HAVANA, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Cuban pitcher Yadier Pedroso Gonzalez died Saturday night in a traffic accident in his homeland Artemisa, in western Cuba, sports daily JIT reported Sunday.

He and other two people were traveling in a car which crashed, at 22:30 local time, against a cargo truck on the highway leading to the Artemisa city, capital of the same western province, neighbor of Havana, the source said.

Pedroso, 26, was one of the five pitchers from Cuba's team participating at the third edition of World Baseball Classic (WBC) championship. Cuba didn't qualify for the third stage, held in San Francisco, USA, and returned to the island this week.

During his international career, "Pedrosito", as Cuban fans called him, achieved a world silver medal and participated in 26 games in ten international tournaments, with two victories and one defeat.

During the 48th local series (2009) he was considered one of the essential players who contributed to the title obtained by his team, La Habana.