How’d you like to work your way up to being the #12 team in the country, head to a tournament and find yourselves the lowest ranked team in the tournament? Well, that’s exactly what Team Rainey will experience this weekend competing in the prestigious Bob Walsh Memorial tournament this weekend, July 24-25, 2004. The tournament is an invitation-only affair, limited to eight teams. This year, the field of teams has the #1,2,3,4,6,8, 11 and 12 ranked teams in the world. The eight teams are: County Materials WI (1), The Farm Tavern WI (2), Broken Bow Spirit NY (3), Circle Tap WI (4), Fedlock DC (6), Heflin Gremlins NY (8), Imaging Systems Knights ND (11) and Team Rainey CA (12)
The tournament committee sparked a bit of controversy earlier in the year by leaving out two local teams that wanted to play in the tournament. One team was particularly vocal about the committee’s decision to leave them out, the Quaker Riversharks. The Riversharks were last year’s NAFA “AA” runner-up and finished at #26 in the ISC World rankings. The Sharks stepped up this year to open level competition, adding a number of the defunct Can-Am Windmillers, who were regulars (and even won) the Bob Walsh tournament in a prior year. But that controversy is in the books, and this year’s field of teams could well be the toughest ever.
Team Rainey flew out to Allentown yesterday and are getting ready today for the start of play on Saturday. They decided to add a travel day, to avoid a repeat of their 5:30am arrival on game day in Wisconsin earlier this month for the “Boys of Summer” tournament. For a west coast team like Rainey, the rigors of travelling to face the best competition in the world can be extremely demanding.
Team Rainey will be without ace Travis Price for the weekend, but are picking up Bricklin Anderson, from Vancouver, British Columbia. Anderson pitches for Morgan Transfer of Olympia, Washington, and shut out Team Rainey in a 1-0 pitchers duel against Tony Peeples at this year’s Portland Rose Cup. The two (Anderson and Peeples) will now be teammates for the weekend. Anderson came into the spotlight in the 2002 NAFA World Series at Salem, Oregon, when he tossed a perfect game. Peeples was recently named to the All Tourney team for this year’s Portland DeMarini Rose Cup tournament, posting a 0.70 ERA in 20 innings pitched, with a Gagnesque 37 strikeouts and only 2 walks. “Peeps” took a hard line drive off his arm at “Boys of Summer” a couple weeks ago, but appears to be OK. Team Rainey also had two other players make the Rose Cup All Tourney team, Mike Butler and Jason Porto. Butler had three home runs, including two in the upset win over Victoria Travellers Inn in the quarterfinals, while Jason Porto was a one-man wrecking crew with 9 hits, a .476 batting avergage, including a homer, double, and 5 RBI.
Their pool play schedule on Saturday, July 24 pits them against the (new) #1 ranked team in the world, County Materials, WI, #2 The Farm Tavern, WI, and #9 Houston H.I.S. Construction. Team Rainey faced County Materials at the Boys of Summer tournament, facing the legendary Darren Zack. County topped former #1 Broken Bow recently in the Casino Ramo tournament in Ontario Canada. Houston was the team that knocked Team Rainey out of the World Tournament last year, though Team Rainey has already beaten them in 2004, as well as notching wins against other higher ranked teams including Victoria Travellers Inn and Midland Michigan. Click the title of this story above to visit the Team Rainey website for game times and results of their games, or just click here: www.teamraineyfastpitch.com