(click for schedule of games and more info)

We are assembling the info for a full report, but in the meantime:

Finals
Team Rainey/IAC 11
Grillos, Santa Cecilia MX 1
5 innings
WP-Sebastian Gervasutti
LP-Panfilo Valdez

Semifinals

Team Rainey/IAC 3
Portland DeMarini 2
WP-Bricklen Anderson
LP- Matias Tessore

Grillos, Santa Cecilia, MX over
Innovative Communications
WP – Panfilo Valdez
LP – Steve Black

Quarterfinals
Team Rainey/IAC 2
A1 Bombers 1
WP-Sebastian Gervasutti
LP-Lucas Mata

(Sebastian Gervasutti of Team Rainey/IAC, Best of the West MVPitcher)

(photo by Maddy Flanagan)

Most Valuable Pitcher
Sebastian Gervasutti

Most Valuable Player
Chase Turner

ISC Berths
Rainey/IAC and Portland win ISC berths

ISC II Berths:
Innovative Communications and Rude Pac earn ISC II berths

News and notes:

Team Rainey/IAC turned an 0-3 Saturday into a 4-0 Sunday, including a quarterfinal win over the then-unbeaten A1 So Cal Bombers. Rainey/IAC played well enough on Saturday, but had nothing to show for it at the end of the day. Their Saturday included an extra inning, 2-1 loss to the same Bomber team, with the same pitching match-up – as Sunday, Argentines Sebastian Gervasutti for Rainey and Lucas Mata for the Bombers.

The Bombers came into the tournament as the # 5 ranked team in the World, while Rainey was the next highest ranked team, at # 16. It was Rainey’s 0-3 Saturday that produced an unlikely match-up of the two powerhouses in a Sunday morning quarterfinal — the 3-0 Bombers as the top seed, and Rainey as an 0-3 low seed. As the # 5 seed from Pool A actually had to play and win an 8:30am Sunday morning game just to get to play the Bombers in the quarter final.

The rematch Sunday was equal to Saturday’s game, with Rainey coming away the winner, 2-1, scoring the game winner in the bottom of the 7th inning, on a double-throwing error. Coming home with the winning run was Rainey/IAC’s Chase Turner, who was 3-for-3 in the game, with two hits off Robbie O’Brien and a third against Lucas Mata, who came on in relief. Turner had an outstanding weekend, and was named as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

The Best of the West victory was the fourth for Team Rainey, which won the tournament three consecutive years in 2002-2004. It was the Bombers in 2005 which broke the string, followed by Innovative Communications’ back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007.

Innovative Communications of Utah turned in yet another strong performance for the third year in a row, having won the Best of the West back-to-back in 2006 and 2007. They wound up tied for third this year, with Portland DeMarini, winning a dramatic come-from-behind-last inning game against Rude Pac, 5-3, to get into the semi-finals against the hitting machine that was Santa Ceclia, Mexico.

Mark Summers of the River City Rockers hit five (count ’em, 5) home runs on the weekend, while Esteban Solano of the Grillos of Santa Cecelia Mexico, had four.

Portland DeMarini: Matias Tessore pitched 22 innings, surrendering only 3 earned runs, while Matt Barnes pitched 8 innings and gave up 2 earned runs. The leading hitters for Portland on the weekend were: Todd Garcia – .364, Paul Reyes – .364, Rob Gehrke – .357 and Cullam Ryan – .308. Chris Wright, Ryan Daly, and Todd Garcia led the team in RBIs with 3 each. Jeff Reich hit a game winning home run against Long Beach Black Sox and Todd Garcia also hit a home run against Long Beach Black Sox.

The Grillos of Santa Cecila, Mexico hit 15 home runs as a team. (In case you were wondering, the ball was a standard issue, new model K-Master as used by the ISC, and the portable fencing was set at championship distances)

River City Rockers: Mark Summers was 10 of 13 at bat with 5 home runs and 2 doubles. Mike Abernathy was was 8 for 13 in his first tournament of the year. Zack Abernathy was 7 for 14 and Mario Pereira was 7 for 15 with two home runs. Summers and Pereira both hit home runs off of L. Mata of the Bombers. Summers hit a home run in 4 of the 5 games the Rockers played.