2025 35+ Cactus
Seattle Ravens 10, Houston Gamblers 6
November 1st, 2025, Tempe, AZ – The Seattle Ravens closed out a perfect 9-0 tournament run with a hard-fought victory over the Houston Gamblers in the 35+ Cactus Championship game in Tempe Diablo Stadium.
The Ravens earned their first-ever MSBL World Series championship after enduring well over a decade of proverbial blood, sweat, and tears. The Ravens roster included some of the best players from some of the top teams across the most competitive divisions of the Puget Sound Senior Baseball League (PSSBL).
During pool play, the Ravens’ bats heated up quickly and never cooled off, averaging 13 runs and over 14 hits per game. The team also played stellar defense all week long, led by Shane Kessell (SS/3B), Derek Jennings (SS), and Brian Perry (C).
Additionally, the team got numerous outstanding pitching performances. All six pool play starters threw at least five innings and earned a win, including Michio Koide, Ryan Patrick, Josh Johnson, Brett Fink, Aaron Borth, and team manager Paul Davison.
After going 6-0 in pool play, the Ravens were the #1 seed heading into the playoffs and, after a bye, faced off against Liga Del Oesta. Staff ace Adrian Gomez took the hill and dominated, striking out eight and delivering a complete game shutout. On offense, Shane Kessel, Justin Sherwin, and Denier Morales led the way with three hits apiece. The Ravens rolled to a 15-0 victory and advanced to the semifinals.
In the Semifinals, the Ravens drew a familiar and formidable opponent in the Long Island Twins. Over the prior three tournaments, the Ravens and Twins had matched up four times, three times in closely contested pool play games and a playoff game in 2024, where the Twins eliminated the Ravens.
The Twins jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but the Ravens’ offense quickly answered, tying the game in the bottom of the first. Ryan Patrick started on the hill for the Ravens and delivered yet another rock-solid tournament performance. Patrick came out of the game with an 11-3 lead after throwing five and a third innings and giving up only two earned runs.
The Twins offense continued to threaten, but Brett Fink and Marty Bigelow turned in strong performances, getting critical outs to preserve the 15-7 victory and send the Ravens to the championship game. 
Brian Perry led the way on offense with three hits. Joe Clancy, Josh Wilder, Justin Sherwin, and Denier Morales all had multiple hits.
In the championship, the Ravens faced the defending champion, Houston Gamblers. The Ravens fell behind 2-0 in the top of the first inning yet again. However, just like in the semifinals, the deficit would not be long-lived.
In the bottom of the first, Shane Kessel hit a mammoth two-run home run out to left-center field to tie the game. Kyle Conwell started and pitched two innings, followed by Michio Koide, who threw three innings. With a 6-3 lead after five innings, the Ravens handed the ball back to Adrian Gomez, who had just thrown a complete game in the quarterfinal the day before.
Gomez threw the final four innings of the game and captured his second win in as many days. However, the defending champs did not go down without a fight. The Gamblers plated three runs in the top of the seventh to tie the game 6-6. The Ravens offense had one final and resounding answer in the bottom of the seventh, pushing across three runs and then one more run in the bottom of the eighth to take a 10-6 advantage.
Joe Clancy, Shane Kessel, and Kyle Conwell smashed three hits each in the championship, while Casey Bloom, Denier Morales, Kellen Dalrymple, Josh Wilder, and Brian Perry all had multiple-hit games. The Ravens had a total of 20 hits in the championship game.
“I can’t begin to tell you how much getting this win means to this group … and to me,” said long-time Ravens Manager Paul Davison. “We’ve brought down so many great teams and players over the years, we’ve come so close so many times in these extremely large and competitive divisions, but this group, this year, they were on an absolute mission from the very start. We faced some great teams and answered the bell every single time adversity struck. This is just unbelievably sweet.”
Notable performances from the tournament were as follows:
- Shane Kessel – Tournament MVP – 16 hits, 8 2B, HR, 15 RBI, 1.34 OPS
- Joe Clancy – 15 hits, 6 2B, 3B, 11 RBI, 1.20 OPS
- Denier Morales – 14 hits, 3 2B, 13 RBI, 1.07 OPS