Baseball 

Mexico won its 9th title at the 58th Caribbean Baseball Series, which came to an end on Sunday at the Juan Marichal Stadium in Santo Domingo.

"We never gave up. We always battled to the fullest and kept our heads up, so today we celebrate this crown," said Mexico's coach Juan José Pacho, whose team won all 6 games it played in the tournament.

According to experts, Mexico was the most stable and comprehensive team of all engaged; though it is worthy to say that Venezuela, runner-up of the Series, also performed excellent and was only defeated twice by Mexico.

Congratulations to Mexico because they did a great job and are worthy champions; the Cuban team, meanwhile, had its worst performance as it did not excel in any of the statistics.

Parallel, the All-Star team of the event was formed by the catcher Sebastian Valle (MEX), 1st baseman Neftali Soto, PUR, 2nd baseman Yulieski Gourriel (CUB), 3rd baseman Adonis Garcia (VEN), shortstop Juniel Quereturo (VEN), outfielders José Martinez (VEN), Justin Green (MEX), and Alex Romero (VEN), designated batter Dariel Álvarez (VEN), right and left-handed pitchers Freddy Garcia, and Hector Rodriguez (MEX), while the best mentor was Juan José Pacho, and most valuable player went to Venezuelan José Martínez, leader in batting with .450 and only 1 strikeout.

And Cuban media deplored today brothers Yuliesky and Lourdes Gurriel Castillo leaving the Cuban sports delegation, in what has been described as a “frank attitude of surrender to the merchants of paid professional baseball,” an act that was also rejected by the members of the Cuban team, who issued a statement.

Basketball
Cuba's national basketball pre-selection begins training today with their eyes on the Women's Olympic event, which will be hosted by France from June 13rd-19.

The lid, to be held in the city of Nantes, will bring together 12 teams looking for the 5 available seats to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro next August.

Alberto Zabala, Cuban head coach, stressed to local ACN news agency the quality of all teams involved, which makes the event a very strong tournament.

At the same time, the specialist added that at present there are 4 Cuban basketball players in foreign leagues. They are: Clenia Noblet, Isneidis Casanova and Oyanaisys Gelis, while Suchitel Ávila is inserted in the 2nd Division of Spain, all of whom will be gradually incorporated into the training of the national team to play for Cuba in Brazil.

The 12 casts involved are located in 4 groups and advance to the next stage, the first 2 of each key, to then define, in the crossing stage, the Olympic qualifiers.