Photo: JIT.

Havana, Aug 20 (JIT) The Santiago de Cuba team maintained its good competitive rhythm and became the first team to qualify for the grand finale of the National Youth Baseball5 2024 Championship, held at the Eide Julio Diaz, in Artemisa.

The Santiago team, led by coach Yoanki Betancourt, reached 16 points, unreachable for the rest of the six participating teams, including Guantanamo, Havana and Artemisa, tied with eight points and looking for the second finalist of the tournament on Tuesday.

From the venue, Eros Bernal, head coach of baseball5 in Cuba, informed JIT the results of the day, among which stand out the pair of victories of Santiago, both by a comfortable score of 2-0.

In the morning they beat Guantánamo (10x0, 3x2) and in the afternoon Sancti Spíritus (19x2, 4x3).

In other results, Artemisa beat Guantanamo 2-1 (5x6, 12x2, 4x3) and Ciego de Avila (4x3, 5x4), Havana 2-0 against Mayabeque (13x0, 10x3) and Guantanamo 2-1 also against Mayabeque (6x0, 2x4, 10x9).

The Havana vs. Artemisa duel was sealed by darkness.

The competition serves the specialists to look for talents capable of integrating the national pre-selection for next year's international events.