To quote a friend’s reaction “Wow!”. Reminiscent of the days when Sioux City had “The Four Aces”. The Bombers now have them in a different suit: Underhill, Price, Peeples and Valdez. eScribe: Al’s Fastball: Nic Underhill signs with So. Cal. Bombers for I.S.C.

Raymar Fastpitch from SoCal heads to St. George, UT this weekend for their first tournament at the major level. Raymar finished 3rd in the nation among 70 teams at last year’s ASA “C” Nationals, and was bumped up to the “B” division. They compete in the So Cal ASA A/B league against a number of the teams that will be in Red Rock, getting a trial by fire playing at the upper ranks. They’ll have two of the best young throwers in So Cal, Anthony Martinez of the Amigos and Gerald Pyle of the Rounders, as well as Tommy Obregon, and the veteran of the staff, “Papa Joe” Salcido. Pyle played in last year’s Red Rock tournament with the So Cal Bombers, while the Shaw brothers, Doug and Ken played for Captain Dan’s, the only team to take eventual champion Broken Bow to a regulation 7 innings.

Raymar Roster (CA)

A note from Al Doran about ISC World Team Rankings. Of particular note is the following reminder:

All Tournaments Directors are reminded that in order to provide full service to your entered teams, tournament results should be sent out immediately upon the conclusion of each tournament.

ISC World Tournament Team Rankings

The ISC has posted its first set of rankings for the 2005:

ISC Preseason Rankings 2005

These rankings are important to the teams involved, as they govern the seeding for the ISC World Tournament. Some observations:

The “Big Three”, County, Farm and Broken Bow held the top three spots, though defending ISC World champion Broken Bow fell to #3, no doubt as a result of the departure of some top players to the other two teams. County, the runner-up at last year’s ISC world, added 6’6″ Australian national team pitcher Andrew Kirkpatrick from Calgary, to go with two other world class pitchers, the legendary Darren Zack, and the flame throwing Lucas Mata, while the Farm signed two-time ISC World Tournament MVP Jody Eidt from Broken Bow. (Ironically, it was Eidt’s home run that propelled Bow past the Farm into the finals against County) The roster of #1 ranked County Materials’ bears a strong resemblance to that of International (ISF) Champion New Zealand Black Sox, while the Farm boasts a number of players from the Canadian National team, runnerup at the 2004 ISF.

– #1 County Materials WI, was either a 1 or 2 pick on all 12 voters’ cards;
-#2 The Farm, WI actually had more first place votes than County (5-4), and was a #1 or #2 on 8 of 12 cards. (how about that 5th place vote?)
-#3 Broken Bow picked up three first place votes, meaning no one below them garnered any.
-#4 Calgary, which surprised some with their third place finish in last year’s World Tournament in Fargo, was a clear choice for the #4 spot, despite losing ace Andrew Kirkpatrick;
-#5 Circle Tap – voters seemed in agreement on this pick, with CT getting either #4 or #5 votes on all 12 cards. In 2005, they’ve already beat Broken Bow’s all world pitching tandem of Gerald Muizelaar and Mike Piechnik at the AAU.
-Wisconsin is easily the winner among states, placing three teams in the top 5 (County, the Farm and Circle Tap)

-It’s at this point (after the top 5) that the Elites start to separate from the pack, with no other teams garnering any votes for the 1-5 spots.

-The IS Knights from Fargo, ND grabbed the #6 spot, but votes varied greatly for them, from sixth to eleventh;
-The Aspen/Saskakatoon Black Sox were the highest ranked newcomer, showing up as 6th or 7th on five of the 12 voters’ cards. But for a “25th” place vote and couple of “13’s”, 6th place would have belonged to Aspen. (suggesting they were left off of one ballot entirely) They are clearly a team to watch as the season progresses. Pitching/hitting star Trevor Ethier has already garnered plenty of attention starring for the Circle Tap/Bar team that won the AAU, including the fastpitch cover photo in Softball Magazine’s April 2005 issue.
-In addition to the IS Knights, four other teams garnered 6th place votes: Hallman Twins from Ontario Canada, Quaker Riversharks, PA, Midland Michigan, and Heflin/St. Louis.
-Midland had two 6th place votes, but was hurt by a 12th and 13th place vote.
-Canada has three teams in the top 10: Calgary, Hallman Twins and Aspen;
-The West clearly lags behind the East and Northeast, but when is the last time that Southern California had two teams in the Top 20? The So Cal Bombers were pegged at 19, and arch-rival Team Rainey right behind them at #20.

Team Rainey climbed to #12 in last year’s rankings, knocking off some top ranked opponents and have been the California area representative to the ISC World tournament for the past two years in a row. Ralph Trejo’s So Cal Bombers have not played in a World Tournament, but loaded up for 2005, and are playing an equally ambitious schedule, hoping to unseat Team Rainey from the top spot. The Bombers signings of Team Rainey’s pitching staff of Travis Price and Tony Peeples and three top players, Mike Butler, Nate Devine and Jason Porto has been the big story in fastball in Southern California. Team Rainey countered by signing British Columbian ace pitcher Bricklen Anderson and Sonny Perkins, and most recently adding Team USA shortstop Joe Morales, as well as the nucleus from a solid Captain Dan’s team when that squad shuttered it operation after a long run, bringing over Captain Dan’s skipper Don Didion for his veteran leadership. Thus far in 2005 though, the Bombers have two tournament title to their credit and a 4-0 record against Team Rainey, strong support for their higher pre-season ranking. Their only loss came at the hands of Castlewood UT, unranked, but a Final Four finisher at Red Rock last year.

The upcoming Red Rock tournament (April 30-May 1) will have teams ranked #19, 20, 21 and 30 in the world (Bombers, Rainey, Pueblo and Page Brake, respectively). The teams are in separate pools, except for #20 Team Rainey and #30 Page Brake, who will face each other in pool play at 7pm Saturday night. (Keep an eye out for the broadcast schedule for Red Rock, which might well include that game) Expect the other ISC World Ranked teams to find their way to the Elite Eight Sunday and perhaps beyond.

Feel free to use the “comments” link at the bottom of this post to give us your opinions. How did your favorite team(s) fare? Did the ISC ranking committee get it right?

With the ISC rankings now fodder for the proverbial water cooler, can the ISC-II rankings be far behind?