The first team for the 2024 Little League Baseball® World Series, Presented by T-Mobile, has officially won its way to Williamsport, as Santa Clara Little League of the Villa Clara Province won back-to-back games over Sanctis Spritus Little League, 7-2 and 4-0, in Cuba’s best-of-three country championship series to finish the tournament with an 8-1 record.
Santa Clara LL will be the second team from Cuba to participate in the LLBWS after Bayamo Little League made history as the first team to compete in 2023, finishing the tournament with a 1-2 record. During that historic year, Little League and the Cuban Baseball and Softball Federation also announced an extension of its affiliation agreement to 2025, further enhancing the commitment to development of the Little League program throughout Cuba.
Cuba’s direct entry to the World Series as part of an international rotation with Puerto Rico and Panama started in 2022 in coordination with the Little League Baseball World Series expansion that was announced in 2019. With its direct entry into the 2023 event, Cuba became the 29th international country to earn a spot in the Little League Baseball World Series.
Since the initial agreement between Little League International and the Cuban Baseball Federation was signed in 2019, and prior to last year’s direct entry into the LLBWS, teams from Cuba have performed well in their two appearances at the Caribbean Region Tournament. In Cuba’s first year as an affiliated program in 2019, Havana Little League made its way to the semifinals, falling to eventual Region Champion, Pabao Little League from Curacao, finishing with a 5-2 record in the 2019 Region Tournament. After not being able to compete in 2020 or 2021 due to the pandemic, Cuba returned to the Caribbean Region tournament in 2022 as Liga Santa Clara worked its way to the championship game before falling once again to Pabao Little League, finishing the event with a 5-1 record. In both 2019 and 2022, Pabao Little League would also go on to claim the International Championship Banner at the World Series.
Additional information for the LLBWS, including visitor resources, special guests, and more will be made available in the coming months at LittleLeague.org/WorldSeries. To plan your visit to Williamsport, start your planning now by going to LittleLeague.org/Visit. Additionally, the dates for future World Series events can also be found at LittleLeague.org/WSDates.