After a Broken Bow sweep of the Red Rock tournament in 2004, this year’s Red Rock title appears up for grabs. After twenty four (24) games Saturday, an “Elite Eight” emerged, and head into a single elimination championship bracket, while the other eight will compete in a consolation bracket. Two of the top four seeds were grabbed by Utah teams, who apparently play well with home cooking, Larry Miller Chev and Castlewood. Both finished the day with 3-0 records, as did the other two top seeds, Team Rainey from Southern California and the High Desert Dawgs (FSR). Page Brake also qualified for the championship round, giving host state Utah three teams in the Elite Eight.
It was a day that started with a wild 17-10 game between Mexicali and Castlewood. Castlewood trailed 10-2, but rallied for 15 runs, on a pair of grand slam home runs. Imagine — from down 8 to up 7 in the blink of an eye. The California Savala Painters, with the addition of Dean Holoein and Todd Budke finished 2-1 on the day and earned a spot in the championship bracket today. The highest ranked team in the tournament, the (#19) So Cal Bombers fell to the High Desert Dawgs in their morning game 6-5, but rebounded to win two and a spot in the Elite Eight by taking it out on their next two opponents, 9-1 and 10-0. #20 ranked Team Rainey won three, including two with big Sonny Perkins on the mound. Perkins helped himself out with a 3 run homer in his morning game, and came back to pick up a win in the nightcap, broadcast on ballparkradio.com, an 8-5 win over Page Brake, a game in which Chris Hunt homered twice, and drove in 4 with a pair of rockets, and Bricklen Anderson struck out 5 in the final two innings for a save. And speaking of two-home-run games, Rod Rainey proved the shoulder surgery was a success, hitting two against DeMarini. The doctor’s reports say he’ll be ready to play by June. Despite the loss to Rainey, Page Brake earned a spot in the championship bracket by winning their other two games, including a 1-0 shutout over CR DeMarini, a game that determined which of the two teams went to the Elite Eight and which one wound up in the consolation bracket. #21 ranked Pueblo Bandits struggled to an 0-3 mark, though playing much better than the results indicated, and without the benefit of one of their two Manley aces, Jeremy, who’ll be on the DL until next month with a strained tendon. Pueblo dropped a couple of close games and could have wound up in the championship round wtih a break here or there. Likewise, ISCII #34 ranked River City Rockers, one of the teams that knocked off Pueblo, but lost a crucial game to the Painters by one run. Mexicali bounced back after that 17-10 loss to win two and a spot in the championship bracket. Vannelli’s of Minnesota was in every game, as you’d expect with Darcy Byrne and Blair Ezekiel, but lost a couple close ones to Castlewood and Mexicali by scores 3-1 and 5-4, low scoring affairs compared to most other games. They should be in the hunt in today’s consolation bracket. Raymar, stepping up from the “C” classification after taking third in last year’s Nationals among 70 teams took their lumps, but led in two of their three games and gave fans a look at some promising young players, including pitchers Anthony Martinez and Gerald Pyle, on loan from the Amigos and Rounders, respectively. Todays’ bracket pits Mexicali against Rainey and the So Cal Bombers against Larry Miller, High Desert vs. Page Brake, and the Painters against Castlewood. Or to look at it another way, Mexico vs. So Cal, So Cal vs. Utah, Arizona v. Utah and California v. Utah. However things shake out today, it will provide some exciting fastball for fans at the Canyons Complex in St. George, Utah, and for those listening to the 1pm semifinal and 3pm championship game on ballparkradio.com