brasilia, EBF’s Krakow and Dublin, EPB’s Moscow, OBA’s Hobart, APB’s Kuala Lumpur, CLB’s Nanchang, WAB’s Libreville, SAB’s Mandalay, ABF’s Gaziantep, ALB’s Basra, and AAB’s Dar es Salaam. The at-large teams were APB’s Tainan, OBA’s Samoa, and ALB’s Algiers.

The two Major League Baseball teams dominated the field with World Series champion Houston earning Grand Champion honors at 18-3, tying 2033 champ Washington for the best record in event history. The Hornets had a +50 run differential and allowed only 50 runs, the lowest under the current 22-team format.



Houston had a 2.15 team ERA, second-best in event history behind only Recife’s 2.12 from 2019. It was a balanced effort as the rotation had a 1.38 ERA in 32.2 innings by Youssef Awada, 2.31 ERA in 39 innings by Colton Salo, 2.10 ERA in 34.1 innings by Shannon Hughes, and a 1.84 ERA in 29.1 innings from Truman Bloodworth. Salo had 67 strikeouts, the third-best in event history.

Offensively, the Hornets were led by CF Rex Seguin, who set a new BGC record for hits with 32. He scored 19 runs with 5 doubles, 2 triples, 8 homers, 19 RBI, 1.168 OPS, and 1.5 WAR. Houston joins the short list of teams with multiple top two finishes, as they also were second in 2031. They’re the 11^th MLB team to win the Grand Championship distinction and the eighth from the American Association.



Louisville was second at 16-5 and actually had the best run differential at +53. Dublin and Arequipa were next at 14-7 with the Dinos officially third via the head-to-head tiebreaker. Dublin is the only franchise to earn four finishes in the top three; the Dinos won it all in 2024 and were third in both 2022 and 2023. The Arrows are the first South American team in the top four since Sao Paulo’s third place in 2024.

Four teams were next at 12-9 and by tiebreakers, the official placing was Basra fifth, Krakow sixth, Algiers seventh, and Dar es Salaam eighth. The Arsenal scored 120 runs, tying 2030 Berlin for the most in event history. Algiers 179 hits were second only to the Barons’ 190. In other offense records, Louisville set the new top mark for walks drawn at 97 and both Dublin and Arequipa tied the triples record at eight apiece.

Hamamatsu and Jamaica rounded off the winning records at 11-10, followed by Busan and Hobart at 10-11. Both Samoa and Torreon were 9-12, then five teams finished 8-13; Gaziantep, Kuala Lumpur, Libreville, Moscow, and Tainan. It was a three-way tie for last at 7-14 between Brasilia, Mandalay, and Nanchang.

Tournament MVP went to Arequipa’s Caio Mergulho, a 28-year old Brazilian RF and seventh-year starter. He had 28 hits, 17 runs, 5 doubles, 10 homers, 21 RBI, 1.247 OPS, and 1.9 WAR. Notable was Nanchang’s Jinhao Lin, whose 2.34 WAR was the third-best by a position player in event history.

The two-time defending MVP in the Chinese League had 27 hits, 20 runs, 14 homers, 26 RBI, and 1.419 OPS. Lin’s 71 total bases tied for the eighth-best in BGC history. Hobart’s Jody Riley was also notable, as his 23 runs scored tied the event record reached thrice prior. Dublin’s Spyridon Peppas had 31 hits, one off the record set by Seguin.

Best Pitcher went to Dar es Salaam’s Basaula Kumwimba, who had been a reserve in the regular season with only 70.2 innings and didn’t pitch in the AAB playoffs. However, the 28-year old Congolese righty had a 0.92 ERA over 29.1 innings, 2-1 record, 30 strikeouts, and 1.7 WAR. Elsewhere, Louisville’s Reggie Hackett posted 2.41 WAR, the seventh-best by a pitcher in BGC history.

Other notes: Two bad pitching records were set as Hobart’s Theodore Weikel allowed 46 hits and Tainan’s Nasir Ganassan allowed 33 walks.