Havana, Jun 22 (ACN) The Leñadores de Las Tunas, ranked third in the qualifying phase of the 63 National Baseball Series, will begin today their road to the conquest of the second place that will open the doors to the III Elite League.

This Saturday, the reigning national champions, who have a 41-26 record, will play the first of three suspended games they have with the Cazadores de Artemisa, before playing if necessary the five remaining games with the runner-up Piratas de La Isla.

Although they already have their ticket to this season's playoffs in their pocket, the battle for the second place, occupied by Granma (47-26), is important because it assures them, even if they are defeated in the quarterfinals, a seat among the first six that will access by regulation to the next selective tournament.

The task of displacing the Alazanes is very difficult in the first place because they lost to them in the particular battle, because of the number of victories that their rivals have in advantage and because they still have a couple of games left in the calendar.

However, beyond the quality of the opponents they have to face in this final stretch, they are already eliminated teams without any group motivation that drives them on the field and that can favor them.

Today's game, scheduled for the afternoon at the 26 de Julio stadium in Artemisa, will be played with four consecutive defeats but with a lot of motivation to achieve their goals.

Yesterday, the National Commission of this sport announced the schedule of the first pending games.

Leñadores and Cazadores will also face each other on Sunday and Monday, both at the same venue and at 10:00 am, while Vegueros de Pinar del Río and Alazanes de Granma will play on the same days at 2:00 pm at the Capitán San Luis stadium.