Taylor Farms Crowned as 2009 Best of the West Champions

Taylor Farms California Athletics were declared the winners of the 2009 Best of the West tournament Sunday in Santa Barbara, when the other three members of the “Final Four” could not stay for the championship game at 3pm, as they had to catch flights home. (Pueblo Bandits, Portland CR Rockers and Innovative Communications of Utah) Pueblo Colorado defeated Mexicali, 3-0 in a quarterfinal after earning the first round bye, but had to catch flights home, and could not stay to play Taylor Farms, in a scheduled 1:15pm slated semi-final.

Meanwhile, in the other bracket, Portland CR Rockers and Innovative Communications squared off in the other semi-final, at 1:15pm, with the winner slated to play Taylor Farms, who advanced to the championnship game by virtue of the forfeit win over Pueblo. However, Portland CR Rockers (from Oregon) and Innovative Communications (from Utah) also had to catch flights home, and announced before the start of the Portland/Utah semi-final, that neither would be able to stay for the 3pm championship game.

So Taylor Farms California Athletic's were crowed as 2009 Best of the West champions. Taylor Farms entered Sunday as the #3 seed out of 15 teams, with a 2-1 record on Saturday. Their only loss was to Pueblo, 2-1, in the very first game of the tournament at 8:30am on Saturday morning, with winning run scoring in the final inning. Taylor Farms won their first two single elimination playoff games Sunday, a 4-0 win over the Santa Barbara Young Bucks in an 8am game, and a 5-0 win over the Bakersfield Silverhawks in an 11:30am quarterfinal, and were slated for the rematch with Pueblo that never came to pass.

Marcus Tan, the shortstop for Taylor Farms California Athletics (and newest member of Team USA), earned Most Valuable Player honors, while Jeremy Manley captured the Most Valuable Pitcher trophy. Manley had 48 strikeouts in 3 games on Saturday, and surrendered but one run all day yesterday. He capped that performance with another shutout win over Mexicali, his second shutout win over them in as many days. In the final game of the tournament, the Portland CR Rockers beat Innovative Communications of Utah in the tournament’s final game, 9-2 to determine the runner-up. The winning pitcher was Randy Frame, losing pitcher Lee Cose.

First Place: Taylor Farms California Athletics

Second Place: Portland CR Rockers

Third Place: Innovative Communications

Fourth Place: Pueblo Bandits