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Hundreds of people gathered this Monday at the cemetery in Ciego de Ávila to bid farewell to Reinaldo Jhon Lovell Querol, relief pitcher for the Tigres Avileños who passed away on Sunday at the age of 24 due to a heart attack.
The official page of the Tigres Avileños announced the death that day with a message of condolences: "With deep sorrow and still reeling from this sad news, our page has just learned of the sudden passing in the afternoon hours of this Sunday of Avileño pitcher Reinaldo Jonh Lovell due to a heart attack."
The photographs from the funeral show the casket draped with the Cuban flag and a red Tigers shirt, surrounded by flowers and candles during the wake.
"From the bullpen, he walked to the mound and made his last appearance. Reinaldo died doing what he loved most; he died on a baseball field, playing baseball," the Avilanian team recounted in another post.
The images from the cemetery reveal dozens of people gathered to bid farewell to the young pitcher, in an event that reflected the impact of his death on the Avileña community.
The presence of military members from the Special National Brigade of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), known as the Black Berets, who attended the tribute with their rifles, drew attention.
According to an Avileño in the Facebook post of journalist Yasel Porto, the young baseball player belonged to that unit.
Lovell Querol made his debut in the 64th National Baseball Series (2025-2026 season) with the Ciego de Ávila Tigers; he participated in 11 games as a reliever and pitched 13.0 innings.
His team finished in last place that season with 30 wins and 45 losses, despite having just been crowned champion of the 2025 Cuban Elite Baseball League, where they swept the Leñadores de Las Tunas four to zero in the final.
The official page of the team described him as a "young boy, full of life, talented, and always focused on achieving a good result with the team."
Beyond baseball, acquaintances recalled his charitable side: he visited children with disabilities to give them sports equipment, often funded with his own resources, and kept used balls from the training sessions to distribute to underprivileged children, always avoiding public recognition.
The death of Lovell Querol reignites a painful streak in Cuban baseball: on March 25, 2025, Dorvis Lornet Navarro Queralta, also a pitcher and also 24 years old, a member of the Piratas de la Isla de la Juventud, passed away due to an aortic aneurysm while training in Nueva Gerona.
Previously, in March 2022, Cuban baseball mourned the death of Ulfrido García, a 28-year-old pitcher from Santiago de Cuba, who was a victim of a heart attack.
The coincidence of three young pitchers who died from cardiovascular causes within four years, all under the age of 30, raises questions about the health conditions, nutrition, and medical care of athletes in Cuba.
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