ISC #18 ranked So Cal Bombers, fresh from a couple of upset wins against the #5 and #7 teams in the world, and ISC ranked #20 and three-time defending champion, Team Rainey will be among the favorites this weekend at the 15th Annual Best of the West Tournament.
The two teams are in the same pool on Saturday and will square off at 12:30pm in what figures to be one of the feature games in the event. Team Rainey has won the tournament the last three years in a row. CR/DeMarini from Portland will be in town, as will the High Desert Dawgs (formerly FSR from Utah). Portland knocked off Team Rainey in June, while the Dawgs beat the Bomber at Red Rock back in May. The tournament is the longest running tournament in California, headed up by ISC Streaming Media maven David Blackburn, who just returned from competing in the Maccabiah games in Israel. July and August figure to be busy for David, who’ll trade his Maccabiah USA cap for a “BoW” tournament director’s cap, and then moving on in August to head up the streaming audio broadcasts of the 2005 ISC World Tournament. David pioneered the use of streaming audio for men’s fastball back in 2001, and inspired the creation of our own ballparkradio.com here at Fastpitchwest.