Familiar Faces Back on the Mound for Team Rainey This Weekend at Best of the West

Sebastian Gervasutti (shown above) is back. Back in Black. Back from a winter season in Guatemala and his home country of Argentina, and back with his former team, Team Rainey. And from colder regions north, hard-throwing Bricklen Anderson is back. And, of course, Team Rainey is back, after a one-year hiatus.

“Seba”, “Brick” and Team Rainey will be back together again this weekend in beautiful, sunny Santa Barbara, for the 18th Annual Best of the West Tournament. They will be among the favorites in the tournament, along with fellow ISC teams, the So Cal Bombers and Portland DeMarini. The last time we saw Sebastian with Team Rainey, it was in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, in the 2006 ISC World Tournament, where he/they played very well, knocking off two higher ranked teams, and nearly making it to the Top 10, falling to a powerful Heflin Gremlin team.

Sebastian figures to be in mid-season form, having spent the winter pitching at the AAU (where his team Mac’s Sprayers won the title), and in Guatemala. We caught up with him last weekend as he was making his way through the airport, enroute to California. He was excited to be here, and excited to be pitching with his old teammates.

Team Rainey is a local success story. Founded by its namesake, Rod Rainey in 1998, the squad began playing at the “C” level, and worked their way up, the old fashioned way, through hard work, and adding talent as they went, one piece at a time. Starting with the core nucleus of Rod Rainey, Jesse Duncan, Tony Acedo, Ralph Salcido, Dee Nieblas, who played together locally, they added the Hunt brothers, Chris and Tim (both Team USA players), then Nate Devine (also Team USA member) and Mike Butler.

They arrived on the game’s biggest stage, the ISC World Tournament, in 2003, with pitcher Travis Price as the centerpiece. They upset a # 6 ranked Owen Sound, Ontario team that year, and nearly made it to the Sweet Sixteen, falling in a first-ever round-robin playoff game for the final slot, at Kimberly, Wisconsin. The team continued to build and grow in 2005 and 2006, adding pitcher Tony Peeples (who is now with Rainey rival So Cal Bombers). Along the way, the team notched some big wins against some big teams and pitchers, including a 2005 Rose Cup victory over Korrey Garreau, last year’s ISC Outstanding Pitcher at the Rose Cup tournament.

The 2006 season brought two top pitchers to the fold, Bricklen Anderson from British Columbia, and Sebastian Gervasutti, from Argentina. But with fewer teams and tournaments out west, the team found itself traveling to the midwest and parts east so they could continue to play the top level teams, in preparation for the ISC World Tournament. Three hour time zone differences and jet lag take their toll, as does the cost of operating an ISC World Tournament level team. So in 2007, Rod Rainey decided to shutter operations. But his love of the game and top level competition kept him around the diamond, as he and a few of his players wound up playing up north for Portland in 2007. But after securing commitments from his two pitchers, Sebastian Gervasutti and Bricklen Anderson, and adding players from Team USA Manager Pete Turner’s IAC squad, Team Rainey is again a team. And once again, they have their sites set on the Best of the West title, which they held for three years running (2002-2004). The competion for this year’s trophy will be stiff. Standing in their way is last year’s ISC World Tournament runner-up, the So Cal Bombers, with All-World pitcher Lucas Mata. The Bombers were the team that finally dethroned Rainey as Best of the West champion in 2005 after Rainey’s three consecutive titles, and are currently ranked # 5 in the world. Team Rainey enters the 2008 season at # 16. Defending Best of the West champions Innovative Communications of Utah will be back in Santa Barbara as well. They have won back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007 and looking to match Rainey’s three-in-a-row record. Portland De Marini will be there as well, and a host of others. This one figures to be the strongest field of teams in the 18 year history of the tournament — and one that So Cal fastpitch fans don’t want to miss.