Cuba U12 baseball team

Santo Domingo, Aug 31 (PL) - Cuba's under-12 baseball team comfortably defeated its Venezuelan counterpart 9x2 to win the Pan American Children's Baseball Tournament, which brought together teams from 12 countries in the Dominican Republic.

The Cubans were crowned undefeated in seven games. Before defeating Venezuela in the final, they had beaten the teams of Puerto Rico (8x0), Venezuela (13x8), Colombia (4x1), Aruba (10x0), Ecuador (14x1) and the United States by knockout in five innings (11x1), in the semifinals.

The joy among the Cuban children was twofold because pitcher Asnel Torres and Alfredo Despaigne Jr. deserved special trophies, while Rainel Delgado was the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the final.

Víctor Corona, head of the Cuban delegation, said that the next event in which the Cuban baseball players will participate will be the pre-World Cup in Panama next October, which will give three slots for the World Cup scheduled for 2025 in China.