[Alsfastball] Team Rainey Three-Peats at Best of the West Tournament

[Al Doran]

From: "Jim Flanagan" <jim at fastpitchwest.com>
To: "The Fastpitch" <thefastpitch at fastpitchwest.com>
Cc: "Al Doran" <fastball at pmihrm.com>
Subject: Team Rainey Three-Peats at Best of the West Tournament


Team Rainey earned its third straight "Best of the West" title Sunday
evening at Winchester, California, in a hard fought, extra inning battle
with Casa Trejo.  Tony Peeples was the winning pitcher, with Mark Higgins
taking the loss in relief of Mark Bennett who worked the first seven
innings.  Bennett came within one strike of dethroning Rainey as Best of the
West champions, but Rod Rainey stroked an infield single to tie the score in
the bottom of the seventh.

Both Casa Trejo and Team Rainey scored in the first tie breaker inning. In
the ninth inning, after Casa Trejo failed to score against Peeples, it was
once again Rod Rainey at the plate with the game on the line.  Rainey
singled runner Jesse Duncan to third, taking a wide turn around first,
drawing a throw which went wild and sent Duncan home with the game winning
run.

Sponsor Ralph Trejo actually fielded two teams in the tournament, the
Bombers, along with Casa Trejo team.  Both reached the Final Four and both
took Team Rainey to extra innings before falling.  Casa Trejo reached the
final  by beating Mexicali, 7-6, with Cesar Rodriguez getting the game
winning hit.

In the other semi-final, the Bombers jumped out to a 4-0 lead over Travis
Price and Team Rainey, but the eventual champions fought back, and won the
game in the eighth inning on a RBI single by Ralph Salcido.  Chris Wright
drove in three of Rainey's first four runs to get them back in the ballgame.
Travis Price settled down after the second inning, and went the distance to
pick up the win over Tony Hunhoff, who came on in relief of Panfilo Valdez,
who came on in relief of Sonny Perkins.  Perkins drew three intentional
walks in the game, with Rainey apparently taking note of his game winning
triple in an earlier game on the day with first base open.

Chris Wright was named the Most Valuable Player, with 8 hits and 5 RBI on
the final day of the tournament, including three hits in both the semi and
final.  Tony Peeples was the Most Valuable Pitcher, overcoming some
defensive miscues to get his team to the winner's circle.

Kudos to tournament director David Blackburn for producing another fine Best
of the West tournament and for securing a good replacement facility at
Winchester, California, when the Soboba Sports Complex became unavailable at
the last minute.   This year's tournament was the 14th year in a row, making
it the longest running men's fastpitch tournament in Southern California.
(If you're wondering where Winchester, California is, it's about an hour
north-east of San Diego, near Hemet, CA.)

For complete recap of the tournament, click this link:
http://www.fastpitchwest.com/bow.htm


Best regards,
Jim Flanagan
Editor, Fastpitchwest
www.fastpitchwest.com
jim at fastpitchwest.com


Als Fastball List
*Email: <mailto:fastball at pmihrm.com>fastball at pmihrm.com
Website: http://www.alsfastball.com/
http://www.ISCfastball.com/
NEWS: http://www.escribe.com/sports/alsfastball/
TEMP: http://www.fastpitchwest.com/alsfastball.htm