De Wills of Bayelsa win Nigeria’s 2026 Super Five baseball title

A new champion has emerged in Nigerian baseball, with De Wills Baseball Club of Bayelsa defeating defending champions Delta State to win the 2026 Super Five Baseball Championship at Abuja’s Moshood Abiola National Stadium. Blueprint reported that the result ended Delta’s run at the top of the domestic game and placed Bayelsa’s players in contention for national-team opportunities.

The Abuja tournament was the final stage of a national league campaign involving about 17 clubs. Matches were held in Kwara, Rivers and other centres before the five leading teams were brought together in the capital to compete for the championship.

A competition with national ambitions

Uche Odozor, president of the Nigeria Baseball and Softball Federation and head of the World Baseball and Softball Confederation’s African body, said the Super Five is designed to bring the strongest teams from the wider league into direct competition. The tournament therefore served both as a domestic title event and as an assessment platform for players hoping to represent Nigeria.

The federation used the championship to identify talent ahead of the country’s effort to qualify for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Japanese analysts Daisuke Hoshikawa and Takumu Yamada assessed players with the Trackman System, which records and measures aspects of individual performance.

Shinya Tomonari, Nigeria’s national-team head coach, said the evaluation would lead to a pool of 23 candidates. Each player is expected to receive an individual development plan, supported by a 10-person coaching staff. Tomonari said the immediate preparation would focus on the Africa Championship scheduled for next July.

Several Nigerian players are also expected to travel to Japan in November. Their programme is due to include training with professional clubs and leading university teams, giving the players access to a higher level of preparation before national-team selection.

Tomonari, who is Japanese and has previously managed teams in Ghana, Tanzania and South Sudan, took up his Nigerian appointment on June 8. He has worked in African baseball for 30 years and is implementing Baseballership Education, a baseball-based human-development programme, in 13 African countries.

Building the sport beyond the tournament

The federation says its ambitions extend beyond one championship or one Olympic qualifying campaign. Odozor linked baseball’s prospects to Nigeria’s large youth population and said the sport is being aligned with the National Sports Commission’s plan to broaden participation across the country.

He recalled that baseball first reached Nigeria in 1960 during the Peace Corps era, around the same period it was introduced in Japan. Activity stopped after the promoters left during the civil war in 1967, with former players helping to revive the game in the 1990s.

The federation is now seeking to return baseball to schools and military barracks, where it hopes to find and develop players capable of moving into major leagues abroad. Odozor also described the game as connected to science, technology, engineering and mathematics, while a Baseballership programme is being introduced. Baseball has also become a medal sport at Nigerian universities.

Robert Anthony, the federation’s secretary general and a development secretary for more than 15 years, said equipment production is beginning locally. Gloves are now being made in Nigeria, a move intended to lower costs at home and provide supplies to other African countries.

Nigeria’s path to Los Angeles will include an African qualifier followed by a playoff in Oceania, according to Anthony. Those hurdles make the development of a deeper domestic talent pool particularly important.

Delta questions the format

Delta captain Suleman Abdulrahman Bala accepted the outcome but disputed how the championship was decided. He said the original plan was for the winner to be determined by accumulated league points, but that the format was changed to a series of championship games. Bala called for greater clarity in the rules and argued that a tournament of this scale required more sponsors and stronger participation from states across the country.

He also rejected the idea that Delta’s defeat indicated a decline. The team had dominated Nigerian baseball for years, he said, and Bayelsa’s victory instead showed that its rivals were improving.

De Wills captain Adebisi David described the title as the product of a demanding run of matches and credited his teammates, coach and management. He said the prospect of national-team selection made the victory especially significant.

Adeyinka Adewusi of the Arnold Sports International Foundation said the second phase of the Honor International Baseball Elite began in Abuja on September 20, following an opening phase in Ilorin. Teams played a single round robin before the semi-finals, while Kwara defeated Niger to take third place. The foundation is also working with schools and seeking support from the National Sports Commission to expand the sport.